Got me thinking...

Many years ago I worked for a computer manufacturer. We made a printer (1403 for those old
enough to remember it) which, when it needed paper, would open its cover to let you know.
The engineers thought it would save time, assure that the operator noticed the need, etc.

The problem...

The top of the printer was almost exactly the right height to put your coffee cup on and was
used regularly for that purpose. So, my idea...

The coffee cup goes on the lathe. When it spills because of vibration, it shorts the contact
on a liquid sensing switch...

BTW, there was always a brown stain on the floor under every 1403 printer.

Bill

In article L3H4d.96006$MQ5.1354@attbi_s52, says...
While a VFD won't automatically prevent this from happening,
they can be programmed for a soft start.

Soft starts are great. And, your VFD probably COULD be programmed to shut
off if the load was out of balance. You could rig some sort of pendulum that
touched a microswitch when the lathe began shaking. Said microswitch could
be wired and programmed as the emergency stop.