Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey
So I got a big honkin piece of maple mounted between centers. I thought I had the RPMs dialed down to "zip" to start working it round. Turns out it was on high.

Hit the "on" switch.

Bad things happened quickly.

VERY quickly

As the lathe starts to dance, the piece shifts and hits my Robust tool rest and jams.

Lathe gets stopped.

Mark is fine.

My Robust tool rest, however, is bent 5" out of straight and the hardened rod on top of the rest gets launched somewhere else.

So I start the New Year off with a turning lesson but with neither bruises nor stitches and only a Woodcraft invoice to show for it!