Doh! and a face palm

savarin

savarin

Active User
H-M Supporter Gold Member
I often feel two bricks short of a load.
My latest escapade was a twofold smack.
A steel 12mm bar 200mm long being turned down to 8mm for 150mm of its length.
I set up an insert tool and off I went.
Getting to grips with auto feed and releasing it to finish the last 3mm by hand.
I was cleaning up the debris on a regular basis and all was going well, I was quite excited by the huge lengths of the swarf peeling off as I hadn't seen it quite like this before.
Suddenly, one of the strands picked up the swarf remaining in the tray and wound it round the lead screw into a huge birds nest :panic:and I just managed to release the feed before it was jammed behind the apron.
Phew! Doh! number one.
Next I checked the tool and realised I was using the wrong corner as the cutting edge so it had very little support underneath and it had cracked in half.:banghead:
I dont know how it kept cutting but it did. .Doh! number two.
Just thought I would mention this in case it helps prevent other newbs from making the same dumb mistakes.
 
savarin said:
I often feel two bricks short of a load.
My latest escapade was a twofold smack.
A steel 12mm bar 200mm long being turned down to 8mm for 150mm of its length.
I set up an insert tool and off I went.
Getting to grips with auto feed and releasing it to finish the last 3mm by hand.
I was cleaning up the debris on a regular basis and all was going well, I was quite excited by the huge lengths of the swarf peeling off as I hadn't seen it quite like this before.
Suddenly, one of the strands picked up the swarf remaining in the tray and wound it round the lead screw into a huge birds nest :panic:and I just managed to release the feed before it was jammed behind the apron.
Phew! Doh! number one.
Next I checked the tool and realised I was using the wrong corner as the cutting edge so it had very little support underneath and it had cracked in half.:banghead:
I dont know how it kept cutting but it did. .Doh! number two.
Just thought I would mention this in case it helps prevent other newbs from making the same dumb mistakes.
Click to expand...

Education always comes with a price, now the value will come in only if you use the lesson and not allow it to happen again. Of course if you are like me, it usually takes at least twice for it to sink in to my dull mind!
 
Flailing chips are very dangerous, they can throw tools or wads of chips or worse yet catch you. Try to select an insert or grind a tool that either breaks the chip or sends it off in a safe direction, away from rotating parts of the lathe. Altering rake angles or adding chip breakers can control that sort of thing. If you start seeing a wad of chips building up, stop the lathe and figure out what's going on before it gets out of hand. Steel chips are pretty easy to deal with, but aluminum can be tougher to control. It likes to do it's own thing.

Tom
 
I had a similar experience yesterday with stainless a long piece caught some off the bench and got tangled up and actually grassed (sp) my hand for a lil slice on my finger no worse than a paper cut but I clean up more often now!!!
 
I grew up on big industrial lathes so there was plenty distance down to the chip pan. When I started running 7x10, 9x20 in my garage I was very careful to keep swarf removed. Along came a 12x36 and I went back to running with not so much concern for chips other than not letting them get out of hand. I was cutting a 3" piece down to 1 1/4" and making blue chips like 1/4" springs about 1" long, the smaller the OD the longer the chips got. I did not notice they were no longer falling in the pan but building up between the frame rails. Eventually the chip grabbed a softball sized wad of the swarf and maced me dead between the eyes. I thought I'd been killed. The safety glasses took the brunt of it and I got some minor scratches on the forehead. I had no idea what happened. Right out of the blue KAFALL.

Steve
 
just an added thought on this do not try to break it off with something like a screwdriver. it can start right up the tool and up your finger or hand twisting around or through them. tool steel is as strong as a spring that size. a screw driver flying around in the nest is dangerous.
I Just Heard This Could Happen. ok :whiteflag:
steve
 
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