2020 POTD Thread Archive

There's another alternative: fabricate a wrench holder with a microswitch built in so that the mill won't start unless the wrench
in in the holder. Take a bit of work, but would pretty much guarantee that you won't make that mistake. I you're like me, you'll
just come up with another mistake to replace it. :)

Before I retired, I worked for an airline. They occasionally had a problem with ramp personnel driving mobile ground power carts
away from the aircraft while forgetting to remove the power cord. This damaged the connector and sometimes the airplane.
The solution was to wire the cart such that the power cord had to be plugged into an outlet on the cart before it could be moved.
Solved the problem.
 
@Tim9 -
A mill with its own spindle (pulley) lock is a very good thing. I've never seen a good design for the RF-30. I used to have a Luminar spline wrench (LMS p/n 4803), but it slipped off the spindle one day about two months ago and skittered I-don'-know-where. Spent hours during several days looking for it, declared it lost, and decided to make my own out of an extra 15/16" wrench. Here's my working drawing. After machining the wrench per the print, I tweaked it a bit on the belt sander so it would fit better.
Wrench mods B.jpg

Funny thing is, I was doing a major sweep-up a week ago, moving things out of the way to sweep under them, and found the (~3/16" thick) LMS wrench underneath a rack that I'd swear was too close to the ground to let the wrench slide under. Ah, well ...

I had a friend from the local machinist group (Valley Metal) stop by for a demo of my CNC mill a couple days ago. He said he had a round column mill, too, and no spline wrench. I prefer my new wrench, so I gave him the original one from LMS. Win-win!

@Bi11Hudson -
You are to be congratulated for having been so careful. I try to be careful myself, and luckily escaped with only very minor owies so far.

@Nogoingback -
I've thought about the microswitch interlock idea. Not too difficult when using a VFD, because the control wiring is low voltage. Unfortunately, my tuit just isn't round enough yet.
 
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in high school (Over 50 yrs ago) we had an interlock on the metal lathes, after you tightened the chuck, you had to insert the rod on the chuck key handle, into a tube, that had a micro switch, that needed to be tripped or the the lathe would not start. The drill presses had a similar set up that involved the chuck key.

The high school, had 3 phase power, but not in the shop areas, not until after I had graduated, it was the first place where I saw a RPC in action.

The teacher, Mr Bassett, was the first Safety Nazi, I ever ran into, his safety program was exceptional, never any serious accidents, a few minor cuts here and there. After he retired, the new teacher had a student that lost part of his index finger, during his first year, there was serious talk of closing the industrial arts program down completely. Eventually, sanity prevailed and the classes continued, but the retired teacher came back and reimplemented his safety program, when the new teacher retired yrs later, that’s when the IA program completely disappeared.
 
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Buffalo21 said:
The teacher, Mr Bassett, was the first Safety Nazi, I ever ran into, his safety program was exceptional, never any serious accidents, a few minor cuts here and there. After he retired, the new teacher had a student that lost part of his index finger, during his first year, there was serious talk of closing the industrial arts program down completely. Eventually, sanity prevailed and the classes continued, but the retired teacher came back and reimplemented his safety program, when the new teacher retired yrs later, that’s when the IA program completely disappeared.
Click to expand...

Safety is a state of mind, no safety device will be 100% effective.

.
 
Bi11Hudson said:
Safety is a state of mind, no safety device will be 100% effective.
Click to expand...
Absolutely!!! I've always considered safety consciousness to be my first line of defense. I've gotten rid of some mechanical/electrical interlocks, added others. But I consider them to be something to "keep honest people honest." The most important interlock is the one between your ears.
 
I have just taken great delight in destroying the safety interlock on my angle grinder. It was one of the most stupid things I have ever seen.
It required a tiny bar to be pushed the the right before pushing the switch up then tilting the switch to to the hold position.
A quick poke and wrench with a set of needle nose pliers and it now works like the standard switch on the older version.
 
Does no machining count? :)

Made put together a holder for my files using a cheap wrench organizer & a couple of magnets. I've always had my less used files in a drawer with their original sleeves still on them. Hated digging around for the files I wanted to use. Time will tell if I like it but at least they'll get used more now that they're easily accessible.
 

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darkzero said:
Does no machining count? :)

Made put together a holder for my files using a cheap wrench organizer & a couple of magnets. I've always had my less used files in a drawer with their original sleeves still on them. Hated digging around for the files I wanted to use. Time will tell if I like it but at least they'll get used more now that they're easily accessible.
Click to expand...

That looks like an excellent file rack.
Please identify a source for those magnet assemblies. I'm not fond of magnetic tool holders in general, so I don't pay attention to them. I'm guessing those are tool holders that you've repurposed. I like it.
 
extropic said:
That looks like an excellent file rack.
Please identify a source for those magnet assemblies. I'm not fond of magnetic tool holders in general, so I don't pay attention to them. I'm guessing those are tool holders that you've repurposed. I like it.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Same here, I don't like sticking my tools onto magnets. I'm using them backwards so to speak so the magnets suck using them like that. They're just cheap $3 magnet rails from HF. 2 of them are plenty strong enough but as is they wouldn't hold the weight (vertically) cause they're meant to be fastened to something & the tool itself stuck on them. It would just slide down my tool box with any little bump. I put some left over clear mask (for cars) on them to increase surface friction. Also stuck 2 rubber feet on the tool box behind them to act as a ledge just in case. Pretty sturdy now. I won't drill into my tool box & not sure yet if that is their final resting place.

The wrench holder is just a $10 one from Amazon. Was just an idea & wasn't sure if it would work out for this. Wasn't in the mood to make a rack from scratch. Seems like it will be ok. I only had to modify one clip to fit the triangular file.
 
Will,
Thanks for info.
I happen to have one or two of the same wrench organizers, bought just to try them out (as wrench organizers) but they're not in service yet.
I like your idea better.
 
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