This might be a good story to polish off…

I’m normally one of the biggest worriers when it comes to safety, which obviously is no bad thing. Still I recall a moment my over-precaution could have come quite in handy; polishing aluminium.

My friend said I should try and use this fairly high standard polishing machine he’d had for a while. I don’t think proper protection is his main concern; I can’t tell if the few close scrapes actually made him more confident, but regardless he gave me these awful, tatty gloves to wear whilst I worked.

The result was me getting part of the material caught in the machine, which tried to pull my whole hand in. Luckily he stopped in time for me just to receive a slight sprain that lasted a week or so. Naturally I don’t blame him for what was really my oversight, but yeah I try to do all my polishing by hand…maybe just as a way of saying I’m lucky to have it

Well at least your acident did not turn out like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEASEz4QI04

That was a pretty dumb stunt with the lathe - very lucky outcome.

When I was at school we came close to a serious accident in the metalwork shop. Someone was turning, and although he wasn't using it, had the crossfeed drive (or could have been leadscrew) engaged - my guess is that someone had been using it and forgot to disengage it when done.

At some point there was a shout, the workshop E-stop got hit. Then we watched as the teacher partially dismantled the machine (removed the end bearing block) to remove almost all of someone's apron which was wrapped round it. When the E-stop got hit, IIRC his neck was only a few inches off the lathe bed and being wound in.