Lifted from the euromoto list (posted yesterday): QUOTE "A couple of days ago Lance Weil had a workshop accident in which a part came out of the lathe and struck his head. I just got word that he died this morning from his injuries. He roadraced with some fair success in England in the 1960s, most notably (or notoriously) on a open-class H-D. While in England he was associated with Colin Lyster and raced his Lyster- framed G50. Lance and Martyn Ashwood took third in the 750 class at the 500 mile production roadrace at Brands Hatch in 1968 on the Elite Motors Bonneville. There are some photos of Lance on the Bonneville and with the Lyster bike on: http://www.eurospares.com/graphic2.htm Lance was best known in the USA as the proprietor of "Rickey Racer" in SoCal, where he was a noted Laverda dealer after he'd returned from England. He also had good success in SoCal roadracing." ENDQUOTE I remember seeing him racing a Harley at the TT years ago. -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | Pete Fisher at Home: | | Voxan Roadster Moto Guzzi Mille GT/Squire RS3 Gilera Nordwest | | Gilera GFR Moto Morini 2C/375 | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
Mmmm Hmmm, I still have a small lump of my right thumb missing due to accidently knocking the auto feed on whilst knocking up some brass bushes. I also saw one of the chaps get a chuck key stuck in the asbestos roof about 20ft above his head after switching the lathe on with it in, they left it there to act as a reminder to new apprentices about workshop safety !
When I was with the power company, I watched as an apprentice had a shirt ripped off his body. It got caught up in the lead screw. Good thing he were a nice strong lad as he was able to hold himself away from the chuck as the lathe had it's way with his shirt. It happened so fast no one could get to him in time to shut it down.
snip> When I worked in a research facility we all wore nice white coats instead of overalls. One evening I set a lathe running with a long cut set up and sat down on my chair to read a book. The chair was by the end of the lathe so I could lean back and put my feet up on the lathe bed to get comfortable. Imagine my horror when the leadscrew got a grip on my white coat and started to force it (and me) into the gap between the leadscrew and the lathe bed. I couldn't get near the on/off lever because I was at the wrong end of a 20' lathe bed so all I could do was struggle out of the coat as it got ripped to pieces by the machine. I decided at that point that I wasn't going to spend much more time working centre lathes and got myself moved onto a 6m bed CNC mill where cuts lasted about 3 hours and I could sit and read much further away from any moving parts.
Good move. The machine that gave me the willies when running was the shaper. I've seen numerous items pitched out of the vise and flung across the shop floor.
Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, muddy cat Oh Christ yes. There's something visceral about watching a shaper running. -- Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer As featured in Performance Bikes WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41 SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner", Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big" Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer
snip> If more people knew how a shaper worked there'd be a riot about you saying it gave you the willies.
Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Andy Bonwick <G> #Round and round went the bloody great wheel -- Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer As featured in Performance Bikes WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41 SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner", Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big" Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer
