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lathe safety question Options
klandin
Posted: Saturday, February 4, 2012 11:40:13 AM
Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member

Joined: 6/1/2006
Posts: 0
Location: Connecticut
Okay veterans. I'm looking for some advice. I've just purchased two new midi-lathes for my shop and I'm getting ready to fire up a brand new lathe unit. I've decided to follow bill67's excellent advice, so I plan to start my students out by having them make "woodsickles" from scrap 1 x 1 x 9 stock rescued from the cut-off pile. From there I will either have them use similarly small scraps to turn Bic pens (thanks again Bill), or I will allow them to jump directly to the 7mm slim-line pen kits. I'm not yet sure about that part. Anyway, I'm now in the process of writing up my safety regulations for the lathes so here's my question: Should I require my students to wear face shields in addition to their safety glasses, or are the safety glasses alone enough? My feeling is that for teeny projects such as these woodsickles and pens, safety glasses alone should suffice. Obviously for anything larger, or for face plate turning, a face shield would be a must. I welcome all feedback and horror stories on this subject.

Keith Landin
Woodshop instructor, Woodstock Academy
"Mens tua sit implementum acerrium in fabrica"
mikeb
Posted: Saturday, February 4, 2012 1:07:25 PM
Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member

Joined: 3/7/2008
Posts: 0
Location: North Kingstown/RI
Hi Keith,
Penn State has a clear plastic dust shield that acts as another safety guard with a dust port in the back. I have my students wear their safety glasses and place the safety guard shield down as well. If they don't want the guard down then they must wear a shield. They have double protection at all times. Glasses/guard, shield/glasses, or shield/guard.
jtdums
Posted: Sunday, February 5, 2012 5:08:33 AM
Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member

Joined: 3/21/2010
Posts: 0
Location: Davidson, NC
I agree with Mike. We always wear our shields while turning... period.
Get them accustomed to wearing the face shield right away. No question about it.

The face shield will also help to give them a dust barrier while sanding. (Although we run dust collection right at the lathe to help prevent inhalation) It won't be long until some student purchases an exotic wood kit and you can run into some real irritants.

Just the other day a student caught on the rim of a 10" bowl and dislodged a chunk that caught him right in the shield. Reduced the height of the rim and saved the bowl. I don't think the same can be said for his shorts.
RoyBoom
Posted: Monday, February 6, 2012 10:45:54 AM
Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member

Joined: 3/3/2007
Posts: 0
Location: Mechanicsburg, OH
Keith, I know that the Slimline pens are cheaper than the Comforts, but for me I found that I had more success with the Comforts. The Slimlines getso skinny on the wood at the end and it was easy to break it. Also we had more cracking problems during assembly. To me it was worth it to use the Comforts. I'd look at the FunLine Comforts if I was still teaching.
jtdums
Posted: Sunday, February 12, 2012 6:00:25 AM
Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member

Joined: 3/21/2010
Posts: 0
Location: Davidson, NC
I have not had good luck with the slimline kits from Penn State. The clip to cap castings were off just enough that putting the pens together was a nightmare.
We have bought future kits from Craft supplies without any problems and the prices are about the same.
I haven't tried the comforts with the kids, but that is mainly due to cost. Maybe in the future.
creighta
Posted: Wednesday, February 29, 2012 11:41:00 AM
Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member

Joined: 1/16/2008
Posts: 0
Location: Georgetown/OH
I used to require face shields over safety glasses. Since I moved to mini lathes I keep the face shields out and most kids use them, but I do not press the issue anymore as I have yet to see a dangerous failure yet. I had safety shields on the lathes and did not like them, one that I made myself actually works well, but that raises a whole different issue.

As far as projects go, I require tops turned to specs based on measurements. This teaches them how to handle a snap gauge. I also like to do duck calls, they are easy and very irritating. We do everything out of scrap that we glue together, it is more stable and cheaper.
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