I'm doing a workshop on safety at the AAW symposium, and I'd like to add some real-life accident stories as illustration. If you have had an accident at the lathe while doing something contrary to standard safety practices, please share--especially if you have photos (not necessarily graphic). If you're embarrassed, I'm happy to withhold your name. Bandsaw and chainsaw accident stories welcome too. Let others learn from your mistakes. I am!
Lynne, I am sending to you a link to another forum page with some accident reports. And, I'd like to thank you for taking the time and making the effort!
I got whacked in the left elbow while turning a relatively square edged bowl. Lathe was turning at about 750 RPM, and there was a sound at the barn door, so I turned (pivoted) to my right to look around the plastic screen, and allowed my elbow to wander into the spinning wood. I got really lucky. The longest corner -- about 1/2" thick at the time -- hit my forearm about an inch from the bony knob that sticks out, where the Ulna is still pretty thick. If it had hit a little further from the elbow, it might have broken the bone. I couldn't do much with that arm for a week or so, but all I really got was a heck of a bone bruise. Turns out, no one was at the door -- just the wind rattling the loose window panes!
I went back out to the barn and set the blank on the floor about a week later, and there it sat for about 2 years. Last Spring I decided to finish turn the thing, which is seen here on the lathe during finishing.
My accident happened back in Nov. 1995, if a power miter saw counts. I was working as a punch out man for a large home builder in Columbus, Oh. I had just finished cutting a piece of trim and was turning away from my saw to install it and I notice the saw sliding off the counter top I had placed it on. I garbed it with my right hand and some how it came across my left hand just above the wrist. needless to say flesh and bone are alot softer than oak and my left hand was laying on the floor. They where able to re-attach it but there is not much use in it. what I did wrong was not follow the owners manual that said secure the saw to surface before using.
Now a point I would like to make, please read your owners manuals for your chucks. My super nova 2 manual says that tenons should not be use for turning bowls, but of course we all need to make our own choice.
Lynne, great initiative and very courageous of you to take this on.
Personally I don't have an accident story and I work pretty hard to keep it that way as I have witnessed plenty of close calls, & some serious injuries in hobby wood working / turning. In my research I have come across a number of reported deaths and numerous instances of severe head injuries to wood turners. Most occur in fairly "routine" wood turning scenarios, and ones in which the wood turner was apparently not to concerned about injury.
One initiative I would love to see the AAW take up is strongly encourage (you can't say bully anymore) all demonstrators and ambassadors of the AAW to listen to what you have to say.
We see far to many instances of demonstrators etc deliberately ignoring basic safety protocols. What they do in their own workshops is their business but when they are a representative of the AAW and role models to others they should be setting a high standard of safety compliance. Unfortunately viewers see what they do and say if its OK for them then its OK for me ....
I sincerely wish I could attend and see your presentation. All the best.
Lynne shares the story of her accident in the June issue of American Woodturner, which is just now in the mail. Compelling writing, and thank you for your ongoing contribution to informing turners about safety by hosting the session on safety at the upcoming Phoenix symposium.
My own woodturning and woodworking for the past 35 years has been mostly safe. I did, however, nick my left index finger on the bandsaw last year. I was cutting something small and round (not a good idea without some sort of holding device), and with my mind distracted (I was in a hurry), the blade grabbed the wood, causing my finger to move into the blade, even though I had placed it slightly to the side of the line of cut. What I found intriguing is that the cut happened at the same place where I had cut my finger 20+ years ago when using a small carving gouge. Fortunately, neither incident required stitches.
Lynne, Several months ago I was boring the center hole for a 6" pepper mill. As is typical the forstner bit was held by a drill chuck inserted in the #2 MT socket of the tail stock. I had advanced and retreated the drill several times to keep the hole cclear of cuttings. As I was retracting the tail stock near the end of the boring the MT socket holding the chuck in the tail stock came loose and pulled out. Of course the bit with attached chuck and taper was still in the mill which was turning at ~500RPM. When I noticed the error of my ways I tried to grab the whipping mass of steel. It whacked me on the outside of my right hand before being thrown out of the mill and landing on the floor several feet away. I survived but there might be some damage to the area. I hesitate to think what it might have felt like had it hit me on the coconut.
This event led to my asking on this forum how to keep the taper in the tail stock. John Lucas suggested a fix which I immediately incorporated.
