Sweet but enough off topic for now 



off topic: Thanks for the tip dude

Hmmmm.....It might be hard to get people to own up to mistakes. We've all 'been there', but not many are going to say 'done that'. Especially stupid rookie ones. I have pulled chucks of the taper before using them to mill with. "Been there, done that." I knew better but I did it anyhow. I think that makes it an even worse mistake. I have also milled with them to get the chuck off on purpose, for replacement. I've killed a couple edge finders, and sent to many endmills, drill bits, and inserts, to their grave to remember over the years. I have tried to throw a 6" diameter, 4" long aluminum rod through a lathe window. I refuse to take full responsibility on that one, because I was just following orders. I'm just glad I had the door shut. What else......Seems like there was a rapid movement through a Kurt vise a few years back. That put a nice gouge in it, but didn't do any real damage. At most a broken endmill, indicate the head back in, and an ugly spot on the vice to look at. Another vice incident caused by a faulty encoder. That was interesting, but not human error. Here's a good one.....a welder left for lunch break, set his gun down on the lathe, (lathes are used to weld hydraulic cylinders together) and unknowingly set it down depressing the trigger. We get back from lunch, and there is a nice, large spool of red hot wire on the floor. About 30 minutes worth. No damage done, except to his ego. He definitely paid for that one with constant ribbing from all of us. That's all I can remember at the moment. I could go into telling about putting minnows from the nearby creek into peoples mellow yellow cans, or snakes under there welding helmets when they take them off and set them down, but that's another topic for another day I suppose.    Good times!!!

This happened about 20 years back and is still my claim to fame.

Smashing a brand new SMP floating holder and a 5/8" Dihart reamer into a hundred parts first time out, I don't know why but I never set the length offset, 25 metres a min into the top of the job, in that split second 800 quid flashed across my mind in a ball of fire.  That was an expensive morning, amazing how things like that focus the brain, not missed an offset since, and long may it continue.

Every time I have a go at one of the lads about smashing something they go to there tool box and bring out a fragment and hold it up.   

Graham

ok, OK. As long as it doesn't have to be related to NC machines.
1981, I was running a large planer, best I can remember it would stroke about 14', about 8' wide and about 6' under the bridge.
We typically used short pieces of 1-1/4" schedule 40 pipe poked into the table holes to counter the cutting forces and keep the job on the table.
This would also somewhat protect the machine as they would shear off in the event of a severe collision.
There were 4 such pipes in along with the necessary hold downs.
The part was a large weldment that weighed about 10 tons with several surfaces of varying Z's to be planed.
Well, I was privileged to actually see one of these collisions when the trigger for the reversing switch failed and the entire part was scooted right off the end of the machine onto the floor.
Folks in the neighboring buildings heard it and felt the ground shake.
Luckily, it didn't hurt the machine...or the part. The pipes did their job well.
They had to patch the concrete floor though.
 

sweet! you probably win first place in the weight category 

Well parts may fly, tools may be broken, but i got hurt once and have never fogotten it.
I was using a simple drill press, 1/2hp motor on it, 1/4" drill at say 40 rpm to drill though some wear material.
To clear the chips i was using a wooden stick, but for whatever reason i started using the kevlar gloves to move the
chips aside. The drill caught the tip of the glove on my left hand, it just started pulling and wrapping the glove around my hand.
I was lifted off my feet and thrown against the drill press. I screamed as i watched the drill now start cutting the glove and
could feel my thumb being pulled on and wrapped around and over the adjoining finger. I could now feel the drill cutting my
ger. The thumb and finger were just wrapped around the drill and was watching it twist the glove and start cutting it.
As the buzzing in my head started and i knew i was going to faint, i kicked the wall and hit the cord knocking it out of the wall.
I fainted for about a minute and then came through.  F.....did it ever hurt!  I slid the hand down the drill and told the wife
that to i cut my finger off. I now felt no pain so i removed the glove. The drill cut through the skin to the bone.
My thumb was pulled  out of it's socket and rotated about 90 degrees or so. Because the thumb was over top of the
finger it pushed the nail through the skin. It hurt just as much when the doctor pulled the thumb to reset it back into the socket.
I took about 6 months for all to heal. I would say that the finger felt like someone hit the nail  full force with a 10 # sludge hammer.
SO don't thing for a moment that a small machine can't do harm or underestimate the power of a motor.

RICH

NEVER ever use gloves when operating rotating machinery!

lesson well learned i presume?

hope you can still use your hand like its supposed to?

Yep, all is well. Happened a long time ago.  The glove  was nailed to the shop wall as a reminder for years.
At least the boss, my wife, didn't fire me..........
RICH

OUCH! That sounds like a bad day, Rich. My wife was operating a drill press, drilling holes for the ports on hydraulic cylinders. The drill bits also make a large flat spot on the tubes so the connection port will sit flat while welding. The bits kind of resemble a paddle bit for wood (spade bit, boring bit, etc...) and so they turn relatively slow. I'm sure the motor was at least 2HP, and in low gear, there's no stopping it. Anyhow she stated she was cold, and the boss told here to put on some greens (loose fitting welding jacket). They probably looked like a trench coat with her small frame in them. Needless to say, they got pulled into the drill, and wrapped her arm around the drill. The bad part was that it grabbed at the top of the right forearm, behind the wrist, so it was pulling her arm backwards from the way arms are supposed to bend. Luckily, she was able to grab the power lever with the other hand before it broke her arm. I don't know how she managed that. My only guess is that the very loose sleeves allowed for a couple more revolutions before tightening up completely. That machine would not have stopped with just a broken arm, though, so she is very fortunate indeed. There were no E-stops or any other way to stop it, only that one 'start-stop' lever. They fired her (AMAZING!), she sued (duh), it was a long drawn out process. In the end, she got a very small monetary payment, and an arm that feels like a washboard from the muscle damage, and of course, pain from time to time. I'm not trying to disrespect any woman in any way....but most women do not have the same mindset with industrial equipment, as men that work with them every day do, and therefore do not see some of the dangers. What really makes me angry about the whole deal, is that they gave her a jacket to put on, and they very well knew it was a big no-no. Hell, other people in the shop should have at least stated to her the dangers. She's fortunate to not have ended up like Rich!!(or worse) Do you have much feeling in your thumb now?

Sam,
The thumb and finger are just fine and no problems at all. It did take a long time to regain full thumb movement, say a year. Nothing was broke , it was just just pulled out of the joint, twisted and kind of flattened out from the glove squezzeing it. The finger nail just fell off. The finger nails came back but i remember always measuring it as it grew about 1/16" / month....so it took about 6 to 8 months to come back and even then another 6 months to look like a real one.
At that time i had to then fill out in triplicate and explain all to the company about my off the job injury, no lost time though,had to  become a safety rep,then serve on the safety committee, give safety presenatations,  and a whole bunch of other *********. Thank goodness it wasn't lost time as all the folks would not have recieved their 50 cent safety prize and I would have really been in the dumper. Now days they just replace ya with a new human model of current vintage...... 
RICH