Toller wrote:

I have just finished a bowl turning course; my first lathe work.

Generally that's a good idea -

The
instructor is very casual about safety; he says that is reasonable, since no
one ever get hurt on a lathe.

- unless the instructor is dangerous. Sounds like yours was.

I wonder how true that is.

You're holding a sharp tool, applying it to a spinning piece of
wood of uncertain soundness, turned by a quarter horse to
a horse and a half and you've probably got chips of wood
or ribbons of wood flying around. That's if the piece of wood
starts out balanced and you've got the rpms below where things
start to vibrate or rock around. Does this sound like a place
to be careless and assume you're completely safe, no matter
what you do?

I read through the website on woodworking injuries, and there aren't many
lathe injuries reported.

Check to obituaries. Look for man killed from blunt trauma - may
include unexplained discovery of large chunk of wood on the dented
hood of the car in the driveway and the mysterious hole in the garage
roof.

The main problem seems to be the work breaking
apart at high speeds.

Haven't turned above 1200 rpms so I have no personal experience

Does that happen much?

A number of people recommended full face shields. I have one, but it is
pretty thin flexible plastic; I don't expect it would help much against a
high speed chunk of wood. I looked up a few websites (amazon, hartsville,
woodcraft) and they just sell ones like mine, except mine has a metal frame.
Is there something better, or is it strong enough?

Probably lexan or other polycarbonate - pretty unbreakable unlike
regular plastic. Protects your eyes from flying wood chips and
could distribute the force or a larger flying piece of wood.

I don't use a face shield often but that's because I've got a mini/
midi lathe (JET) and my glasses are polycarb. A face shield if
you don't want to wear safety glasses would be a good idea.
Getting a chip out of your eye ain't always easy.

I am the only person wearing a dust mask, and it gets pretty dirty after a
few hours.

Maybe, but the smart one, unlike myself.

charlie b