Wood turning IS dangerous

[OldWood]

OK I'm still pretty green at turning and still abusing wood and tools, but this event did catch me by surprise and one that perhaps doesn't occur too often on the basis that I haven't heard anyone talk about it.

Simple bowl - wanting to undercut the lip on the inside. I'd used a 3/8" bowl gouge to take out the meat and took a 1/4" one to try and get the undercut. There was a catch and the next thing I heard was a ricochetting sound round the workshop. 4" of the gouge had disappeared - just snapped off. The catch was insignificant and the bowl hardly budged on the chuck.

I don't know how much energy was in the "arrow head", but I'm quite grateful it didn't impact with me on its departure.

Rob

 

[wabbitpoo]

Been there, done that.

 

[The Wood Doctor]

Wow, close shave!

I know its now after the fact and probably would not have made any difference but have you examined the piece that broke off? The reason for asking is that if only for your own piece of mind and confirmation that you did not do anything wrong, so to speak, there might be a fault in the metal which caused it to break. Knowing this wont prevent it form happing again to you or anyone else but it might make you feel a bit better.

Just a thought and glad you are ok.

Ben

 

[wizer]

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty certain that shouldn't happen. What make is the gouge?

 

[paulm]

More likely to be the small diameter of the gouge together with too much overhang over the toolrest and poor technique, rather than the tool itself I would have thought ?

Glad nobody was hurt though.

Cheers, Paul

 

[Bodrighy]

I have had a gouge bend on me but never shear off. I presume it was an HSS one not a carbon steel? Might be worth contacting the makers as that is really dangerous. Wood bounces off you usually, that would have been much more serious

pete

 

[CHJ]

Was the tool HSS or an older carbon steel?

There is no way a 1/4" HSS tool should fracture like that due to the better control of heat treatments. If this is the case then a call to the manufacturer is in order.

A carbon Steel Tool that has been hardened and not correctly tempered is more likely to snap like that, the reason that home made tools ground from old files are dangerous unless the person making them knows how to re-heat treat to achieve toughness as opposed to the max hardness required in files.

Certainly a frightening scenario, glad the missile passed you by.

 

[BMac]

CHJ makes a good point. Some tools are only tempered along the length of the flute which leaves a weakness near the handle.

Brendan

 

[Aled Dafis]

Any chance of a picture of the break?

If it shows a rough dull grey surface it's probably fatigue failure. You'll also probably find that you can see where a crack initiated the catastrophic failure.

Cheers

Aled

 

[cornucopia]

I had a hss gouge break a few years ago- it was extremely dangerous situation as i'm sure you know!!! i'd bought it about 9 months prior to it snapping- i rang the manufacturer and they were horrified- they had the broken bits back and sent me a brand new one.

 

[loz]

Scarey !

Just glad no-one harmed. - Would be nice to know the cause though.

 

[OldWood]

Hi guys - thanks for all your comments. It is obviously a rare occurrence.

The offending tool is a Henry Taylor. I took it down to the Club today and it was detected that there had been a crack at the fracture point.

Yes, there had been a bit of tool mishandling on my part otherwise there wouldn't have been the catch that I reported in the starter to this thread, but the catch as I said was insignificant and the work piece only fractionally shifted in the chuck, so the crack was the cause and clearly created a major weakness. And come on guys, hold up your hands those that don't occasional have a catch particularly in a bowl !! Bowl gouges are big and sturdy for that very reason.

I've reground the tool as the likelihood of further failure is minimal, and as yet have not found the other end of it !!

Rob

 

[cornucopia]

I would strongly reccomend you dont carry on using that gouge Rob -it may be that it has been over temperd making it brittle and it could snap again.
did you buy it from H.Taylor? if so return it to them- i'm sure they'll compensate you.

 

[Jonzjob]

Now that it's been resharpened it may well be too late to return it unless you can find the offending flying bit?

I would agree whole heartedly with Cornucopia in that you really shouldn't use that tool again, although, if you broke it again you wouldn't have to find the first bit ?

As far as having a catch is concerned, I can honestly say that I have never had one! Well, not since yesterday anyway

 

[OldWood]

As far as having a catch is concerned, I can honestly say that I have never had one! Well, not since yesterday anyway

JJ - I was about to call you something distinctly un-gentlemanly before I got to the end of the sentence !!!

I might well send it back to Taylors anyway - it would certainly help if I could find the projectile, but that will need to be a bit of luck as you can all imagine - despite this workshop only being occupied in the summer. It came to me in a job lot from Ebay - it was a very good buy (~£50) as the seller hadn't detailed who the makers of some 16 tools were, and there were only a couple which weren't known makes.

Rob

 

[Bodrighy]

I never have catches, just changes of design ideas.
I would echo the no no regarding using the gouge. I slipped last week with a skew and went into the chuck with it. A little nick in the edge...and a broken tool rest, the Sorby interchangeable type and the threaded bit snapped off. The skew was OK though so that should show how strong these things should be. Bin it

Pete

 

[Doolanba]

I'd agree with the bin it.

I've had a bad catch on a Hamlet HSS spindle gouge, it snapped the handle and bent the gouge. Snapping metal sounds like something 'bad' happened.