Sitting Down At The Lathe

Ih8beingold:

I am old too. I sit at all of my machines. When my back was injured by a 250 pound angle plate that I caught as it was falling to the ground when the cart it was on gave way, I was put into a wheel chair for more than a year. I was not going to be down for the count. I built a series of low benches that allowed me to run my 9X20 lathe and X2 mill from a wheelchair. Now that my machines are larger, and I have regained my ability to stand, I still sit regularly at the lathe and mill and surface grinder. I feel that my dogged determination to run machinery and refusal to give up was a determining factor in my recovery. I can stand now for about two hours straight. About your name, being old means you won, you survived, and it beats hell out of the alternative. Sure, you can't water ski or climb mountains any more, but neither can all the guys who did not get to be old like we are. Move on and do what you can do.

Barry
 
I'm 64 have been disabled with a left arm/shoulder injury since 1978 and got a second dose of disability due to spinal injuries in several places in my spine . I'm also about to have a replacement left knee joint . ( All I need now is a brain & heart transplant & I'll be good for another 64 yrs ) .

Till recently I was very limited in the way I could do anything in the man cupboard on the lathe , drill press or band saw or at the 42 " high work bench plus I'm limited in strength , upper body & limb movement as as I had two stenosis growths in L2& L3 pressing in on my spinal cord most of the time. It meant my legs wouldn't allow me to stand still for much more than 1 minute at a time. I ended up doing a bit of sitting and also raising the lathe on a hard nylon wheeled lockable castored 2" x 1/4" thick welded angle iron steel frame , so that my feet can allow me to stand with my ankles against the frame ..feet part under it . I canalso easily support myself by leaning on the table at this new height or use a hand on the table to support myself most of the time (with crutches in permanent easy reach. The top of the tool post of the lathe is now at the easy height of being the same level as me standing supported I'm now able to stand by the lathe , when it's stopped I can comfortably put my right elbow on the top of the tool holder with with my spine and legs in the most comfortable weight bearing position.
( It's the same height as the top of an engineers vice jaws should be when the vice is fitted to a heavy work bench if you do a lot of filing/bench fitting ).

I found that to sit down and see what was happening at the tool post ,tool & chuck was not the best position for me due to also having thoracic spinal problems as well . Reaching forward across the lathe carriage in the sitting down position with a bust spine and dodgy arms to change chucks , put new work in the chuck or set tool heights is not a sensible option for me .

Even cleaning the lathe whilst sitting and making oiling and gib adjustments etc. was /is very difficult . To attempt to use the pulley engagement lever whilst to operate /disengage it sitting or by using a jury rig was far too dangerous . I have an old Atlas type lathe with back gears)
Unless I design a sound strong cable operated system a bit like an old lawn mower throttle cable and change lever I'll still have to reach over a moving chuck .....so that operation has to be as safe as possible.
I've also put in a stop , start & combined kill switch to the right of the chuck at the tailstock end because I tend to stand to the right of the carriage hand wheel & operate it with my damaged left arm .


Getting spat at with hot chippings was annoying me , for most of the time I've been working with bare arms because of safety concerns , I solved that by making a clear shield out of high grade poly carbonate . Screwed it to a slug of plastic scrap 3/4 tall by 1/2" thick by 4 inches long inside the plastic I've super glued 12 neodymium magnets in groups of four all with h e same polarity at the side where it sticks to the lathe apron to the left of the cross slide just above the hand wheel . The poly carb is four inches wide by five tall ....just enough to get those annoying hot chips almost every time they fly . To clear the screen I pull the guard off the apron and use a soft nylon hand sweeping brush to flick them off the magnets into the trash bin.

I have an armless leather round ( BUTTON ?) seat office chair with hard rubber wheels . I can set the height of the seat so that my feet rest on the angle iron frame edge or upon the wooden floor I infilled the frame with . On the days when I need to sit at the lathe I adjust the height & use the button seat as a perching stool with the edge of the seat just under my butt cheeks , a bit like riding an old fashioned wide seated cycle.
I'm fortunate for when I sit on the button stool it 's hard rubber wheels are braked by my own weight on the seat.
As soon as I grasp the lathe table top and take my weight off the seat pad I can easily push the seat away with my backside so there is no problem of a seat being there to trip me over or cause me to make difficult movements .

I've had the stenosis in the spine removed about 10 weeks ago and am now having weekly physiotherapy .. it's still vary painful & difficult to play on the lathe but is is dooable with care & lots of thought .
When it gets to the stage of having to get some one to fit grab handles to the lathe table , I may have to consider getting an electric hoist on over head rails to get me about and to the lathe.

This is what my chair with the " Button" seat looks like but it does not have the foot rest ring on it .
Dentist's often use these chairs when sitting at the side of an open mouthed victim.
Absoe table & chairs
YS119D - Gas Lift Stool - Drafting Chair
 
Last edited:
I too am old and enjoy being able to sit down when possible. I was given a wooden stool by a friend and gunsmith when he decided to relocate. Working at my lathes and mill from a stool is somewhat awkward but I get it done. More importantly the use of the stool brings back fond memories of a good friend.
Have a good day
Ray
 
Our old kitchen bar stools are in my shop, one at each lathe and one at the mill. I generally stand but take the opportunity to take a load off when I'm making a power feed cut.
 
I hope this is the right section to post this. I'm going to need to sit down at the lathe sometimes. I will need to sit down more as time goes on. I really don't want to wait until I need help and I'd like to get ready for the future now while I'm able. Does anyone else here sit down while running the lathe? Is it more dangerous? Any hints or ideas that will make things safer and easier? My son will use the lathe also so I'd rather me be uncomfortable rather than him, so I can't really modify it too much. It will be his one day. He is the main reason I got a lathe and mill. So we can be together as much as possible with a common interest :grin:. Thanks

No problem using a chair or a stool. I generally stand at the lathe but I have a stool close by.I sit at the mill and at a work bench.
mike
 
If successful, attached will be a PDF of a 1939 Monarch 10EE brochure that talks about and shows how it can be run while sitting down. I have not tried this at home:)
David
 

Attachments

  • 10ee_1939_brochure.pdf
    3.2 MB · Views: 29
Well that seems to have worked. First mention of sitting down is on page 9 of the PDF, first picture is page 21. These page numbers differ from the numbers shown on the catalogue pages.
David
 
I would like to thank everyone that took time to post a reply. Your comments are all very helpful, and I will explore them all. A lot of good ideas that I would have probably never thought of! Thank you.
 
I use a small tabletop lathe (3 inch swing over), so it was designed for siting. I learned to use a small lathe in watchmaking school. Here's what I was told:

The stool MUST NOT HAVE WHEELS. Being able to apply a little bit of force without suddenly losing balance is important--the chair must not move out from under you suddenly. Grabbing for a handhold when a running machine is directly in front of you is bad business.

The stool MUST NOT SWIVEL. Same deal as above.

I use a 24" "kitchen" stool which has 4 solid legs to the ground, a nice comfortable back, cannot swivel or roll. You can see it here:
fin3.jpg
 
I use bar stools in my shop when I get tired. Prefer to stand most of the time, but age is working against me it seems. Here are a few pics of what I use.

DSC00757.JPG DSC00758.JPG DSC00759.JPG
 
Back
Top