pillar drill 1 fingers bruised

[tanner0441]

Hi

Some people should not be allowed near machinery. A neighbow asked me to look at his mower, the vibration had caused a crack in the deck about 3 ins long. I cleand it up explaned what i was going to do, drill a hole either end of the crack to stop it spreading and so I put minimal heat into the metal I would TIG braze it and plate under the engine mounting.

While I was doing that was he OK  drilling the plate I cut to go underneath. I marked it centre punched where to drill and left him to it. he assured me he had a pillar drill and knew how to use it. The five 1/8 pilot hole went without incident, then we came on to the 9/32 clearance hole for the engine mounting bolt. I heard a shout and a loud clank and turned round to see my drill vice bouncing across the workshop floor.

What are you doing? it pulled out of my hand, the drill was still spinning at 1800RPM. Why are you trying to drill a 9/32 hole at 1800RPM? I thought it would be quicker, why didn't you bolt the vice down? I can hold it on my drill, that drill over one HP your not going to hold it. I dropped the speed  right down showed him how to use T nuts and went to finish brazing the deck. he appeared a short while later with metal plate and drill in hand.

I finished the welding, bolted the plate on and started the engine. I looked at the drill and sticking out nof the sided of the chuck was the chuck key. I said you can paint it and if you have any more problems drop them off and call back for them.

Brian

[Mary B]

I have watched work pieces go flying... friend has one embedded in his shop wall. He left it there as a warning to his grandson who refused to clamp the piece he was drilling. When it grabbed it flung it 20 feet... he got lucky and only had a shallow cut on his hand... it could have removed fingers!

[tanner0441]

Hi

Yes I gave a small pillar drill away I bought it when I needed to drill a lot of small holes fairly accurately, it only had a 200W motor on it which was a shame really because the rest of the machine was quite well made very little slop on the quill but the chuck was not on a morse taper so the acuracy though very good had limitations as the chuck wore.

I did 12 months as an aprentice before I decided I did not want to be a tool maker and we were shown safety films showing the injuries from missusing machinery chuck keys catching in clothing was memorable especially on lathes, thin metal on a magnettic bed with too much cut on a surface grinder or virtical miller were another couple.

As i've got older I've stretted ther point a few times but the scars and bruises are an evective cure for lazy.

Brian

[Bruce S]

Can't say I've ever left the chuck still in the drill  .
BUT there's been a time or two I had to do some "not-so-safe" stunts just to get back to civilization, all the while praying it didn't come back at me.

I gotta admit while reading the first post on this thread I couldn't help but remember some shady moves and laugh :-).

Bruce S
 

[tanner0441]

Hi

Dirt in the little holes in a drill chuck will hold on to the chuck key long enough for the drill to attain a good speed then centrifugal force and no doubt a bit of vibration excedes the friction and the key will leave the chuck, as most pillar drills are mounted on the bench the chck is not far off ear height.

When I left school in 1958 some of ther old factories in Birmingham (UK not Alabama) still had line shafts running through the workshop so a chuck key left in a lathe chuck that slams aginst the bed and stalls the lathe could slow down every other machine running from that shaft. The inteligence and lineage of the offending person was left in no doubt with language not allowed on this site.

All before the days of dynamic risc assesment or health and safety...

Brian

[joestue]

prior owner brazed the mower deck of my mower. i thought i could just weld over the top of it. i built up 3/8" of metal, making gussets to hold various brackets that hold the belt pully and idlers square to the deck.

not so.. while i did sucessfully weld over the top of a braze, and then build up a lot of metal.. the copper and zinc diffused through the weld such that when i went to weld on the bottom of the mower deck, to strengthen the inside, the weld cracked!

i can understand why the prior owner tried to braze the thin rusted sheet metal back together.. but it really needed thick gussets added, and then it doesn't matter when the sheet metal rusts away.

[JW]

On the leaving the chuck key in and spinning up in the lathe machinery. I nerver did that. we evoled our system to a old pneumatic chuck to activate the multy step pie jaw. It was TrueTrace dual axis tracer lathe. We spun twenty two inches@ 700rpm

This guy put up a poster up on the wall so you saw a picture of an ingery. I told the guy get that off the wall with your line of sight. Just get rid of it.

JW

[tanner0441]

Hi

I only brazed this one because apart from the crack the metal hadn't coroded, and I plated it underneath as well.

Some accidents are funny. A guy setting up a four jaw chuck was inching it in revers and reached to move the swarf hook at the same time, the chuck key hooked in his overals picked him up took him over the lathe and dumped him into the suds tank that all the machines pulled from, when he stood up someone shouted over shouldn't it be asses milk for your complexion.  After that the level guage was repaired and the the top was fitted.

I have on various occasions set items of clothing on fire or burned holes is them with angle grinders when I'm too lazy to put a leather apron on.

Brian.

[Bruce S]

Ahh yes, the burn holes in long sleeves !
AND those little cinder burns on the arms. Had more than my fair share.

Bruce S