Musing about being nickel and dimed to frustration or worse.

SNIP

I don't think I would worry about the metal, Arch. When I am at the lathe and need a touch up on a tool, I always have on my face shield (hit in the forehead by a Christmas ornament leaping to freedom off the lathe made me abandon goggles) and my mask. The mask is N95 compliant, so no metal dust particulates can go through it.

With the face shield (eyes and surrounding areas) and the dust mask (resipiratory tract) I feel pretty safe while sharpening.

Robert

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote: :>

: I don't think I would worry about the metal, Arch. When I am at the : lathe and need a touch up on a tool, I always have on my face shield : (hit in the forehead by a Christmas ornament leaping to freedom off the : lathe made me abandon goggles) and my mask. The mask is N95 compliant, : so no metal dust particulates can go through it.

But your grinder is in your shop, and unless you wear the mask all the time inside the shop, and after leaving it wearing the same clothes, aren't you going to be exposed to this stuff?

-- Andy Barss

You know there's no way to live forever, right?

Keep up this line of speculation, and eventually everyone will be walking around in full Hazmat suits at all times. :)

On a related safety note, however-

I discovered how a blank *can* crack a guy in the head first-hand this evening. Turns out, a hunk of willow spinning at about 1200 rpms can roll along a tool, up your arm, pop up when you pull away and give you a whack on the noggin. So much for my theory that gravity pulls it down, and your head is more or less safe from big hunks of wood! And no- I was not wearing my face shield, though I imagine I will be next time. The rotten part is, I doubt it would have helped anyway- it came from below, not head-on.

It'll be fun explaining the big bruise on my forehead at work- especially when I just sold one of the guys I work with my midi lathe... I guess it'll be a good example of what *not* to do!

It only goes up if you hook it below. The safer way is to cut convex shapes from above centerline, where a carelessly lowered handle grabs air, and attempts at too big a bite press the bevel against the work, which pushes it out away. Entry cuts start high and cut down and in to make things even safer, transitioning to lower handle passes.

It may not be automatic yet, but if you make it an item of interest for a bit, you'll adjust your grinds or gouge choices as required to make it so. Lots safer.

I favor below centerline inside for the same reasons.

Sorry about your accidental injury, Jesse.

You, Robert and Andy raise a knotty question re the limits of paying attention to the risks of injury in a woodturning shop. I may raise that issue in a separate thread, but in this thread I hoped someone would address the special problem if it exists at all, re inhaling the dust of a dense inert metal alloy (dima). Dime Bombs in the Middle East will almost certainly be news in the days to come.

As a woodturner I ask: what dima are in powdered metal turning tools? Do they pose any special significant risks? If so are special protective precautions necessary, feasible or worth the trouble and expense? I think we have the experts to lay these questions to rest for us here & now. If not, someone will know how to look the info up (or down 'G') for all of us to share, since "The half of knowledge is to know where to find knowledge". ;)

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

I'll revisit that- I've been turning for a couple of years, but I found that *for me,* cutting at or near the centerline was giving the best results. Haven't tried cutting high in a while, except for when using the skew.

Well, I am absolutely not an expert on the subject, but I have spent a lot of time grinding metal in a professional capacity. It could be dependant on your personal body chemistry, but the only metal dust that ever made me so much as cough was when using a diamond wheel to sharpen carbide. At a glance, that would be a mixture of diamond dust, binder, carbide, cobalt, and/or tungsten. That was extremely fine dust, and at least one of those did seem to build up in the body- my guess is the cobalt, but all of it was pretty subjective based on how I was feeling. That could have been affected by any number of things.

If it is a concern, you might want to consider getting a grinder with a coolant pump and drip tray- not only will it keep the dust down, but it might make for a better sharpening experience as well.