Old Habit = Cut Finger

Good thing you didn't get hurt worse!

I used pull chip away with my fingers on finishing passes. Sounds worse than it was but they were only small stringers, I never grabbed any stringers larger than that. Luckily nothing ever happened to me but I stopped doing that a while ago. I use an old pair of needle nose pliers now that have smooth jaws & bare metal handle so it can slip out of my hand easily if something were to happen.

This reminds me, I have a Noga chip hook thingy with a removable shovel attachment that I found surplus for like $5 or something like that. I've never used it cause the thing is long & won't really work for me. I don't have a deep pull out chip tray either. I wonder if I can shorten it & make use of it.
 

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I find bike spokes handy for a lot of pokking and proding requirements, small hooky bit one end and smoth (very very fine thread) the other.

Also their easy to bend if you want another shape and flexible enough that they generally wont mess anything up if they did get dragged in.

Stu
 
:grin: I just stuck a pic half way thru my finger . Nice …...Kevlar is cut resistant but not puncture proof .
 
I made the same mistake turning some stainless. Ouch! Won't do that again.
 
Made the same mistake while turning copper when I was at college, 55 years ago, still have to think hard and stop myself doing it again, still remember how it hurt, went down to the bone on three fingers suppose it was all part of the learning experience that college was for.
 
I have had a bad habit of using my hand in the shape of an OK sign to guide a long stringy aluminum chip from a light finishing cut on the lathe to the floor. I started doing this in college to prevent a birds nest and always knew it probably wasn't a good idea. But hey aluminum is a soft metal right?

Nope!

Today I was doing the same thing I always have and the chip got pinched between the tool and a shoulder on the workpiece and started to pull the chip back into the part through my hand. I am fortunate that I was quick to ESTOP the lathe AND the chip broke, but I got a very deep 3/4" long cut into my finger. Had things gone differently (thicker chip, steel, wrapped around my hand, etc.) I easily could have gotten my hand pulled into the lathe.

The lesson I learned: Just because you've never been hurt by a bad habit doesn't mean it is safe to do. I will always use a metal rod to guide chips away from me when they are not breaking in a cut.

Please be safe out there. - Mike
Harry Houdini had the same problem...
 
Its kinda like welding with shorts on, either the uv or the sparks will get you or both will make you hurt!:eek:
 
One of the worst burns I had was when I was stick welding overhead and a piece of slag fell off into my high top boot collar and burned my sock into my skin about a dime size. Never got my boot off so fast. Bad memory.
 
Hello, new member, and the first thing that caught my attention was what those little machining coil strings coming of the lathe can do.
I didnt realize I had some coiled up by my hand when the chuck caught the chip pile..
Felt a jerk, pulled my hand away and seen that 2 fingers were still moveable and 2 were kinda just hanging down...
I still do machining but really keep my eyeball on the stringys and were they are going or just pull them off with a pliers.
It sure ruined my day, but in the end, just lost some feeling in little finger and all else seems well. Could have ruined me
for the rest of my life...
So Always Be Safe... horty...

Capture.JPG
this was 22 years ago..
 
this was 22 years ago..

Aye!!!!! That doesn't look pretty at all. Glad you recovered ok, I'm learning more lessons that I planned on in the forum.
 
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