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First lathe crash

kevin.decelles

kevin.decelles

Jack of all trades -- Master of none
Premium Member
I wish it was under power, but alas no

I was continuing to unpack / organize from my move to Saskatchewan this summer . All the equipment was placed on pallets , event the lathes (each end on a pallet)

I was removing the pallets today, and was taking them out from underneath my 1903 Van Wyck lathe. I got one end out, moved the gantry to the head stick end, lifted it up about an inch off the pallet , removed the second palllet, and was in the process of lowering it…… and then it rolled.

I’m still not sure what happened. It was sitting on the back legs…… raised at the head stick about 4”. The front leg casting is in about 15 pieces , not sure if it dropped and shattered or what…… but the positive here is that I didn’t get hurt. The negative is that this lathes was nearly flawless for being 120 years old


Here are some pics

.
The shop stool took one for the team.

I’ve removed the legs and have the bed on 6x6 blocks for now. Broke 4 of the handles (arghhhhhg!) but the lead screw and qcgb look ok

Be safe everyone, this scared the shit out of me. 99% sure this is operator error. Very sad day. I’ve had this for 12 years and it almost survived a 1200km journey
 

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kevin.decelles said:
I wish it was under power, but alas no

I was continuing to unpack / organize from my move to Saskatchewan this summer . All the equipment was placed on pallets , event the lathes (each end on a pallet)

I was removing the pallets today, and was taking them out from underneath my 1903 Van Wyck lathe. I got one end out, moved the gantry to the head stick end, lifted it up about an inch off the pallet , removed the second palllet, and was in the process of lowering it…… and then it rolled.

I’m still not sure what happened. It was sitting on the back legs…… raised at the head stick about 4”. The front leg casting is in about 15 pieces , not sure if it dropped and shattered or what…… but the positive here is that I didn’t get hurt. The negative is that this lathes was nearly flawless for being 120 years old


Here are some pics

.
The shop stool took one for the team.

I’ve removed the legs and have the bed on 6x6 blocks for now. Broke 4 of the handles (arghhhhhg!) but the lead screw and qcgb look ok

Be safe everyone, this scared the shit out of me. 99% sure this is operator error. Very sad day. I’ve had this for 12 years and it almost survived a 1200km journey
Click to expand...
Im glad you were not hurt. this is always my biggest shop worry. I've known two people who suffered life altering injuries at work and it is terrible
 
I have a similar casting in my shop with the matching legs. It has some cracks too, but can be repaired. Do you have all the pieces? If not maybe what I have can be of use to you. I was just going to make a grinder stand.

Glad you wern't hurt
 
kevin.decelles said:
Observations : it happened very quickly . It made a hell of a bang. It did not touch any other machine which is incredible.
Click to expand...
yep these things happen in the blick of an eye and leave little to no time to react.

Cast iron snaps really easily in comparison to so many other things... I broke a casting once with pressure I thought would barely stress it. It has nowhere near the tensile strength of steel
 
Glad you are okay..... The machine legs can be repaired, you, perhaps no....
Try not to let this bum you out too bad, it's a great opportunity to improve your brazing skills and perhaps burn in a little "muggy" rod with the stick welder. Fixing it back up is just part of its story. Most if not all of my old machines have something of a story "rebuilt" into them. When I get a chance after I get back home again I will try and remember to get some pictures of some interesting repairs on the tool and cutter grinder that I picked up last summer, I believe it went over as well, but long ago.
 
Gasp. Reminds of moving that cnc mill you now own. Alex and I almost tilted it over and down into to the alley. He jumped on one end and kept it from going over.
 
Sorry to hear that. You were lucky you weren't standing in a place where it could have landed on you like that bench.
Cast iron is very brittle. I've used a hammer to break castings into pieces to make them the right size for the crucible. As the lathe was lowered a tiny bump on the edge of the leg to cause twisting torque and snap.
Replace it with a weldment.
 
Sorry to hear, glad its only broken metal. Where were you rigged from? Those sorts can have a very high centre of gravity, but I guess that doesn't help now. A real bummer :(
 
Sorry man that's a hard pill to swallow but in the big picture its minor in the fact you were not seriously hurt yourself. Thanks for sharing as it serves as a good reminder how fast sh$t can happen.
 
Mcgyver said:
Sorry to hear, glad it’s only broken metal. Where were you rigged from? Those sorts can have a very high centre of gravity, but I guess that doesn't help now. A real bummer :(
Click to expand...
In hindsight I rigged it way too low …… I figured I was on solid ground on one end, and only 4” high……. Hard lesson but onward and upward!
 
Wow, that sucks, especially given the front was barely lifted and the back was firmly planted on solid level terra firma. If I ever upgrade to a bigger lathe, the careful factor just jumped from a 10 to an 11.
 
Find most machines are a small foot prints (new or old) and it leads to it being easily off balance causing all sorts of issues.

Glad you are ok, machines can be replaced and repaired us not so much so.
 
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