Roll Your Own

[rod]

Its not engraving, yet quite a few engravers are well equipped and have a metal lathe that can be very useful from time to time.

By dint of my main trade, I use them a lot and often do hand turning on a metal lathe. It is not a good idea if the work is held in a three jaw chuck, as the jaws stick out and can do you a serious mischief if you are not fully awake.

General rule for hand turning: Make sure that anything revolving in the lathe has no change in geometry as it revolves. I always follow this rule whenever I can. Today I got around to making a chuck guard in a novel way, and thought those lathe owners, like Ray, Barry, Brian and others, might like to see the process, or even if you just want to see how messy my shop is, take a look:

http://picasaweb.google.com/rodcameron2/

best

Rod

 

[Marrinan]

Great project-Safety first. When I turn a wood bowl on my machine lathe I use a conventional face plate with a pipe screwed in the back which I mount In the chuck. I have used a pipe with the live center in it to move farther from the chuck after hitting the jaws with a parting tool and scaring the crap out of myself. Thanks for the guard design. Fred

 

[BrianPowley]

Rod: a nice safety item to share and a great photo tour!
I personally know a gent that thought he could hold a hacksaw to spinning gun barrel in attempt to cut it off. The saw blade caught in the steel and pulled his hand right into the spinning chuck and all but removed his thumb!
This guard would have allowed his hand to bounce away, albeit bruised. I will share this with him.