Goofs & Blunders You Should Avoid.

savarin, what did the spark sound like? I'm sorry but as I type this I am laughing. this is one thing I can learn from others. thanks bill
 
I laugh every time I read your post sorry but I can just imagine what it felt like.
 
I had trouble with my enco lathe spindle d1-6 would not close down tight on the tapered spindle face combo. so I was bluing the taper section to find the problem. I had taken my backing plate to work to see if it would fit. It worked on the leblond d1-6 spindle perfectly. so I determined that the spindle nose was too large. so I was stoning it down and blue checking the fit I was not locking the cams while I was blue checking the fit. slid the chuck on got interrupted and came back and turned on the lathe. then realized the chuck was in but not locked down as I stayed away I watched the chuck slowly work its way out. boy was that stupid. as the chuck finally let go hit the ways and bounced to the floor I stayed back and waited for it to stop about 20 feet away from my lathe. no real damage except to the concrete floor ( big divot). ways ok chuck scratched but ok. me ok and slightly less stupid got the chuck to fit ok after lots of emery cloth and stoning bill
 
Bill, chances are that you could have adjusted the pins and got a lock on it. They are designed to be moved in or our a turn at a time, while using the socket cap screws right beside them to clock them. The tapers on most machines are very close, but of course practical manufacturing allows for variations. Hence the adjustments possible. But as long as you got it on there and are happy with the fit, great!
 
It was sparks from an angle grinder burning into the groin area that eventually burnt through.
The language was a tad loud and harsh :devil:
 
The problem with pine sawdust is that the pitch or resin in pine contains the basic source of turpentine, or at least live trees do. It is distilled on a commercial basis, but I wold imagine there is enough of the raw materials in pine, even dried, to pose a flammability problem.
 
It's not shop related, but I can also say that you should be very wary of fires when you're wearing wool pants. That's another of those stupid teenager tricks I was so good at. At about the age of 13 at a freezing-cold, very windy February campout, I had planted myself downwind of the camp fire happily warming myself. I was quite startled and more than a little angry when my father tackled me from offsides and threw me to the ground unexpectedly. Upon my less-than-charitably asking just why he'd done such a thing, his only response was to point at my shins. I realized that the fronts of the legs of my heavy wool army-surplus pants were burned away over half-way up said shins and I'd never felt a thing! Oops...
 
Mt
David S said:
how about clearing swarf on the lathe. Never ever use ones hands to push, clear, untangle the swarf building up. Use a brush to push it away or perhaps smooth handled pliers to try and grab some. The idea is that you don't want the pliers to get caught and pull your hand into the works.

Best of all turn off machine and remove the swarf and build up.
Click to expand...




Swarf ...the bane of a machinists life .

Never ever use an airline to blow it away or clean the lathe for your likely to get blinded or impaled by the tiny high speed razor sharp bits of turned off metals your blowing around .

Always use the power off kill switch to ensure the machine cannot be accidentally turned on during cleaning operations .. never ever clean a turning machine or remove swarf from one , its far too dangerous.

TIP.
My pal has put a rather strong toroidal/ doughnut magnet ( taken out of an old scrapped microwave oven ) into a home made can using 3 inch dia thin wall aluminium tube & an end plate " Tigged " on all the way round the joint .

The magnet is glued to a pull lever which has an end disc / flange of aluminium screwed onto the end so it looks a bit like one of the caulking guns you use to put sealant on out of a plastic tube .
The rod runs up the inside center of the can .

Between the magnet & the top of the can is soft 6 inch long compression spring over the pull rod . At the very top of the can is a light steel cross brace with a central hole in it .
The pull rod pokes up out this hole & the top end has been shaped to form a finger grip for four fingers .

Riveted to the top outside of the can above the furthest reach of the pull rod is a simple inverted " U " shape flat bar handle 3 mm thick x 13 mm wide .
Run a two inch wide strip of quality industrial grade sticky plastic tape round the can about 3 inches up from the base of the can , if it's placed thoughtfully it will indicate the average area of attraction to the ferrous material when it's at rest down a the bottom end of the tube .

To quickly & safely collect the smaller ferrous swarf you put the magnet end of the aluminium can over the swarf area & it picks it up . If you have birds nests of turnings then why not make yourself a swarf hook / scraper off device ? Make it out of some 3 mm thick x 13 mm wide by 22 inches long flat steel /stainless steel bar & make a formed ring at the opposite end to the 3" "L " shaped hook to hand it up by .

Move it over to the waste bucket , one handedly pull the lever with the magnet on it up & the swarf falls off the aluminium case & lower side of the can . Release your grip & the spring pushes the magnet back to theh bottom of the aluminium can ready for the next go .


Store this magnetic swarf picker up / collector anywhere that has a steel surface to stick it to , for it is magnetic after all .
 
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Savarin, At least mine was just a shoe, that started to smolder a bit.
Not machine related per say, but in the Texas panhandle where I grew up one of the things that always had to watch out for when working on equipment in an grain elevator was the dust, It blew out the side of the elevator, derailed a train, and killed a few just because the guy got lazy and did not grease the bearings on the conveyer properly, or at least that is what they said happened after a long investigation.
So yea, dust can be very explosive
 
Lots of things are flammable in a dust or powder form----try a little coffee creamer powder--burns well
 
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