Things we should not do

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Posted by ady on 27/03/2011 02:59:49:

I feel that this thread is pretty unbelievable.

 

If you’re a moron then machine tools will soon tell you this.

 

Ady,

 

Don’t be so dismissive of everything that doesn’t fit into your belief pattern. There is a difference between an ‘unknowing beginner (I wont use the correct word ‘ignorant’ as that has been demeaned by modern usage)’ and a moron’. In your definition we were all morons once.

 

With regards,

 

Terry

[Anonymous]

Do not wear gloves when operating machinery – if it gets caught, it’ll drag your hand in.

 

Do wear gloves when welding – they protect against burns.

 

Regards,

 

Andrew

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Posted by Terryd on 27/03/2011 05:15:17:

 

Do not disconnect guard interlock switches.

 

Terry

 

 

 

WHY ?

 

None of the Myford, Boxfords, Harrisons etc I have owned have never had them so they must have been considered safe in their day because at the time we still had factory acts and inspectors.

 

I often have to hold large motor flanges to resleeve the bearing housing. Often this means holding just by the shallow register, often only 5mm on a large 18″ housing which is scary.

 

So I fit a washer inside the bearing recess and a long drawbar right thru the spindle to a washer and nut on the outboard side to hold it all together. It is then impossible for the flange to fly out the chuck.

 

However to do this I have to have the change wheel guard open, it’s only a tin cover and not a flanged guard so the gears are still inside but taking your advise if the guard is open and the drawbar fitted the machine won’t run.

If I leave the drawbar out the machine will run but is it safe?

 

It’s all down to common sense which, and this is from a H&S guy, because it can’t be defined it cannot be used or quoted.

 

Sucess in this world is measured in how much you have, not rules on pieces of paper.

 

John S.

[GoCreateParticipant @gocreate]

Some machining operations produce long stringy swarf. Never under any circumstances be tempted to clear swarf while the machine is cutting or running, not even using a stick or anything, you could lose fingers in an instant. Peek drilling will prevent long stringy swarf or when turning experiment with different tooling, if using HSS grinding a chip breaker (groove ground just behind the cutting edge) can break up the swarf and make the turning operation safer.

 

An obvious safety precaution but one easily forgotten or ignored, always wear eye protection It’s not nice to lose any body parts but to lose an eye!

 

Nigel

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

Thank you Graham for answering John with exactly the same themes that I was going to,

 

However John, I will add that in my second career as a teacher I have used many, probably dozens, of Boxfords and Harrisons as well as Colchester students etc and all had interlocks on relevant doors and chuck guards.

 

As an example of he unexpected, I heard that at a previous school a teacher was demonstrating a lathe process to a number of students (remember that in a school workshop class these days there will be a minimum of 25 and often 30 students) when he heard a scream from one of the class. The inquisitive child had stuck his finger into the rotating end of a Boxford spindle despite warnings and movable cover and the finger was detached and still rotating in the spindle. the scream, by the way, came from a female student standing nearby who had been sprayed with blood.

 

In another incident in Northants some years ago a student ‘shouldered arms’ in fun with at 10″ file. The handle was loose and the file flew across the room and the tang stuck in the back of the neck of a fellow classmate. He died a week later. So another no no, don’t use files with loose handles.

 

Regards

 

Terry

 

P.s. Our lathe chuck keys had a spring around the square end so a positive force had to be applied to push it into it’s socket. The Key could not stay in the chuck if the pressure was released.  Bit of a pain when you had to wind the chuck a long way, but no more flying keys.

 

T

Edited By Terryd on 27/03/2011 16:05:42

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Posted by Terryd on 27/03/2011 15:59:04:

 

P.s. Our lathe chuck keys had a spring around the square end so a positive force had to be applied to push it into it’s socket. The Key could not stay in the chuck if the pressure was released. Bit of a pain when you had to wind the chuck a long way, but no more flying keys.

 

T

 

Terry,

Those springs are brilliant.

You pull them off and keep them in the drawer with the parallels, when you come to use a pair of parallels in the vise, stick the spring inbetween them to stop them falling over and tipping.

 

John S.

[mgjParticipant @mgj]

Excellent idea John – now I’d better see if I can find my sprngs – I did keep them – somewhere.

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Be VERY careful how much material is hanging unsupported out of the LH end of the lathe mandrel. Even quite thick bar can instantly bend at right angles and flail around in an alarming and potentially lethal manner.

I’ve not done it myself but have witnessed it – you don’t forget something like that!

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

All machine tooling in educational establishments have to have safety interlocks.

In the manufacturers brochures they are advertised for that purpose.

 

clive

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that what this thread needs is all of the actual horror stories – they all make their own points rather well, don’t they?

 

My C spanner that I said not to ask about resulted in me flying backwards into what was fortunately an empty space, and I ended up doing what was described as a very neat backwards roll that I wasn’t expecting to, although I sustained no injuries. And It is another reason for not cluttering the floor up, as well.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Posted by Andrew Johnston on 27/03/2011 12:35:16:

Do not wear gloves when operating machinery – if it gets caught, it’ll drag your hand in.

 

Do wear gloves when welding – they protect against burns.

