When starting your lathe, ALWAYS stay out of the line of fire. And make sure your PPE is in place before you hit that on switch! The blank in this image was originally going to be one or two pen pots. We will see what it becomes after I see what I can salvage. This was cut from a larger blank I got from my local Woodcraft by-the-pound bin. Waxed all over. Had a few marks, but nothing that looked too serious - certainly not something that would give me cause to worry about the integrity of the piece. Apparently on this particular one, I was wrong. I cut the larger blank into 3 smaller blanks to make weed pots in preparation for the upcoming show season. I prepped all the blanks today (roughly rounded, cut to length, tenon on one end). When I put this one on between centers, I started like I always do - off to one side, face shield in place. When the lathe came up to speed, the blank underwent unscheduled kinetic disassembly - a chunk flew out of the blank. The smaller piece you see in this picture was the only one I found - roughly 10 feet away from the lathe. Straight back from where the blank was mounted - had I been in front of the blank, it would have been a direct hit. Best case in that scenario is a bruise. Worst case I would rather not think about.....one end of the piece I did find tapers into a sharp edge.
My guess is that the fissure I did see was the edge of some ring shake. This is the only piece that I had this problem with. I think it was one of the edges of the original blank from which it was cut. The wood in the by-the-pound bin is there for a reason - it has checking, fissures, or even missing chunks that make it otherwise not suitable for sale. I usually do a good job of passing over the pieces that are too bad to be safe, this time I missed one.
Not just for the new turners, older turners can benefit from the reminder: ALWAYS stay out of the line of fire when starting your lathe and bringing it up to speed. Ideally, turn the speed all the way down before turning on the lathe, then raise to the speed you need. My lathe does not let me do that - but it does have a soft start, so it ramps up to the full speed instead of going from 0 to whatever in an instant. The other thing is to properly wear your PPE. Especially face shields and other protective wear. Spontaneous kinetic disassembly can happen at any time - even a seemingly good piece with no visible problems can suddenly come apart at speed. I had that happen with a piece of red oak I was roughing. Got it just about round and to the point I was going to shape it when it split end to end. Half hit me in the face(shield), the other half hit me in the chest. I am almost positive both ricocheted off of something else first. The blank showed no signs of checking or damage prior to me putting it on the lathe. Safety gear exists for a reason. Does not matter your experience - the wood does not discriminate.
My guess is that the fissure I did see was the edge of some ring shake. This is the only piece that I had this problem with. I think it was one of the edges of the original blank from which it was cut. The wood in the by-the-pound bin is there for a reason - it has checking, fissures, or even missing chunks that make it otherwise not suitable for sale. I usually do a good job of passing over the pieces that are too bad to be safe, this time I missed one.
Not just for the new turners, older turners can benefit from the reminder: ALWAYS stay out of the line of fire when starting your lathe and bringing it up to speed. Ideally, turn the speed all the way down before turning on the lathe, then raise to the speed you need. My lathe does not let me do that - but it does have a soft start, so it ramps up to the full speed instead of going from 0 to whatever in an instant. The other thing is to properly wear your PPE. Especially face shields and other protective wear. Spontaneous kinetic disassembly can happen at any time - even a seemingly good piece with no visible problems can suddenly come apart at speed. I had that happen with a piece of red oak I was roughing. Got it just about round and to the point I was going to shape it when it split end to end. Half hit me in the face(shield), the other half hit me in the chest. I am almost positive both ricocheted off of something else first. The blank showed no signs of checking or damage prior to me putting it on the lathe. Safety gear exists for a reason. Does not matter your experience - the wood does not discriminate.
