George wrote:
Pretty rare, injuries at a lathe. As far as life-threatening injuries, it's
safer than walking across the street, certainly. Potential is there for
the careless to ding themselves, but it's fairly easy to move the ON/OFF
switch to where you don't have to lean into the disintegration zone to
activate, reasonable to cut standing outside the zone if you push the tool
handle. Makes you an unlikely impact point.


I don't live in fear of being killed using a lathe. OTOH, I've lived through
two plane crashes and have a full understanding of the concept of lightning not
always striking the other guy. That being said, there's no point in being
stupid. You do what you can do but there is a point of diminishing return. I
look for the most bang for the buck in concepts of safety. If I don't consider
the return high enough, I'm not likely to bother.


Cutting doesn't make dust, though sanding certainly does, so makes sense not
to overload the body's natural defenses and wear something to cut down on
access. Makes better sense to collect close to the point of generation.
When that's done well, it's tough to work up a booger even if you don't wear
a mask.


I have a 1 micron dust collector piped into my big tools and also have an air
cleaner mounted on the ceiling of my garage, uh, I mean workshop. On occasion I
end up out in the driveway with something that produces clouds of dust or chips.
If I do, I wear a respirator. I never need to wear one when I'm cutting boards
at the jointer, band or table saw. The dust collector handles them well enough
to suit me.

Irregardless of what I'm doing, if a cloud of dust exists, I wear the
respirator. But that's the only time I wear it.


--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com