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View Full Version : Lathe Mfrs and Lathe Safety....


Wally Dickerman
05-22-2011, 1:01 PM
After the very sad publicity on the web about the recent deaths of two woodturners, many turners are becoming more safety concious. And that is a good thing. I am guilty, along with many others, of not wearing a face shield when I should. I have one, which I don't like so it's seldom used. I wear it only when I think that I have a possibly dangerous piece on the lathe. Well, I along with others have ordered a Uvex face shield. Remains to be seen how much I'll wear it though. Pretty easy to be complacent when you've been turning for 70 years and never had an injury at the lathe.

Even more important than body armor is using the proper techniques regarding safety. Line of fire, speed controls, loose clothing, and much more. That, more than anything except perhaps luck, is the reason I've never had a serious injury. I'm a cautious turner.

Okay, we take all of these precautions, how about the lathe itself? Could the lathe manufacturers be more safety concious? You bet they could. Not with a shield that everyone is going to remove, but other things. I think that possibly the worst is the switch and speed control on many lathes. Last Saturday I did a demo at our club. Our club lathe is a Woodfast. A very well made machine but the controls are in a very bad spot. Below the headstock. If you hear a bad sound or if the piece begins to wobble, you need to immediately turn off the lathe. If its low and under the headstock I am forced to move into the line of fire to hit the off button, and that's really the last thing that I want to do if the piece might instantly fly off the lathe. The same thing if I carelessly turn on the lathe and haven't checked the speed and find that it's too high.

I have a Oneway lathe and one of the options is a remote on-off switch. A feature that all lathes should have as standard for safety and for convenience. It has a cord and a magnet which allows me to place the switch in a safe and convenient spot of my choice. I do a lot of turning on the outboard side of my lathe. I place the switch at the end of the outboard bed. I can turn the lathe off by bumping the switch with my hip, or I can hit it with the palm of my hand. I am way out of the line fire when I do.

I'm sure that there are other things that lathe manufacturers could do to make turning safer. What do you think? Any ideas?
Rich Aldrich
05-22-2011, 1:22 PM
This is kind of where I was going with my poll on lathe guards. The manufacturers have put little to no emphasis on the guard itself to make it user friendly. If you are going to use the guard, it needs to fit the needs of the operator.

I agree with the controls issue. I put a remote switch on my Jet 1642 like Steve did. However, I like the location of the controls on the Robust that Bill Grumbine has. That is where the controls should be.
Ed Morgano
05-22-2011, 1:25 PM
Wally,
Funny you should mention the switch. I have a home made lathe and I've just started turning bowls.... It didn't take me but a few times to realize that the switch needs to be moved. I have a dust pickup which moves with my tool rest carriage (on a metal lathe it's called the cross slide). Last night, I decided that I needed to make my dust pickup into a guard so it will be there all the time. Yes, lathe manufacturers could and should do more, BUT, they probably won't till the buying public makes them.
Reed Gray
05-22-2011, 1:31 PM
The one problem I would have with the Oneway remote start is that it is on the right hand side, and that is my tool hand, so I would have to drop the tool, or switch hands, then turn it off. I do keep my remote switch (Robust) on the headstock, just where it was on my PM. If I have it on the lathe tube, it is very low, and I have to bend over to reach it. Other than that, I don't know.

After a recent incident at our club meeting, I have wondered about start/stop, and ramp up/down set ups for lathes. The incident was on a Nova DVR. The demonstrator had a crotch piece pressed inbetween a chuck and the tailstock. He turned the lathe on, and for some reason it was at a very high speed. He hit the kill switch. He started it up again, and hit the ramp down switch, which if you don't know, is very slow on the Nova. The piece went flying. fortunately it went up, and not too high because it came off before the lathe reached full speed. He was not familiar with the lathe, and in retrospect, when using an unfamiliar lathe, one should always, with nothing on it, turn it on and go through the speed ranges. One thing I think would be an improvement would be a lathe that returns to zero rpm when you turn it off, and you have to turn the speed up. A minor inconvenience, but no lost time for production turners. I mentioned this on another forum, and one turner had a lathe from 1938 or so that was set up that way. This would be especially good for school situations where you never know who was on the lathe last.

robo hippy
Wally Dickerman
05-22-2011, 1:37 PM
Reed, the Oneway remote that I'm refering to isn't the regular control that swings on a bar from headstock end to tailstock end. It's a remote with a cord and magnet that attaches to steel anyplace on the lathe.

I've turned on the Nova at demos and didn't like their switch and control setup.
Curt Fuller
05-22-2011, 2:29 PM
Wally, your wisdom always amazes me. I have a similar corded on/off switch for my Oliver that can be placed anywhere I want it. But it has never dawned on me to put it out of the line of fire. Your point that when things start going bad with a piece of wood you have to stand or reach directly into the line of fire to shut down the lathe is exactly what I've been doing all along. I'm going to go put a bracket on the other end of the machine right now. Thanks for passing along some of that 70 years of wisdom.
John Hart
05-22-2011, 4:07 PM
I am in the process of building a giant lathe. In my design, I am incorporating a foot switch, so that the lathe will only rotate if my foot is on the pedal. I decided to do that because I usually turn alone, and if I do something stupid and get thrown, or yanked, I don't have to think, and the lathe will stop.
The only thing about this is, it will be troublesome to move about....but to me, that's a price I am willing to pay.
ray hampton
05-22-2011, 4:23 PM
I am in the process of building a giant lathe. In my design, I am incorporating a foot switch, so that the lathe will only rotate if my foot is on the pedal. I decided to do that because I usually turn alone, and if I do something stupid and get thrown, or yanked, I don't have to think, and the lathe will stop.
The only thing about this is, it will be troublesome to move about....but to me, that's a price I am willing to pay.

JOHN , the switch that you are talking about has been in use for a very long time on trains AKA dead -man switch
John Hart
05-22-2011, 4:49 PM
JOHN , the switch that you are talking about has been in use for a very long time on trains AKA dead -man switch

Oh....Well, nevermind then. I don't want to do what everyone else is doing!!! I'm not a groupie.:)
ray hampton
05-22-2011, 6:19 PM
Oh....Well, nevermind then. I don't want to do what everyone else is doing!!! I'm not a groupie.:)


Martha Stewart got a good saying for your groupie comment

it's is a good thing