Just a word of safety here. I was working on my lathe polishing a mandrel. As I was working back and forth my left index finger got to close to the four jaw chuck. One of the jaws caught my finger right on the end splitting it. It also split my finger nail almost half way down. And let me tell ya, you just don't know how much you use that finger till hurts right on the very end of it. Makes typing tough too. Lots of hitting the backspace button! LOL

So, always be aware of that spinning chuck. Come to think of it, maybe the manufacturers can make a bolt-on sheild for their lathes.

Thanks,
Steve



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2006 01:06PM by Steve Parks.

One thing for sure, Steve, it will feel better when it quits hurting. Been there, done that, and wore the bandage. Ralph

If at first you don't succeed, go fishing, then try, try again.

Hopefully you will learn faster than I do! It has taken several lessons to remind me that the chuck is harder than my fingers.

Stan Grace
Helena, MT
"Our best is none too good"

I have my knuckles busted open more that once on the ckuck jaws. It hurts. Not as bad as when a single edged razor broke while trying to slice off thread over a guide - the 1/2" x 1/2" x 1/4" piece of razor left buried in the finish when the blade broke did a number on my forefinger!!

Lou

Lathes are quite dangerous indeed. I was using mine last week to center bore out some wood stock for a friend who's turning them into reelseats. I wasn't paying enough attention and when backing out the jacob's chuck / drill bit from the wood I was boring, the chuck became loose in the tailstock. (Cue slow motion horror movie style music and frame rate)

As I angled my torso and face back and bent over with a big reach to slam the power switch to off, the jacobs chuck spun wildly out of the work piece and shot through the air and stuck into a wood panelled wall like a bullet about 8 feet up the wall.

Needless to say it was Divine intervention that saved me from have a 7" bit spiked through my sternum that morning.

The scarey part is thinking about how close I was to death in the instant. For sure my wife wouldn't have found me until way too late since I was out in the garage with the door closed.

I use this as a learning experience. I do everything extremely slow and diligently now. Using the lathe has now become a game of chess. I think two steps ahead before making any move.






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/17/2006 04:49PM by Domenic Federico.

Yowwwzer!
One thing that you can do is make a shield out of cardboard. Take a large square and make a hole in it corresponding to the mandrel height from the lathe bed. Duct tape the square to the bed so that it is perpendicular to the lathe bed, with the mandrel passing though the hole, with the square direcly in front of the chuck. This does 2 things. Keeps your fingers in one piece, and isolates the wind field produced by the chuck. It's really helpful with dust collection if you can stop the chuck from blowing the dust all over the place. If by chance something goes terribly wrong, it's only cardboard, and will pose no danger from flying off, around, banging into the chuck, etc.

Bob,

Thanks for that suggestion. It comes from a person who has been traumatized several times from a spinning chuck, as most of have.

Stan