Fibonacci
Member
I evidently have at least one good habit when it comes to turning.
I was working on a pen while my son (almost 2) played with his tools in the shop over the weekend. I needed some sandpaper from another table, so I turned off the lathe, set down my chisel, and took off my face shield to get a break (it was over 100 in the shop). I got about 7 steps, then I heard the lathe turn back on. I spin around to seen my son, wearing my face shield, trying to skew the pen on the lathe.
After racing back to turn the lathe off and taking the key, I realized that he actually had decent form. One hand was on the handle, one on the bar, and he had the tool hard against the rest. The fact that the bottom of the lathe was a couple inches above his head seemed to be an issue, but he will grow into that.
Later I gave him a blunted HF skew to fiddle with and took a couple pictures, but he was more interested in posing for the camera than working then. I will try to remember to post pictures later tonight.
I might need to make him a small lathe to work on. Maybe use a covered belt drive that is fairly loose and put styrofoam or something soft like that on it. Make the belt loose enough that the workpiece will stop if anything gets caught and a material soft enough that he can use dulled tools and still do something with it.
Lessons Learned
1. Always wear your protective equipment. Kids are watching and will do as you do.
2. Always take the safety key out, even if you are only walking away for a few seconds.
In this case, it was funny. This could have been disastrous. I make a point of keeping my tools out of reach when I am not working and him safely away when the lathe is one, but it didn't occur to me that he would race over as soon as I stepped away to try it for himself.
I was working on a pen while my son (almost 2) played with his tools in the shop over the weekend. I needed some sandpaper from another table, so I turned off the lathe, set down my chisel, and took off my face shield to get a break (it was over 100 in the shop). I got about 7 steps, then I heard the lathe turn back on. I spin around to seen my son, wearing my face shield, trying to skew the pen on the lathe.
After racing back to turn the lathe off and taking the key, I realized that he actually had decent form. One hand was on the handle, one on the bar, and he had the tool hard against the rest. The fact that the bottom of the lathe was a couple inches above his head seemed to be an issue, but he will grow into that.
Later I gave him a blunted HF skew to fiddle with and took a couple pictures, but he was more interested in posing for the camera than working then. I will try to remember to post pictures later tonight.
I might need to make him a small lathe to work on. Maybe use a covered belt drive that is fairly loose and put styrofoam or something soft like that on it. Make the belt loose enough that the workpiece will stop if anything gets caught and a material soft enough that he can use dulled tools and still do something with it.
Lessons Learned
1. Always wear your protective equipment. Kids are watching and will do as you do.
2. Always take the safety key out, even if you are only walking away for a few seconds.
In this case, it was funny. This could have been disastrous. I make a point of keeping my tools out of reach when I am not working and him safely away when the lathe is one, but it didn't occur to me that he would race over as soon as I stepped away to try it for himself.
