Lathe accident (please activate subtitles)

[Floradawg]

It looks like a sort of brake to slow the spindle down quicker to speed production maybe.

[dbat74]

I would have to see it again to know. It appears to be a pretty old lathe.

[dbat74]

I have worked on machine shop equipment all my live and can honestly say...I have no idea.

[Frank S]

It looks like a piece of sq. tubing mounted on a pivot with a half cylinder attached to it and yes it would be used for slowing the chuck the evidence shows a slight wear or discoloration to the chuck where it has been used.
I bought a little 10" Southbend back in the mid 60s that had an oak 2x4 on it about like that with a treadle to step on.
Even many newer lathes do not have a spindle stop brake on them.
That scar on the guys neck could have been caused by a ribbon chip. Just the other day while hogging off some parts the chip breaker I had on the tool became dislodged and a long ribbon chip began to form. The lathe I was using doesn't have a brake either, normally I can ignore them but running a 0.250" cut 0.025" feed rate @ 1000 RPM. When the insert becomes a little dull or the chip breaker doesn't do its job those ribbons can turn deadly very quick.

[dbat74]

That's right, and when we would get a nice tight curled, blue chip, we had a unapproved contest to see who could get the longest one without breaking. But you had to help it and sometimes hold it to keep it from getting under something and break.

[Floradawg]

Yeah, I've seen guys do that. Scary.

[WmRMeyers]

Common sense comes into play here as well. But if common sense was so common more people would have than not.

"Oh, I've done that thousands and thousands of times, and nothing ever happened." If you do something not so smart, and it doesn't go bad the first time, how do you know it was a bad idea? Eventually you'll figure it isn't a problem because nothing bad ever happens. Until it does. I collect aphorisms. Here are a couple of them on experience:

Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.

The only reason I know anything is because I've done it wrong enough times to START to know better

The problem with gaining experience is that sometimes the result of gaining that experience will kill you. Was a young lady died some years ago working alone in a college machine shop. Ivy League, IIRC. Got her long hair caught in the chuck on the lathe she was using, and died. I know she was told that was dangerous.

My school will throw you out of the class if you keep making safety mistakes like that, and the instructors WILL call you on them. We aren't allowed to use the machinery unless an instructor is there.

And as others have commened, common sense is not so common as you'd like to believe.

[Floradawg]

I like your aphorisms.

[WmRMeyers]

I like your aphorisms.

I started collecting them when I took over the ISR (in-school restriction) classroom at the local high school a couple of decades ago. One of the previous teachers aides there was a retired Army Lt. Col., and he'd posted a bunch of them in the room. I didn't take any of his down, but did add some of my own. I worked there for nearly 5 years while I was getting the prerequisite classes out of the way before starting my teaching program. If they had ISR when I was in HS, I'd have probably been in it a bunch. I was trying to help the kids figure out other ways to avoid getting in trouble. I'd been in enough myself. I've been out of the teaching field entirely for over 8 years, now, but still collect aphorisms. I'll probably be putting some of them on the wall in my shop once I get to the point it's not bare studs.

Bill

[machining 4 all]

Common sense for what?