Student killed by lathe

I was certified as a lathe operator in Russia. Over there, women lathe operators are forbidden from having long hair.

i

I expect (and hope!) her lab safety course covered hair nets. Banning long hair would be more effective.... but we are talking about grownups here.

That is tough. Wonder if cameras / guards / aids / etc were on watch or not.

Mart> Be careful!

Any shop death is a sad event. It is worse when the post-accident analysis points to something that could have been avoided, or just something as simple as entanglement.

I put some blame at least at the feet of those who set the rules on hair. Perhaps now, the rules might be changed.

Still, it's sad for a rules change to be at the cost of a life.

Steve

Heart surgery pending?

Heart Surgery Survival Guide

I ended up cutting off a very nice ponytail when I was in my early 20's, in large part because I didn't feel comfortable with it around power tools or car engines. Once it's down to the middle of your back, braided, there's not much you can do to give you 100% confidence that it won't flop down into the machinery.

Keeping my hair good and short gives me that confidence.

It will be interesting to read the coroners report on this one - the news item reported, factually, what happened, but not WHY it happened.

It is hard to imagine that anyone would be allowed to use power tools without proper training, especially in the safety aspects involved, and unsecured hair would be no 1 on the list. As are unbuttoned sleeves, eye protection, no dangly jewelery. (etc etc) Here, there is a module that must be done FIRST before your allowed anywhere near a machine, and if you front class without your safety gear, you get sent home. Possibly she forgot, and paid the price. Or was tired, didnt bother to use the personal protective gear as it was "only going to take a moment" and/or there was no supervisor to yell at her. (The machine should have been locked down and only be able to be made live by an instructor/supervisor.) Did the machine have guards with power supply interlocks around the chuck, was there a foot operated kill switch, was there a brake mechanism, (dont know the right name here - a long bar that runs the full length of the machine, you stomp on it to stop. Was she working alone - anyone of a myriad of reasons. And getting hair caught usually means you get scalped, not strangled, so something is badly amiss. ....... hopefully, someone will post some followup so we can all know.

Andrew VK3BFA.

She probably either forgot to band it and stick it under her collar, or wrongly thought "I'll show those anti-female machinists what's what." Either way, 'twas a biggie. RIP, Michele.

My hair was down to mid-bicep level when I got my first creeper. Y'know, that little low, 6-wheeled cart which takes a mechanic underneath your car to work on it? Well, once upon a time, my rubber band (holding my pony tail) came out and I started to shoot myself under the car at full speed. Just as I got to terminal velocity, my hair gracefully draped its way under one of the wheels and I came to a screeching halt, literally. DAYUM, that hurt! I got a much shorter haircut that week (letting the super-tender scalp heal a bit first) and never looked back.

To this day, I get 2 or 3 haircuts a year, whether I need 'em or not.

-- The United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world. -- Ayn Rand

They said something like neck asphyxia, what a way to go. Sad I got my hair caught up in the lead screw. Thankfully I could reach the off switch. I agree, there should be a "crash bar" across the drip pan in a school. There was a moment where I was worried I wouldn't be able to free myself.

SW

Fella in one shop I worked at would not listen to me about his long hair. Running 15 inch engine lathe polishing printer rollers. BAM! Blood and a large chunk of hair wrapped around the work piece. Almost knocked him unconscious.

Showed up the next day with a buzz cut. Told him he looked nice.

WW

I got my wake up call in work experience at NASA. Hair was well past my shoulders, and when I started there, the obviously very straight laced foreman showed me some very gory photos of scalp jobs. I assure him I'd be careful. Month or so later, I was leaning into my work on a drill press, when the chuck snatched and pulled a dozen hairs or so. Next day my hair was considerably shorter...

Boot camp buzz cut these days, which my wife loves. Do it myself, and have paid for the electric clippers several times over by now!

Jon

Looks like she had the proper training. The New York Times reported:

"The chemistry department=92s Web site says access to the machine shop is =93strictly limited=94 to those who have completed an introductory shop course. Yale lists safety precautions online for another machine shop on campus, warning students: =93If you have long hair or a long beard, tie it up =97 If your hair is caught in spinning machinery, it will be pulled out if you are lucky.=94

Ms. Dufault was taking an advanced course on machine shop protocols this semester, Mr. O=92Rourke said. And for the NASA reduced-gravity experiment, she helped write a 60-page document on safeguards.

