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Fatal lathe accident

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freakshow10mm

Aluminum
Joined
Feb 21, 2009
Location
Upper Michigan
These pics were posted on Silencertalk.com as a reminder what can happen when working with lathes and machinery.

Safety is a mindset. One fraction of a second is all it takes.

The following link contains images depicting the death of a human being. They are extremely graphic in nature shown to remind us all to be careful around machinery. From what it looks like, the victim's loose clothing got wrapped around the workpiece and the results are, well, unfortunate.

I invite those that run shops to show these to your workers and reinstate your safety policies. Accidents can and do happen. If we work on safety together, these can be avoided. At my shop we go over the safety policies twice a week.

If you do not wish to see the pics, just heed my warning and carry on. Instead of posting the pics in the thread, I chose to post a link to my photobucket album instead. Those with the discretion to view the link, do so at their own will.

My sincere condolences to this person's family and friends.:(

Link to album:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v239/freakshow10mm/Fatal Lathe Accident/
 
For his sake I hope it happened fast

500ft/min to reel in 2 ft of clothing, about 0.25 seconds then to be climb milled by a 16" 3 jaw with a surface speed of 2000 ft /min. Scary messy but probably quick, not much opportunity for a second chance with this equipment.
 
A foot brake might have avoided it

It looks like a 70's lathe so it probably had a foot brake, see my calculation above, the work on that machine was effectively a 4" winch drum mounted between centres, if it was mild steel then it probably had around 500 ft min surface speed, that is what I usually turn mild steel at. Once that winch grabs something it gets reeled in quickly 2 feet in a quarter of a second, not a lot of time to press a foot brake and bring a 16" chuck to a halt when a winch is pulling you off it.
 
==================="Extremely Graphic"======================
I expected to see just a bloody mess and some tattered shirt cuff or tales.
You know... after the person had been taken away. Not with him still laying
prone over and around his last part. Blood is one thing....

Maybe next time, a little description of what to expect would be in order.
I should have taken the blue pill.

jim
 
I am now retired but spent most of my working life at one company as a machinist.

Safety was always first at this company, but it only takes a moment for such a terrible accident like this to happen.

I remember two such accidents involving lathes of about 16 or 18 swing..Both times the machinist was wearing gloves and was pulled into the machine.. One accident resulted in a broke arm and the other a managled hand.

In either case both were extremly lucky that the lathe never really got a good hold on them.

Even a small lathe can do a great deal of harm. One time a machinist had his arm pulled into a Monarch EE. Caught between the ways and a chuck revolving at a couple of thousand RPMs, the lathe ground off most of the flesh on this forearm before someone shut it down.

I have a great deal of respect even for the small SouthBend I own and run now. It is fully capable of ruining my whole day.

When I first went to work at the company you were not allowed to even wear your shirt outside your pants. And of course jewlery and long hair was a no no.

All it takes is one second of inattention.
 
Maybe next time, a little description of what to expect would be in order.

he following link contains images depicting the death of a human being. They are extremely graphic in nature shown to remind us all to be careful around machinery

you clicked the link cause you wanted to see tragedy
what part of extremely graphic didn't you understand

i don't have the image in my head because i didn't click the link

i opened the thread to see if there where some facts that could be learned from

not

so i moved on
 
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