Lathe Kills

A friend of mine went for a funeral, from whom I leaned the tragic death caused by lathe:
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-13/...p-yale-lab-president-richard-c-levin?_s=PM:US

I am glad I don't have a lathe now, probably will never get one.

That's really unfortunate but it sounds like it could have been easily avoided.

I'm no machinist but common sense would tell me to not work around running machinery with loose objects dangling off my body.

I'm not trying to downplay the accident but I wouldn't let this persuade me to not get a lathe

Very tragic and very sad!

All power tools involve a certain amount of risk, and proper training and supervision is essential. Even with all of this, it's not that uncommon to meet woodworkers who have lost parts of their fingers to power tools. Heck, it's easy enough to hurt yourself with hand tools, but the low level of power and stored energy mean that lethal injuries are much less common.

If you do need/want to use a lathe, I wouldn't let this stop you. Just get the proper training and be very thoughtful and cautious when you use it. Otherwise, it's not so bad to take the work to a shop that can do the work for you.

Personally, I've recently begun using unpowered hand tools almost exclusively. For my small projects, it's not much slower, and the risks are tiny. Fewer issues with power cords or battery charging too.

Again, very sorry to hear of this tragedy.

Steve K.

Oh, bummer... nice looking girl too. She should have had her hair up or tied back though. A shame... from the title I thought you might've been referring to a part getting killed on the lathe.

Wouldn't stop me from having a lathe if I could afford one though.

Rich

Sad story...yeah, we're not allowed to wear any loose clothing, jewelry, hair has to be up, etc.. And cause it's the military, we can actually get in trouble for not following the rules. Seen alot of pic's of fingers ripped off, etc. Anything worn around the neck (badge holders, etc.), have to have break-away/quick disconnect features, etc. As the others have stated though, I wouldn't let this stop you from owning one.

While I admittedly don't know all the details to this story, I do think it was caused by a lack of safety education or a lack of internalization of safety information. I don't know enough to say who, but I think that someone was negligent in this incident, whether the girl wasn't presented with safety information (unlikely), or if she disregarded it. Although that doesn't make it any less tragic.

I know I had to take chemical lab safety training before I was allowed to be in a lab where we worked with flammable and/or corrosive substances. The training was pretty cursory, but did cover the basics, which for chemistry include items such as "the vent hood is designed to withstand an explosion, so leave your experiment closed inside it" and "don't store flammable materials near a vent hood inside which a flammable experiment is being carried out." I imagine this student was presented with similar information for the machine shop environment, like "don't grab a spinning drill press spindle" and "tie hair back and don't wear loose clothing while operating machinery."

That said, I don't think an accident caused by negligence is any reason to not buy a lathe or another tool, and I was once almost killed using a lathe (because of a freak accident, not negligence). I have used lathes since.

I think the title of this thread should be "Negligence Kills."

Not the lathes fault. She didn't follow safe operating procedure. The danger of any tool or device is directly related to the usefulness of the device. It's on you to run it safely.

The military can be a good place to have these lessons reinforced. When I was in electronics tech training in the Marines, there was a rule against wearing watches, as they might be a potential cause of shorts in the electronics. Besides, this was still the era of vacuum tubes, so there were lethal voltages in the area.

I recall one day working on my lab work when one of the Navy instructors asked me "Hey Marine, what time is it?". I looked at my watch and realized that I had screwed up. The punishment was pretty minor; just clean up the lab at the end of the day, but the lesson definitely stuck in my head!

Proper safety training takes time, and needs to be repeated. Eventually you get it beaten into your head, learn to look for hazards and anticipate them, and just realize how many hazards are out there. Maybe it helps that I've worked with a variety of power tools, worked around jet aircraft, worked around large batteries (roughly equivalent to explosives), and currently work with electronics for large earthmoving equipment.

be safe!

Steve K.

Ouch. My condolences to her family. Only takes a moment's inattention to change your life forever.

I have a lathe myself, and it's undoubtedly the most dangerous tool I own. It'll spin 1500lbs of metal from a dead stop to 900rpms in about 2.5 seconds.

That's a LOT of energy.

Diesel_Bomber said:

Ouch. My condolences to her family. Only takes a moment's inattention to change your life forever.

I have a lathe myself, and it's undoubtedly the most dangerous tool I own. It'll spin 1500lbs of metal from a dead stop to 900rpms in about 2.5 seconds.

That's a LOT of energy.

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Yeah, a lathe is basically a chipper/shredder with the dangerous part fully exposed. What's really sad is that there's absolutely no reason for an accident like this. Long hair, long sleeves, loose clothing, jewelry, etc should never have gotten anywhere near the machine. Perhaps the smooth motion and lack of blades gives people a false sense of security.

