Basic safety question: lathe position

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Thanks for you all to take the time to analyze my question and provide input. I thought it was a dumb question, but glad I asked. I think that a lot of the basic turning books (of which I have several) don't address safety enough, by assuming that everyone knows and understands how workpieces will fail and which way they will go. I appreciate it.

It is why the “Stand out of the line of fire” is often mentioned and here a picture that shows that the forward direction of a piece from a fly apart or exploding turning, going towards the turner, to almost kill the turner.

Centrifugal forces of course do also play a role in the trajectory, but often the pieces do come towards you.

It nearly killed the turner.jpg