Greetings and Salutations

I doubt this will be a problem encountered by most of those who post here,
but still, a word to the wise is sufficient.

Tuesday night the 16th we had a man killed when, the machine he's been
working at for several months caught him and wrapped him round the shaft. Not
a big shaft, mind you but it is part of a big ass Cincinnati vertical boring
type machine, and it made him fit in the eight inch clearance. (This wasn't
the main table, where the workpiece was, this was off to the side. I've never
worked on one of these, so I don't know what things are called.)
originally I understood it to have been a case of slipping on an oily spot
on the floor, but apparently, what happened was he was cleaning up, and at the
base of the shaft (a bit over an inch in diameter), there's a ring, and a
locking pin which protrudes from that ring. Not much, calling it a half inch
would be over doing it, and out about a quarter inch in diameter. Been these
since Hector was a pup. But it apparently caught the rag and pulled him into
the shaft. Which wrapped him around, like I said, and generally broke parts of
him which didn't help. One of the other workers was passing by when it
happened, but by the time he could hit the emergency off and get the machine
stopped, it was all over but the screaming.

You probably have a greater risk of death or maiming on the freeway to
work, than at work, but ... you can get away with risky behaviors (on the
freeway or off) until the last time, and then is when you say "That was dumb."
Like I said - its the little things, the things you see everyday, the
things which haven't been a problem before, the things you know what you are
doing when around them, and not the great big honking dangerous parts, which
can kill you.

Clean it up, put it away, file the extra bit off the shaft retaining ring
lock pin ... do something now, don't wait till someone else is having to get
you out of the machine to "fix" the problem. It had been fifteen years since
the last fatality, but not since the last injury.

You can't be fearful, but OTOH, lets keep four fingers and a thumb.

tschus
pyotr


--
pyotr filipivich
"With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone."