My heart aches for Joan's family, with the passing of my FIL last week I am still feeling that in my heart also. To add more heartache a friend of mine that I went to Oklahoma this last weekend for a hog hunt lost his MIL on Saturday night and this morning at 8:30 his FIL passed away from some sort of embolism (SP). I have had enough death and sadness in the last few weeks to last me for a long, long time. But Joan's accident is so tragic I can't find words, I had the same thing happen but all I got was 28 stitches in my head. Without knowing what really happened the only thing I got from her husbands post was that she was turning a "LARGE" blank. Not for sure knowing the type of wood and what its shape was, I think some folks turn large pieces much to fast for big items, I don't even use the high setting on my 3520B, because it scares me! The piece that hit me in the head maybe weighed 10oz. but if a large chunk of a few pounds comes off and flies up that high and hits you in the face, there is not a face sheild that I know of that will protect you completley. So I guess we all must be proactive in making sure the wood we mount on the lathe is in good shape without cracks, shakes, voids etc that we are not ready to deal with. If you are turning slow enough in the beginning the chunk should just fall to the bed and bounce away which has happened with me while roughing out some borderline wood.
So with this tragic lose we should all remember to make sure of every little thing and take the time to look at the blanks as we turn them to make sure it is safe all the way through the process and listen to the sound it makes as a crack will change how it sounds.
Turn safe all,
Jeff
To turn or not to turn that is the question: ........Of course the answer is...........TURN ,TURN,TURN!!!!
Anyone "Fool" can know, The important thing is to Understand................Albert Einstein
To follow blindly, is to never become a leader............................................ .....Unknown