Ten or more years ago I cut a blank about 14" long and 8" in "diameter". Had It mounted as a spindle. This was Sunday evening and I was tired. Decided to turn it to a cylinder to get a better look at it and quit for the evening. Reached with my left hand for the switch and with my right for the face shield. I usually put the face shield on first and also test the piece to see if it turns freely. Thsi time I failed to test and to get the shield on first. The piece flew off the lathe, hitting me right between the eyes on the forehead. Bled like a waterfall. My glasses flew away and hid in the scrap pile. I called a neighbor who took me to the emergency room. 27 stitches and $1360 later I was back home.
There are three of four lessons in this.
Always check to be sure the piece it securely mounted and free to rotate.
Hi Lynne, and thanks for bringing your query to WoodCentral. We all admire your courage and hope you've bounced back from your terrible experience.
I had a scary and painful experience myself once when turning a small hollow form through a very small opening. I swung the tool handle -- it was a crook-neck scraper with a narrow insert tip -- too far to the right and, before I knew it, the tool was spinning in my hand at about 800 rpm. My first instinct was to grab it to try to control it. Wrong! I ended up with quite a brush burn on my fingers and palm and couldn't use that hand for a week. I guess the best reaction would have been to simply let the tool fly and try to get out of the way. I was just thankful that I hadn't been using a larger tool with a forearm clip, though a lot of people here said they didn't find that type of tool dangerous. I'm hedging my bet -- once bitten, twice shy and all.
Several years ago I was turning a bowl. I had finished the outside and was working on the inside when I got a catch and it flew out of the chuck. The sharp (!) outside edge of the bowl hit my forearm and made a deep slice. It was good for half a dozen stitches and the doc said that if it had gone any deeper I would have had serious tendon damage. The funny thing was it never really hurt even after the freezing came out. Ever since then I have always rounded off that sharp edge on the outside of the bowl before I finish the inside.
I had an accident a number of years back. Oddly enough, shortly after telling my local group about it (bandages still fully visible), someone from a neighboring group who may have attended the meeting did the same thing and then reported it to Woodworker's Journal be featured in the magazine. (As if I wasn't enough of an idiot in the first place, but to do it AFTER seeing what could happen.)
I was turning an Ash bowl, somewhat inturned. Everything was looking pretty good, but I had a ridge in the bottom and I didn't want to risk putting a groove where the ridge was, so I reached for a curved cabinet scraper. (Cabinet scrapers can be a great tool for finessing the OUTSIDE of turnings.)
As soon as the scraper touched the inside of the bowl, it came loose and turned the bowl into a food processor. It opened up my wrist, along with a vein and nearly severing a tendon.
Should also add that I posted about the accident here on WoodCentral shortly after it happened.
Not a good thing to try. Not a good thing to do.
I stood in front of the Bucks Wooodturners, bandages and story of all the gore, and confessed my stupidity to prevent others from trying the same. Still amazed me that some idiot from a neighboring group went and tried it, with similar results.
All fingers and functionality still in place and (almost) complete feeling returned to the hand.
At a pepper mill workshop, I observed the same incident Ron Bauer described and at the recent Utah Symposium there was a near miss when the mores taper released from the tailstock when clearing chips but the demonstrator was able to push it back on before it came completely loose.
I agree 100% with Geoff Whaling's comments.
Thanks for highlighting safety concerns. Glad to see the AAW making positive steps in accident prevention.
Thank you all for your responses. You've given me some good leads. I've spent hours searching various forums pursuing reports of accidents.
I'm not a big forum user, so I hope I'm not violating forum etiquette by responding to you en masse. It seems less intrusive than responding individually.
Mike, yours is one of the most drastic losses. Yowza. I'm sorry you didn't get much use back. Since you're on this forum, I assume you're able to turn, at least. Bravo.
Betty, thanks for the plug. And I'm glad to know you escaped without stitches.
Ron, I hadn't thought about the Morse taper problem, so thanks, I'll include your story (and the fix) with your permission. (I found the old threads too.)
Barry, your story is a good illustration of the basic rule of checking clearance, as well as the other lessons you point out. I'll include yours too, if that's all right.
Ellis, I've lost control of a sander in a vessel like that, but had the opposite instinct. I jerked my hand away and went for the kill switch instead.
Ryan, was that a broken edge or was the rim that sharp? You're lucky not to sever more.
Craig, I've used a cabinet scraper to take out a ridge and it worked great--but I turned the lathe off first! I can just picture that food processor. Shudder. Glad everything still works.
