[Crw-talk] FW: Accident in shop-but I'm OK!

[Patros, Robert J]

Hi all,
I'm ok, but want to tell you about a recent accident I had in my shop. I have been turning for ten years, and have had two significant (but not life threatening) accidents in my shop. This was one of them and both could have been avoided. Jim Frank said I should share, as others may find this story helpful. 

You may have seen videos of professional bowl turners attaching their bowl blank to a screw chuck while the lathe is running. I would "never" do that, until last Friday. My friend Clyde gave me a nice stock of red elm awhile back when I visited  him at his shop.  I used my new band saw for the first time to form the blank. Following,  I was able to attach the large piece to the screw chuck while the lathe was running slowly. It went on pretty good and it saved me about a minute had I done it without the lathe running.  After completing the bottom of the bowl, I turned the piece around and successfully cored a smaller bowl. All went very well to this point. 

Now the fun begins! After getting the larger bowl ready for the denatured alcohol barrel, I went to rough turn the smaller bowl. I thought, well, it worked for the larger bowl so why not the smaller one? While attempting to hold the smaller bowl and attach it to the screw chuck with the lathe running slowly (so I could save a minute), my left hand caught a splinter on the rim. Please see attached. 

The splinter was driven through my left thumb and out my palm. Both ends were sticking out of my hand. Ouch! It went through an artery and bled a lot. My Father-in law drove me to Gundersen where I waited to be triaged with 30 other unfortunate souls before the doc saw me and skillfully extracted the splinter from my hand. I'm on the mend and can't wait to get back in the shop.  

I guess the moral to the story is be careful. Stick with the successful routines you have established. This mishap happened in less than a moment, and pretty much dampened my plans to turn a lot over the holidays. The good news is I'm ok.

As an aside, when I sent a text message to my kids I didn't say I was ok until I got to the end of my saga. My daughter requested that I start out with "I'm OK" the next time. I responded that I was sorry and hope there won't be a next time.

Be safe.

Happy New Year!

Best regards,
Bob
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