arm and hand removed by lathe

Thanks for the reminder. I'll think about this for, hopefully, the rest of my life.

Gloves are recommended for chain sawing. I saw frequently and while they won't save your hands from contact with a moving chain, they don't make it more likely that you will get tangled in the chain. They also can prevent cuts while installing a new chain.

Walt
 
Here's a rather gruesome post over on Reddit. No pics at the link below, so its safe for the squeamish. Once you get there he has another link to his pics.
http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/1lvfix/this_is_what_happens_when_you_get_your_hand_stuck/

To save you from clicking through a million posts here are some of his comments:

-Thank you and yes the got it back on but the had to take out 2 inches of bone so now im un even
-oh yeah im right handed an that is the one i lost so now im left handed
-I was turning down a steel shaft and a bur caught my glove.
-they did re attach it but i have no nerves connected so i still cant use it my friends call it my zombie hand
-No it got my glove
-I went into shock i didn't feel anything i just wanted water and a ciggarette i didnt feel anythin till the nerve block wore off
-im still in the ealing process right now im at 4 surgerys an i still cant use my right hand because no nerves are connected
-im not sure we just started finding my nerves i have no use of my right hand and i cant feel part of my fore arm
-No, t15 hour surgery and 3 doctors teah they earned it
-he only thing taht got hooked up was the blood vesels my nerves and tendons are still waiting to be hooked up
-It happend on august 23 and it still gets me shaken to thecore
-Where i work at we are under a strick guidline set by the AIB american institute of bakers
-80 percent mobility in 3 to 5 years
-AIB requirements we cant even use scissors without gloves
-we run under a set of standards the tell us we have to i cant even use scissors without gloves
-its coverd by workers comp but my surgery and hospital alone cost 350,000
-There was a bur i did not see







- - - Updated - - -

Just yesterday I was running my lathe when my 8 year old tried to butt in and "help." At the time he didn't quite understand why he got yelled at. I showed him the pics and we're on the same page now.

Someone should have told him to use a brass hook with a solid handle to remove shavings. I feel bad for him. Something like that happens in a split second. I had a lathe shaving pull up other shavings from the bed and wrap around the work piece before I could stop the machine.
 
I have seen close calls from wearing gloves around the spinning things, and a couple bad ones. Yet I still have to argue with people that say they will not wear glove at all. Yes they should never be worn around the spinning things! Ever!! but they are to easy to put on and take back off to not be used at times like matterial handling, using sharp hand tools, any time you are involved in hot work. and many other times. I have a personal story about this.

I was about 18-19 years old and I was working in a fab shop, I was hired on to paint, blast, run small machines, and general labor. well the foreman called me from the paint area to come down by him, I was painting so I did not have my gloves on when I got down there he told me he needed a hand putting a 25' angle in a welding jig. well he flipped it in without warning me he was going to and my hand got caught between the jig and angle. I came real close to losing my thumb but some 6 hour of surgery saved it. Moral, if I had been wearing good gloves it would have only been bruised.

Please do not pick and choose on saftey!

I totally agree that there ARE times when gloves should be worn. I wont weld without gloves as I burn easily in the sun (fair skinned) and have experienced first hand some nasty burns from welding .... and I dont mean blob burns, I mean radiation burns. As for material handling, I sometimes wear gloves based on the material. I will NOT wear gloves handling steel but will with glass (then only kevlar gloves). I have worn gloves for handling steel a long time ago and got hurt because you cant grip as well wearing gloves and loose a lot of fine feeling. Some may argue that rubber palm or similar will give you a good grip, but its the loose ares between the glove and hand that causes the issue (unless you want form fitted gloves). I have had my hands smashed many times with heavy steel, and no would help out with that. I guess its a mater of preference, some like gloves for almost everything, I dont.
 