 

Regards,

 

Andrew

 

 

I’ll second the piont about welding gloves, and add this includes ultra-violet burns (sunburn) for those that don’t realise that any form of arc welding produces both hot metal and radiation burns.

 

In fact all parts of your body should be covered while doing any kind of arc welding.

 

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 27/03/2011 20:40:38

[mgjParticipant @mgj]

Try not to use a magnetic chuck to hold stainless on a big surface grinder. (on anything I suppose).

[methusalaParticipant @methusala]

Hi All, A few years ago whilst working at a bench with the grinding shop

directly behind me, an ‘experienced tool maker’ was truing up a grinding wheel

on a surface grinder. There were no guards in place and he had placed the

diamond dresser on the wrong side of the wheel, I expect you can guess what

happened next. the wheel picked up the dresser taking it through wheel the and

bursting it. I do not know how the the burst wheel or dresser missed me, but they did.

The toolmaker in question got a monumental b*******g, and the grinding shop was

enclosed p.d.q. I can tell you I very nearly had to go home for a change of

underwear!!!!!

 

Colin.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

After changing wheels, or other work on any grinder, whether a bench grinder, or an angle grinder, run the machine for a miniut or two, but keep out of line of the stone/ wheel.

I did a hobby course at the local high school, a while back, and I noticed that the workshop machine area was surrounded by a cord at easy hand hight, a pull on this switched a master switch off. Ian S C

[adyParticipant @ady]

I’ve mentioned these before.

You can get three for a fiver at some of the Morrisons garages.

 

Handy for starting up a group of sockets in awkward places.

Also handy for a test startup on a big job because you can stay well away from it as it comes up to speed, and handy for when you have to run away and switch off from a safe distance.

 

Just remember not to leave the controller lying next to the lathe.

 

REMOTE CONTROLLED SOCKETS

 

Edited By ady on 28/03/2011 11:34:37

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

Remote control devices whether infrared or radio frequency can be triggered by stray signals. I would advise you not to use these remote control receptacles for any tools or power machinery.

 

I personally have seen stray morning sunlight turn on and change channels on a TV facing the sunlight. Apparently there were frequencies and pulses of light coming in that had the same characteristics as the infrared system on the remote control. I have also seen some radio control units for large industrial robots go out of control due to interference from an overhead crane radio remote control in industry. The robots were operating inside wire safety fences with a man-exclusion safety interlock so no one was hurt but a lot of parts and tooling were severely damaged. The accident investigators found that the crane and robot control units operated on exactly the same frequency which is not supposed to happen. From that point on I always ask if anything is radio controlled when I visit a factory, and if there are radio control items, I won’t go anywhere near them (or under them in case of cranes).

 

Bottom line, I don’t trust life and limb to any radio remote control, but especially consumer grade ones.

 

JD

[StovepipeParticipant @stovepipe]

RTM – BEFORE you use the machine in your workshop. It might just save you from serious injury.

 

Dennis

Edited By Diane Carney on 28/03/2011 13:33:42

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

“RTM – BEFORE you use the machine “

 

What is RTM please? Forgive me if obvious but I am not acronym savvy these days.

 

I remember RTSD was “retire to safe distance” in some mining explosives manuals I saw once. Is it something to do with that?

 

JD

[Diane CarneyModerator @dianecarney30678]

Read the message? (just a guess)

[Keith LongParticipant @keithlong89920]

Read the manual

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

It’s actually RTFM

 

Read The Flipping Manual

John S.

[AJSParticipant @ajs]

When undoing chucks, or loosening nuts with a spanner, always look to see what you are going to cut your knuckles on first!

 

I find it best to apply controlled blows with the palm of my hand to the chuck key or spanner so that when the chuck/nut frees it does so in a controlled manner and my knuckles stay intact.

 

Secondly, when using a screwdriver, do not hold the part to be worked on in the hand in such a way that if the screwdriver slips the blade will do youself injury. It seems obvious especially when you’re looking in the first aid cabinet for a plaster!

 

Alan

[Diane CarneyModerator @dianecarney30678]

Aye John. … course it is. Sorry.

 

(It’s moderator blitz week, in case you hadn’t noticed!)

 

Diane

[Richard MarksParticipant @richardmarks80868]

Gentlemen

All very interesting, Clockie, Your hands are precious, they are not hammers, if you want controlled impact use a soft headed hammer held close to the head ( the head of the hammer not yours ), most of all use common sense and think about your actions before carrying out any task says he after asking the lad in our shop to disconnect the power before I start work on the mains side of the board, BANG theres me all a tremble on the other side of the room and him laughing his head off, that is when I used my hand as a hammer, he assumed that just switching off at the socket was enough, he soon learnt that when I said disconnect I meant it. When you have finished with the centre rotating or not remove it from the taper and put it away, not only does it save it from damaging the point it also saves you getting stabbed.

Regards

Dick

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Well I’m sorry Richard, but when I want to work on anything electrical like that, I make damn sure that it’s switched off, isolated, dumped and earthed if there’s any significant danger from it retaining any sort of charge at all. And if it involves pulling fuses, then they stay in my pocket. To me, common sense dictates that I don’t trust anybody to do any of that for me.

[Author]

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