I lived

[mike95376]

I had a very scary accident on Jan 1st 2020. I hope my story may help someone some day. I was putting leveling legs on a Rutland style lathe. This lathe weighs about 1,100lbs. I was unable to use my cherry picker to lift it since I loaned it out to a person who let it rust to junk status. So I used wood blocks for safety and a small bottle jack to raise one side at a time. I had completed the job and was lowering the last side down when it tipped over on top of me. It pinned me to the floor so fast I didn't have time to swear. It was resting on my thighs half way between knee and hip. I was screaming in pain. My wife came out to see what happened. She tried to lift the tailstock end. It made a tiny difference but not enough. My step daughter called 911 and got them coming. Between screams I directed her to my heavy duty floor jack. She dragged that over to the tail stock end and jacked it up. I was finally able to get out. WHEW! And then police and fire showed up. Police heard my story and wandered off. Firemen were awesome. Took my BP which was high but OK. Even gave my step daughter a fist bump for her rescue skills. I was bruised all over the place. But nothing else. I was extremely lucky! I had moved the carriage to the tailstock end before doing any work. That saved my life. Otherwise 1,100 lbs would have driven the handles into me. Very bad. I bought a new cherry picker and some heavy duty straps for proper lifting. Cleaning up the mess I had to put some bolts into the concrete floor. One at ench end of the lathe and chain to the lathe base so it would rotate vertical when I lifted it. That worked great. The lathe is now bolted to the floor. It still works fine. I did have to slightly adjust the head to align it with the bed. But it was only out 0.003". A few bent handles but not by much. And all the gear oil leaked out. I knew the lathe would be top heavy since the base is just sheet metal. But I did not realize how extreme that condition is. A half inch asymmetrical drop caused it to flip over in the blink of an eye. You can never have too many jacks just in case. A safety observer is a excellent idea. And stay away from unstable heavy things that can squash you like a bug. Don't loan out tools. But my lathe and I are still friends.

 

[mmcmdl]

I flipped my first 17" Voest lathe the same way . My wife cracked the roller jack release , the lathe came down on the corner of the dolly and flipped face first in an instant . Still have the cracks in the basement concrete to remind me of this . Glad to hear you made it out unharmed , it could have ended up much worse .

 

[Latinrascalrg1]

Wow close call, glad to hear you walked away from it uninjured!

 

[vocatexas]

Wow, glad you're okay. That could have been a lot worse.

I was moving my big K&T mill recently when it spit a machinery skate out. The K&T weighs about 15,000 lbs. It wasn't enough drop to make it over-turn, but it made the entire shop building rattle. I was working by myself, too. Nearly made me pee my pants. LOL

 

[Aukai]

The hair just went up on the back of my neck, so many ways these things will try to grab you, it's like their waiting for the wrong move. Super glad your ok.

 

[DavidR8]

Wow, so glad you’re okay. That could have been so much worse.
A cautionary note for us all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Winegrower]

Yes, that’s a good warning, thanks. The seller of my Bridgeport clone offered to deliver for free, and brought it on a trailer to my hangar. He hung a chain hoist from an I-beam and raised the mill up and drove the trailer out. He came back, looked at the chain hoist and said, and I remember this vividly, “I think you just flip this here to let it down”, and WHAM, the mill free fell 18” onto the concrete floor. And, it stayed standing somehow. We were both stunned and it took a few minutes to recover. He offered to replace the mill, but we could not find any problem. So i’ve drop tested a 2200 pound mill. And as the, OP says, I lived.

 

[mikey]

Wow! That is one scary story, Mike! Glad you're okay and you weren't seriously injured. Thank God for your wife and daughter.

 

[mmcmdl]

I knew a guy that did something similar to this , he was fine but ended up with a blue tongue .

 

[middle.road]

Too close for comfort. Glad you made it through OK.
I'm getting cagey and paranoid after a couple of friends got seriously hurt while working on something alone.
I think we get a bit complacent and comfortable as we get older and more 'experienced' and that is when it will bite you.
I've taken to looking at things from (3)+ directions and thinking to myself - how can this go wrong?
I messed up my left foot really bad back in '15 when I went to move a 10' piece of laminate scaffolding board.
It slipped out of my grip and landed with the corner hitting behind my toes. Only had sneakers on of course.
It's still in bad shape but short of major surgery there's not much I can do for it.
The catcher was that my Stepson was here and I could have just asked him to assist.
Bones and muscles don't heal as well as they use to.