Don't walk away
Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2011 6:53 am
'tis the weeks before Christmas, and 12 - 16 hour days at the Shark and router table are the norm to try and keep up with the orders, with a periodic vacuum and lube to keep the Shark happy and quiet being all that is needed.
After realising that I hadn't eaten all day, I ducked down to Macca's with my daughter for a Quarter Pounder and whatever the no meat vege bun is that she eats, no more than 10 minutes.
I had left the Shark routing a profile into the top of a small bed head, and all was quiet when I got home except for the air that I use for cooling...
The work piece had shifted and rotated 90 degrees up the table,having grown a new 6.3mm slot where there wasn't meant to be one, the 3mm sacrificial board was hanging over the edge, there was apparently no 6.3mm spiral upcut bit in the router, which turned out to be the case on closer inspection, I at least expected to find a stub... and 2 of the blue channel base pieces had a shiny new groove gouged out of them.
A search of the workshop found the 2 pieces of my bit, the search for the collet, which I couldn't for the life of me work out how it had gotten past the lock nut on the Colt proved fruitless until I realised it had jammed itself up the shaft of the router.
Fortunately in this instance, this has only cost me a common carbide bit, and some time to remove, clean up and invert the 2 damaged base sections, which also gives the opportunity to properly clean and lube the "Y" screw.
It could have been far worse.
I'm not entirely sure what happened, except that I wasn't there to punch the E Stop at the first signs that the wheels were falling off. Something that won't happen again.
25 years in maintenance engineering, I so should have known better, complacency can be lethal.
Please be alert. The world can always use more lerts
After realising that I hadn't eaten all day, I ducked down to Macca's with my daughter for a Quarter Pounder and whatever the no meat vege bun is that she eats, no more than 10 minutes.
I had left the Shark routing a profile into the top of a small bed head, and all was quiet when I got home except for the air that I use for cooling...
The work piece had shifted and rotated 90 degrees up the table,having grown a new 6.3mm slot where there wasn't meant to be one, the 3mm sacrificial board was hanging over the edge, there was apparently no 6.3mm spiral upcut bit in the router, which turned out to be the case on closer inspection, I at least expected to find a stub... and 2 of the blue channel base pieces had a shiny new groove gouged out of them.
A search of the workshop found the 2 pieces of my bit, the search for the collet, which I couldn't for the life of me work out how it had gotten past the lock nut on the Colt proved fruitless until I realised it had jammed itself up the shaft of the router.
Fortunately in this instance, this has only cost me a common carbide bit, and some time to remove, clean up and invert the 2 damaged base sections, which also gives the opportunity to properly clean and lube the "Y" screw.
It could have been far worse.
I'm not entirely sure what happened, except that I wasn't there to punch the E Stop at the first signs that the wheels were falling off. Something that won't happen again.
25 years in maintenance engineering, I so should have known better, complacency can be lethal.
Please be alert. The world can always use more lerts