In all my years of being I have heard several stories, Here are 2 that should be mentioned I think. One guy I knew, his left ring finger was mangled and I asked him what happened. He explained how his wife insisted he wear his wedding ring so he did until the day he was running his lathe and as he put his left hand on the chuck to slow it down, as he thought it was coasting, but as he put the clutch in neutral it moved into reverse so as it coasted to a stop it reversed and caught his ring on the chuck key screw hole and pulled off the ring his finger skin and muscles. He said he was lucky it was loose fit and didn't pull off his finger. Moral to this story Never Wear a Ring, when running a machine. Another time a friend of mine was working in a West Virginia Power Plants machine shop. The never heated the place over 45 degrees in the winter so everyone wore a jacket. He said one day he was over helping the Horizontal boring machine operator set ups and bore a big 24" hole in a casting. They were using a boring bar supported on one end with a tailstock . They had a tool in the 4" x 12' boring bar with a boring head attached to the bar. It was turning at about 10 RPM. He was looking at the blue print and the operator looked into the hole to check it and as the tool was going around the cutter caught the arm of his Nylon wind breaker jacket and pulled him into the machine. He screamed and my friend threw down the print and reached for and was able to hit the emergency stop button as he said in a split second, but by the time it stopped turning the operators arm and leg were torn off. He had flipped over catching his arm and leg. Luckily another operator in the plant had been a a medic in Nam and knew how to stop the bleeding until an ambulance arrived. The guy recovered, but had 2 artificial limbs. Moral to the story, Never Wear a Nylon Jacket when running a machine and ask the owner to turn up the heat. Bottom line is to never wear loose clothing, rings, have long hair, wear a tie, gloves that can pull any part of your body into a moving machine. Think safety. Our hobby can not only hurt you it can kill you if your not careful !!! Rich
 
In the more than 35 years I've been in the trade I've got many stitches but have all 10 fingers and all10 toes.
On many time I've had this discussion with the safety dept about gloves, I pulled a tension in my thumb from using a chuck key day after day in a jig bore they wanted me to wear gloves I flat out said NO they are not safe with any moving tools or parts. I also always wear steel toed boots even at home in the yard work, they do work I dropped 580 lbs of steel on my foot and only broke the second joint in my right big toe that was because in drove my foot down to the floor never bending the steel toe. I never wear rings or watch or anything that can get caught and drag you in to the operation. I happened to be in the area of an operator blowing chips off a engine block drill line it caught him sleeve and pulled him into the spinning drill. He was lucky as it pulled him he fell the shirt was torn from him leaving a bad burn on his neck and some minor cuts he was very very lucky he fell. I cringe every time I see people wearing gloves while running any type of machine or moving object. I wish him well he has a long recovery ahead of him.
 
Rich just said it all; when I started into the trade, my shop teacher told us all about it, showed us a picture of a ring on a finger with tendons stretched out; pretty graphic; when I started my apprenticeship, it was made very plain that machinery and gloves do not mix, and our shop was heated as well as could be expected. I saw only one man who did wear gloves when it was cold, but he ran the "big Lathe" and did not get "close to the action"; this lathe swung 86".
 
I remember hearing of a woman, a graduate student at Yale or Harvard, or some eastern school who was killed when her hair got caught in a lathe. This was a couple of years ago. I don't know any other details. Very sad.

Jeff
 
That is quite gruesome. I worked in a paper mill for nearly 40 years and witnesses some bad injuries. It was getting so bad in there with trying to idiot-proof everything with guards and protective equipment it was getting next to impossible to do your job.
If you take the time to look over the task and see where you could get hurt would probably prevent a lot of injuries.
We were also to the point where you couldn't use scissors without cut-resistant gloves.
Common sense tells you not to wear gloves, jewelry. watches, loose fitting clothes and long sleeves around rotating equipment. We had massive lathes in our machine shop and the last injury that I can remember was when a veteran machinist got his flannel shirt caught on a lathe dog and it ripped the shirt off him. He was bruised up pretty bad and very lucky to be alive.
 
WHEN I WORK AT A PUNCH PRESS SHOP i could not believe how many of these idiots thought intensionally chopping of fingers ect was worth the insurance money:nuts:
 
This is appalling and should never have happened. I really hope he gets a good lawyer and wins millions.
I've never worked in a machine shop as I was a chef but we used to suffer the same stupid crap from those who never actually worked with the tools and equipment.
The number of time wh&s wanted to make us wear chain-mail gloves when using a knife was ridiculous.
Then they made us retro fit all the mixers with safety guards in case some dumb schmuck stuck his/her hand in whilst it was rotating.
The first time I used the machine with the new guard it actually cut my little pinky as I swung it out the way to load material in. I went ballistic. It didnt help change the rules though. My injury was only a tiny cut but It sure made me mad when I had used the same machine for years with no injuries at all.
I never wore my wedding ring to work after my dad vaulted out a truck and caught his on the tailgate and was suspended by it as it slowly stripped the skin off his finger.
Be safe, think first, never become complacent.
 
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