General

[Mstrtal]

No but sapposedly on one of the days I missed one of the guys got caught on the Lathe and flung over the back. I doubt this owever asif such had happened the Instructor would of had to retest us all on Lathe safty.

ButMan thats a BIG chuckto leave in aspindal that cango upward of 3900RPMs

[TrracerAce]

Let's see, so far:

- Someone forgot to tighten down their work before grinding it in the circle grinder. WHAM!! It bent the steel guard plate and hit with enough velocity to dent through .020" of carbon hardening.
- Someone cut threads and proceded to forget to turn the feed off, only realizing too late as he helplessly watched his precision-cut taper get threaded too.
- Someone else managed to twist his block free of the vise in the drill press. It stuck, he tried to pull the drill out and the block came up with it. It then fell onto the floor, kicking up pieces of broken cement and denting corners. With the drill bit still inside.

Along with my most recent mishap that's all the really good ones so far.

[kidneythief]

Originally Posted by Phantom Power

Hehe. Has anyone left the chuck key in the lathe yet ? That's always spectacular (unless you're standing tangential to the axis of rotation).

Woo!!

The first time I ever used a lathe was in my 9th grade shop class. We were making hammers or something out of some pretty hefty SS. All the lathes were set up about 10' apart perpendicular to one another. At the start of every class I would run out to get the massive engine lathe because it could take .5" cuts with out even scoffing. It had a 16" diameter chuck with a T-handle chuck key that consisted of a 3/4" bar 12" long with giant 8" handle. The key alone weighed about 10 lbs.

I was BSing with my buddy while chucking up my peice of metal. After chucking the piece in I stood there for about another 5-10 minutes talking before my friend walked off. At this point I kick the machine on not remembering that I left the baseball bat sized chuck key in the chuck. WHAM! the key slams into my collar bone bounces off and smacks into the foot break on the machine behind me with enough force to actually shut the other kids lathe off. I not only ended up breaking my collar bone in two places but I thoroughly scared the $#@! out of the kid behind me however, the worst part was that if my buddy had still been standing there the chuck key would have smacked him directly in the face.

Ive also seen people pulled into machines, fingers cut clean off and some pretty scary end mill bit explosions. The scariest thing ive seen though happend my senior year. This kid in my welding class was drilling holes in a 12" X 12" sheet of plate steel. The drill press grabbed the sheet and ripped it out of his hands. The sheet then started to spin on the bit and the kid ran off...my teacher starts yelling "SHUT IT OFF!!! SHUT IT OFF!!!". I look up in time to see the bit snap and the next thing I know the sheet is spinning like a damn frisbee right at my head!!! I am lucky it was flying about 4-5" above my head because the thing was flying so fast that it sliced through the double sheet rock wall and ended its flight path stuck about a 1/2" into one of those particle board desk tops in the class room next door. I just about pooped my pants after that one. By the time I heard the sheet slam behind me it would have already cut my damn head off.

It is definatly a good idea to triple check everyhting you do before you do it. Those machines can eat you up very fast...so fast that you wont be able to stop any damage they can do.

-Jake

[Phantom Power]

Ouch. Those are some doozies Jake. Glad to hear you weren't more seriously hurt by the chuck key.

[Rap4paintball]

chuck keys flew around last year a couple times in the shop. One guy left the hammer wrench on the draw bar onto of his mill, then turned it on at close to 1000 rpm (variable speed pullies so the machine has to be on to change speeds) flew over and missed his head and hit the surface grinder.

The main thing is to pay attention. For those who have not already, when surface grinding, Always be super careful when magging down the parts and making cuts. As most of the time in surface grinding you mag the parts down instead of clamping them in a vise or chuck. They are super tight tolence machines, and if you take a couple thousands too much a cut on a set-up that cannot support it, wham. you could ruin out the machine, but most importantly get hurt or end up killed. Just be careful no matter what machine you are running.

[wespe]

You metal workers are dangerous!

I work in a lumber mill, and some of the things that happen make you stop and think every once an a while.

We have had ripsaws throw boards that stopped by embedding themselves in 3/4 inch plywood, 3/4 inch cove accelerated by 7 milling heads fly out of planers and bounce around, table legs launched back at operators, glue presses explode, planer heads slide off of spindles, and the dust collector has now caught on fire twice and actually explode once.

The sad part is that most of these things are avoidable by thinking and double checking. My Industrial Engineering prof has a saying. He holds up his hands and says "These are the two most expensive fixtures you will ever see in manufaturing. Remember that before anything else."

[HTRN]

You name it, I've done. I've shattered $100 carbide endmills, run into the vice jaw, jammed the tool carosel, etc, etc, etc..

The most notable doozy was missing the fact that a .062 endmill had snapped off.. I ran for 6 hours, ruining 8 radar housings, at a 100 bucks each.

Originally Posted by d4rksabre

I guess I should ask you guys the questions i asked in the other thread I made. I've tossed the idea around of leaving college to pursue being a machinist and I kinda wanted to know what kinda figures you all tend to pull in.

I hope you like ramen, because you'll be eating alot of it. In the Northeast, Machinist's don't make much, I started at $8/hr ten years ago. I've been looking for a better job, but nobody is willing to pay me what I want.

Like auto shops, you don't make money fixing cars, you make money owning the shop.

My advice? Look into Manufacturing engineering. There's good money to be made, and I considered going back for my BS.. I gave up when I realized I'm sick of school. If you do decide to become "one of us", I'll tell you this, go take certificate programs in stuff like MasterCAM, SurfCAM, Autocad, etc. Employers prefer people they don't have to train. Also, get welding certified if possible - a pressure vessel certified TIG welder can make $25/hr easy, and you might find you like welding more than machining.

Machining as carreer vs. in school - two very, VERY different worlds - there is no time for mistakes, no time for anything, the push is ALWAYS ON. It's stressful, dirty work. Before dropping out, I suggest you try working in one, just don't get a WORK/STUDY deal, you won't get a clear picture of what it's really like.


HTRN

[Christian Nelson]

Like auto shops, you don't make money fixing cars, you make money owning the shop.

That's for sure..

People never believe me when I tell them I never made much more than $9 per hour as a mechanic. Plus I had to supply my own tools (about $10K worth) people just assume that how much they pay for labor is actually payed to the person doing the labor.

[TrracerAce]

Part Two: I left the chuck in the lathe and it flew out when turning it on. It hit me square in the junk. That'll teach me if anything will, I guess!

I was lucky, no actual damage aside from the obvious pain of a bar being hurled at your privates. Although I will never, EVER live it down.