The right shop training would be to get a video camera, turn on the lathe, and nudge a side of beef toward it. Engineers would not be surprised by the result, but I'll bet most people would be.

Always sad to hear this stuff. Can't say much more other than the safety rules other people have already said. Just because the pointy bit isn't the part that's moving doesn't mean it's any less safe. In fact, knifemakers often say the most dangerous piece of equipment in their shops is the buffer.

Diesel_Bomber said:

I have a lathe myself, and it's undoubtedly the most dangerous tool I own. It'll spin 1500lbs of metal from a dead stop to 900rpms in about 2.5 seconds.

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I know a fair number of lathes that weigh less than 1500 lbs themselves, how big is yours?!?

Very sorry about what happened. A tragic death that could have been prevented as others have mentioned. Don't let it stop you from getting a lathe if you really want one.

I know nothing about lathes so forgive my ignorance on this question if the answer is obvious. Are there not any safety features built in these machines such as a foot pedal release or kill switch?

If not maybe makers could think of a way to add such a safety feature but again I know nothing of the machines operations. Would various safety features somehow limit the machines capabilities?

Robocop said:

If not maybe makers could think of a way to add such a safety feature but again I know nothing of the machines operations. Would various safety features somehow limit the machines capabilities?

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Reminds me of my childhood (dangerous equipment everywhere). When we a bought a new 'safety' mower, I couldn't get over how annoying the blade engagement lever was, it seemed such an inconvenience. Thinking now about the model before that, running fully driven over anything in sight just by letting go, could easily have removed toes.

Closest experience to this was dads grinder/brush. Both were connected via an automotive grade belt to a 10HP motor. No covers on belt or either wheel. One day (I was about 12), I got to close to the brush and it grabbed the front of my shirt, pulling it and me in. As I hit the front of the bench, the whole setup came to a halt, tention on the motor holding me in place. I managed to reach above me and kill the power, unwind my shirt and stand back up, unscathed. But I have other scares from other tools.

Can't imagine the horor in those few seconds, being pulled headfirst into a grinder, unable to escape.

there are kill switches, but when your hair pulled and head bangged against rotating metal, in fraction of a second, you will most likely not be able to use it regardless of location, and ways of operating.

some lathes do have spindle\chak (sp?) cover, it wouldn't really stop your long hair getting cought, may be a little, but at least it wouldn't bang your head against rotating spindle, but i rearly seen those things stay on, ppl remove them, for many reasons, like save time, or simply cuz it is not needed if safety rules are followed.

when i was in school we had one guy leave the key in the spindle and turn the lathe on, there was no spindle cover on that lathe, he was lucky, he got hit by flying key, had half of the face, swallen and blue, but he learned his lesson well.

LukeA said:

While I admittedly don't know all the details to this story, I do think it was caused by a lack of safety education or a lack of internalization of safety information. I don't know enough to say who, but I think that someone was negligent in this incident, whether the girl wasn't presented with safety information (unlikely), or if she disregarded it. Although that doesn't make it any less tragic.



I think the title of this thread should be "Negligence Kills."

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she did compleate safety course, but like you said she disregarded it.
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2011/04/19/yale_ramps_up_its_safety_training/
i agree on what thread name should be 100%

Robocop said:

I know nothing about lathes so forgive my ignorance on this question if the answer is obvious. Are there not any safety features built in these machines such as a foot pedal release or kill switch?

If not maybe makers could think of a way to add such a safety feature but again I know nothing of the machines operations. Would various safety features somehow limit the machines capabilities?

Click to expand...

As alpg88 mentioned, if your hair or clothes gets caught in a lathe, you won't have nearly enough time to realize what's happening before you're dead, let alone enough time to reach for and press a kill switch and then wait for the tool to spin down.

As robot cop stated, and having seen them used, heavy machinery like this should really have a dead man switch. Lock-Out/Tag-out, Kill switches only go so far...dead man switches are pretty hard to beat when it comes to safety...

Personally, I think if you have NO chains n' stuff on you, shave your head and work on it nekkid, you should be ok but then, I'm not a lathe guy either...

angelofwar said:

As robot cop stated, and having seen them used, heavy machinery like this should really have a dead man switch. Lock-Out/Tag-out, Kill switches only go so far...dead man switches are pretty hard to beat when it comes to safety...

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For a lathe you would be lucky as after you have killed the motor guess what is still going to be spining at a very high rate of speed?

You could be grabbed and pulled into the machine in less than a second, far quicker than a dead man switch can operate.