=93She=92s always been very careful,=94 he said. =93That=92s why I was shoc= ked that this happened. I worked with her in that lab and always saw her taking the safety precautions.=94

I suspect that despite her training, she got lax and made the critical error.

Roger Shoaf

Running 15 inch engine lathe polishing printer rollers.

My shop teacher had attached a picture to the DP of a student having long hair that had used the DP in a previous year. Strangely, the student had one of those curious hair cuts with about 1/3 of his hair missing. It still works for me!

Bill

I got wrapped up in an assembly tool today. Bumped into a "press to operate" air tool where you press the socket down on the fastener and started and wound up my sleeve above the elbow. I'm damn glad that some one didn't pick something off the floor and bump their head into it. The tool is supported on an 'ergo arm' so it moves up and out of the way when not being used.

The tool stalled and when I got over the initial shock of what was happening, I reached over my shoulder and put it into reverse to let go of me. Why I didn't drop down to turn it off did not occur until later.

I wasn't using the tool, I was just standing near it chatting with one of the engineers.

Wes

Joe Pfeiffer wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@snowball.wb.pfeifferfamily.net:

I was a student at the Maine Maritime Academy as part of the MIT Ocean Engineering Summer Lab program in 1977. The Academy had a huge machine shop with a lot of heavy duty equipment for repairing ships, but it was rarely used by any women, and the male cadets all had short hair. A woman MIT student with long frizzy hair was using a massive floor standing drill press. She had her hair tied up, as was required by the safety rules. However, a wisp had escaped & got caught in the grease on the spindle. That pulled a bit more hair in, and there was a cascade effect. It proceeded to drag her head in against the spinning shaft while I launched myself across the shop to shut it down. I was proclaimed a hero for saving her, but the press was old, and poorly maintained. It was supposed to have three flat drive belts, but only had one installed, which had started slipping before I could shut it off. If that belt was tighter, or more than one was installed, I have no doubt that it would have broken her neck long before I had the time to shut it off.

Hair nets became mandatory immediately there after. Not too many people had a problem with the edict after the incident.

When I bought my lathe (an Emco Maier Super 11), I paid extra to get a fast shutdown version. It has a foot bar across the front that you can stomp on that shuts off the motor & applies a brake. They sold that version primarily to schools, but it's come in handy on at least one occasion where a plastic part flexed and slipped in the chuck. I view it primarily as a device to help save the lathe from damage, but it's nice to know it's there if I need it for whatever might go wrong.

Doug White

"Doug White"

My Turn-Pro 13x40 has this feature. My foot has learned where it is. heh heh .... My floor model drill press also has a foot operated switch and that is the handiest thing ever! Especially when running a cylinder hone it's the only way to do in my opinion. I would never run a hone on it if it weren't for that foot switch. phil k.

I will soon add this feature to my VFD on the lathe. The principal use of it would be to act as a limit stop, actuated by the cariage reaching its intended destination. It will also double as a way to stop the machine with a big red e-stop button.

I am tired of the mechanical clutch bullshit.

i

So, the idiot cheated Darwin. But tell me, if the drill was in front of him, how did he manage to entrain his "pony tail", which is usually on the back of the head, into the drill shank?

Thanks, Rich

"Phil Kangas" wrote in news:ioadqj$8p6$1@dont- email.me:

For some things, a foot pedal is really a great device. I have one for my old single speed Dremel, and it beats the pants off of the variable speed controls on the handpiece. Unfortunately, you can't use it with the newer Dremels with an integral speed control. They argue and eventually the wimpy controller in the Dremel dies.

My Dremel is over 35 years old, and it's getting tired. For decades, you couldn't get a fixed speed Dremel with ball bearings anymore, but they seem to have fixed that recently. I'll have to pick one up before they discontinue them. They've already stopped making the foot pedals, probably because too many people burned out their variable speed Dremels with them.

Doug White

Jon Anderson wrote in news:8MEpp.12848$7k6.23@en- nntp-16.dc1.easynews.com:

I gave up on long hair in the early 70's after soldering a small circuit board onto several strands. When I sat up, the board was dangling in front of my face. It never got long enough to tie back, and it also got in my eyes when I was target shooting. Just not worth the hassle, even if the ladies said it looked better longer.

Doug White