Serious Bowl turning injury

[Roger Chandler]

Report from Cindy Drozda on the WoW's forum about turner who was injured at the lathe, and some of the particulars reported on facebook, posted by Grant Wilkinson....
Here is some text from WOWS. I understand that this is taken from the facebook post, so I hope it's OK to copy here.

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EDIT: Reposted text deleted. It's not OK to repost something that someone else posted, but you can link to the source material. Please treat third hand information with some skepticism before considering posting it.

Information about the injury was first posted by Chris Sholz on a Facebook woodturning group. His post on May 19 reported that his friend (no name given) who had an injury while turning was being released from the hospital that day. Here is a link to his Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/168817580116374/permalink/480649312266531/

The next day he posted that he and his wife visited his friend (presumably once he was home) and gave more details about his friend's injury:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/168817580116374/permalink/481272978870831/

I was not able to validate that the picture posted in this thread is connected to this reported injury so I decided to delete it. Chris Scholz didn't post the picture on Facebook as far as as I can determine. Since the injured person's name wasn't mentioned, one can reasonably assume that it was to respect his privacy. Posting a photo purporting to be the injured person would be ignoring that respect.
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[Barry Crowder]

Thoughts and prayers to him and his family.

Very sobering, particularly considering he was wearing a face shield. I'm revisiting the link to Lynne Yamaguchi's thoughts on the subject.
http://lynneyamaguchi.com/index.php/category/accident-recovery/

 

[Mike Johnson]

Hope he has a speedy recovery!
Large billets turning at high speeds are a potential accident waiting to happen.

 

[Odie]

He was done carving the bowl and was power sanding the outside, going at a high rate of speed.

I've never had a need to sand at a high rpm......am I understanding that right? My sanding is never done above +/- 300rpm/. I guess, under the right circumstances 300rpm could be enough to cause a major injury.

If possible, we need to take a look at the bowl that split.....so can discuss and evaluate.

Prayers sent for a speedy recovery......

-----odie-----

 

[olaf Vogel]

Ug, I can't even look at the picture. It (appropriately) scares the hell out of me and can just imaging the pain.
I really wish him a good and speedy recovery.

Over the years, ALL of the serious accidents I've heard about were triggered by the same factors:
1 - too high a speed, allowing the bowl (etc) to come loose
2 - standing in the line of fire.
3 - someone should have called it quits earlier in the day.

I try really hard to avoid these.
1 - if there's a lot to sand, I power sand. The bowl turns slowly, the disc is quicker. If anything come loose, there's very little momentum.
1a - there's no reason the tailstock can't be snugged up as a safety factor.
1b - if there's weaknesses in the bowl, there are ways to spot it. cracks, sounds etc. Back off

2 - keep your face/head out of the line of fire. Hand injuries suck, but are less dangerous

3 - note the signs when you are tired, frustrated, pushing too hard etc - and call it quits.
(very hard for me - this is 90% of my screw ups)

I love my shield. Recently I had a piece come loose and bonk me in the face (the first time in years - that something came loose). The shield saved me.
HOWEVER, I'm very cognizant that it was a small piece (for me) and I was very lucky.
Shields are great, but can only do so much.

I quit for the day and mentally beat myself up for a while for being an idiot.
(I did all three things above wrong, mostly #3)

 

[hockenbery]

We don't know what caused this accident.
Walnut is particularly prone to wind shakes. One may have gone unseen an unheard.

Walnut is also a wood that splits easily along the grain lines which makes it a poor choice for a recess mount. Pushing too hard with the sanding disc could break a recess mount in walnut.

Most of us tend to think all the danger of wood coming apart stops when the turning tools are put down. We know better but most of us still let our guard down.

As others have said
Reasonable lathe speed
Stay out of the line of fire
Be alert

 

[Mike Johnson]

Olaf's point #3 is a good one to remember, when you start having issues with the
billet, lathe, chuck, tools, mental focus and physical fitness it is usually wise to set
the tools down and take a break or work on another project so you can come back
to your lathe with a fresh outlook. Too many people try to push through a problem
and that is usually when you make mistakes. Stepping back from a problem and
giving yourself time to think about different solutions usually prevent accidents.

 

[Raul McCai]

I wonder what high speed means here. I have a slow speed rig for sanding big things that uses a de-mountable pulley I made from aluminum ( could have been made o' wood) that attaches to my handwheel and is driven by an older Dayton gearmotor.

 

[Tom Albrecht]

Uvex? That's disappointing, though not nearly as much as for that victim.
So many folks use the Uvex including the pros, and me sometimes.

Either that piece was going way too fast, or we shouldn't put that much faith in the Uvex.

I may have mentioned this on here before, but I did a stupid thing with speed once while getting bored with sanding the last of four 12" diameter staved and glued columns. The piece suddenly exploded, shattered lights, and drove pieces of oak into the shop walls. I was wearing an Airstream helmet/shield and was fine after I got up from the floor.

 

[robo hippy]

It would be nice to examine the piece of wood to see why it shattered. Also, Olaf's #2 comment about standing out of the line of fire... That is some thing that needs to be part of every instruction and demonstration. On long spindles, not always possible, but on bowls it is easy. Was the turner standing in the line of fire? Almost all face masks are designed to deflect shavings and have little impact protection....

robo hippy

 

[hockenbery]

Lynne Yamaguchi had a serious accident and followed up with an article in AAW journal.
She did work to quantify the forces of various size turnings and compare them to the rated safety protection provided by various face shield standards.

The Uvex shield I wear much of the time will protect me if I get a direct hit with a bowl fragment from a 7” bowl at 1200 rpm. It will not protect me from a direct hit with the same bowl at 2200 rpm.

Lynne's journal article: http://lynneyamaguchi.com/Yamaguchi_SafetyMatters.pdf

Lynne's quick reference to compare the impacts of sample turnings and impacts face shield must withstand to pass various ratings.
https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/aaw.site-ym.com/resource/resmgr/aw/AssessYourRiskLynneYamaguchi.pdf

Below is a fairly comprehensive look at lathe safety
Slide 33 says don’t work if you are tired
Slide 34 begins the face shield
https://tewsf.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/woodturning-safety.pdf

 

[Raul McCai]

I don't think Ms Yamaguchi ever fully recovered her eyesight.
I have become a big fan of the advice Mister Miaga gave to the kid "Don't be there when blow lands." I prefer not to be in the flight path. Only had one blow up but it was sufficient for a life time.

 

[RichColvin]

I wear a Trend Air Pro helmet. I recently had a piece of walnut break off and hit the helmet. Glad I wear it!

Rich