Posted By Martin Taylor This is one for the machine tool buffs out there. Following a bad accident recently where a maintenance man has suffered a cut whilst using emery paper to dress up a shaft whilst the shaft was rotating in the chuck of the lathe I am interested in knowing if there is a safe method for doing this. I can recall doing this in school metal work some 30 years ago but when I have looked into the practice with my safety head on I am not convinced that even in skilled hands it is a practice that can be considered safe. Is there a safe system of work? If so what are the key features. Is this a process that can be done safely, a necessary evil that us safety men have to accept, or something that needs forever to be banned and never darken the face of our workshops. All comments welcome thanks Martin

Posted By Paul Leadbetter Found it - EIS2 Paul

Posted By Steven Taylor Martin, Not sure what the HSE says, however going back to my days as a turner, we used a method by way of pre-formed blocks of wood that fitted into the tool post and then clamped. The wood was shaped at the end with a radius that the emery was secured to and then brought up to shaft and then traversed from side to side to give a uniform pressure and also maintain the diameter of the bar constant. Difficult to picture from my description I know, however if you work on the principal of securing in the tool post opposed to manually holding the emery then you are removing your employees from the hazard. Good Luck

Posted By Martin Taylor thanks everybody - a real wealth of experience on this one - any body else got experiences to share thanks Martin

Posted By Martin Taylor thanks Barry - the short emery paper seems to contradict the advice now published by HSE - the mention of an improvement notice is an interesting one though thanks Martin