Another member by the name Project brought up a very good point that I think merits it's own discussion. There has been a lot of recent talk about lathes and a lot of this is from folks new to them, teaching one's self to operate a lathe and to do so safely is not all that difficult but there are some basic safety rules that MUST be followed. I thought maybe some input from those with a lot of experience behind them could be helpful here, maybe just pointing out some of the basics and some anecdotal incidents that might get someone to think before they get hurt. Lathes are not necessarily any more dangerous than most other powered machines but some of the more serious (and potentially deadly!) hazards on a lathe tend to be a lot more subtle appearing and thus in that sense could present a significant hazard. For instance an open spinning saw blade is just automatically relegated into the realm of extremely hazardous with those wicked teeth just waiting to snatch off a finger or two so a person just naturally avoids them with great caution! However spinning stock on a lathe doesn't appear to be nearly as dangerous but is that really the case? That of course depends on how you approach it and the particular situation and that more innocent looking piece of spinning stock is just waiting to grab loose clothing, long hair or a beard to do it's deadly work!
How about it, any input here from those who have worked with these machines?