There are rules to follow when using a lathe, Mr. Keck faithfully emblazoned these upon our minds: No long hair (we had female students in the mid 60s, no hippies yet), no ties (yep we wore them some times) and no bulky garments.

Well, we had one student (not in my class) who wore a knit sweater since it gets quite cold in Newark Ohio in the winter.

His cutting tool, being used at high speed, stuck in the stock he was trimming and on its next pass around (in a fraction of a second), snagged a loop of yarn off his sweater.

There was all sorts of cussing, calls for help and some of this buddies held onto him to stop his arm from being pulled into the lathe.

It was working quite quickly, turning some high rpms. It only took about 15 seconds from the time of the first scream to shut the lathe off but by this time, with his buddies having held him from damage, he was just wide eyed with nothing left of the sweater but the ring around the neck, some of the left arm of the sweater. There were some strands hanging off the neck ring.

It was said he was wide eyed, muttering some real profanity at the machine even after it was finally stopped.

Yep, there was this HUGE ball of yarn completely covering the cutting tool.

Mr. Keck also had a real gruesome story, one which I think made UL here on the Darwin Awards. This was about the guy who cut his finger off on a band saw. A buddy asked him how it happened, so he showed him ... cutting off the same finger on his other hand. The saw was operating at the time he recounted his story.

Also, the usual stories of the planer throwing shards of wood through the glass panels of the classroom door, that sort of thing.

By the time his briefings were over, it isn't too surprising none of us really wanted to do anything. We were too scared!

Submitted on 02/18/2011

Submitted by: Mike Durthaler
Reference: Peronal Account

Copyright © 2011 DarwinAwards.com

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Given that this is only a PA I'll keep it for the humorous picture it creates. But in reality the teacher should have made sure the student took off the bulky sweater before using the lathe. Thanks, Mike!

Candi said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
oh brother.

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