Thanks again, everyone. I'll be posting my request on other forums as well.
Mike it makes me cringe hearing of injuries like yours.
My dad (David) was a builder through the 1960's to late 80's. Around 1978 we had a retired Aust Navy client & who wanted to build a very impressive house at Trinity Beach north of Cairns & became very good friends during the build. Jack being a mechanical propulsion engineer & a pretty handy hobbyist always wanted to do a fair bit of the finishing trim and wood detail himself.
Dad jokingly said to Jack that he (Jack) probably should let us do it as he will be pushing up daisies before he finished the trim himself. Jack stood firm to do some of it himself and was a keen learner. He loved Dad’s new at the time DeWalt radial arm docking saw – it was a powerful beast. Dad would supervise and train Jack on some use of it but not let Jack “borrow” the saw when we were off the job. In fact we would routinely lock it out so nobody could use it. Anyway Jack purchased a DeWalt RADS after we handed over the house keys.
Some months later I saw Jack in town leaning on his LHS on one of the old coin op parking meters rolling a rollie cigarette one handed. I said to him “nice trick Jack” to which he replied “Geoff, it’s a matter of having to” as he rotated and presented a stump of his left hand minus all fingers and almost all of his thumb complete with very fresh stitches. After I got over the initial shock Jack said “I know what Dave will say….”
Jack had been ripping various thickness timber with the RADS on a blustery winter day and had one roller door up the other half down in his workshop. A strong gust blew some sawdust into his eyes, so he took his right hand off the wide board to clear his eyes but managed to feed his LH through the saw. Jack had not bothered to readjust the guard for the thinner stock after ripping thicker timber. He had no eye protection, but being a mechanical engineer he knew all about eye protection. By taking one hand away meant the saw drew the stock through faster and with sufficient clearance for fingers, it then became a sad story. Jacks wife, a retired senior nurse, preserved the fingers in a plastic bag in ice only to have the surgeons say “too much damage, to much contamination.”
The thing that probably hurt Jack the most was saying “Dave, I knew I should have listened ….. when can you finish the trim for the missus?”
Not an accident story,but a (hopefully) prevention bit. My youngest son is a bench chemist and he tells me regularly that among chemists when you drop something in a lab you DO NOT try to catch it. That will likely set whatever it is spinning and create a greater hazard than something simply going to the floor and spilling. The analogy to turning is clear: if it gets away from you, return the favor and get away from it. It's hard to not reach for that loose handle, bit, chuck, whatever, but reaching for the kill switch makes lots more sense, especially in hindsight.
Being a photographer and often shooting in rapidly evolving situations I learned to "catch" falling lenses with my feet. Not actually catch mind you but reduce its impact with the ground. Saved lots of equipment that way. However in the shop il e learned to just spread my legs and watch where it goes. Makes it easier to find dropped screws and avoids getting a chisel stuck in your foott
Jim, I wish I had done just that when I tried to grab the whipping drill chuck and MT adaptor when is got pulled out of the tail stock. I clearly did serious damage to my right hand. R.
My accident was not a turning accident, but one of preparation. I was going to saw off a thin piece of oak (about 5/19") on my table saw. I didn't think to change the blade throat plate to a no tolerance blade plate. The result was an 8" long piece of oak hit me at the top of my glasses, it knocked me out for a few seconds. When I gathered up my wits and turned off the saw, I staggered into the house and let my wife fix me up.
It must have been about 30 minutes later that I realized my glasses were missing. I still have a scar on my eyebrow and the is what my saving grace glasses looked like.
Jim, very glad you walked away from this one relatively uninjured. The hip pocket will take a hit though replacing the bifocals. We all do strange things at times but you are a very fortunate turner as a little either way & it could have been quite a different outcome. As turners generally fit the over 55's demographic the most significantly reported injuries are slips & falls which lead to traumatic brain injuries etc.
You being unaware of what happened after the impact for a few seconds around a running table saw and one probably with no guard (?) is very concerning. Such an impact has potential for a secondary injury that may be far more significant than the original impact. Either collapsing / falling into a running saw or striking your head against the saw itself, other machinery or the shop floor is a very concerning scenario.
Mate, please do yourself a big favor and review how you are using the table saw to make thin rips and please invest in a decent quality polycarbonate impact rated Z87.1 face shield & perhaps hearing protection as well?. Often the best thing we can do for ourselves is to take a little more time to think things through and to review all of our "work" processes to see just how safe we are before we do them.
