Looks like these two tools were broken at the handles? If this happened to you feel free to PM and let’s talk about how to avoid this in the future?
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Was the user maimed?
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I’m going to bet they thought about a change of underwear.
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When was this found? I saw that a few of the lathe chisels had been broken 2(?) nights ago in a similar fashion, if not the same one (photo angle is bad to compare). I can’t say for certain, but they did happen to show up in the lathe area after one member had been turning a rather large section of log, bark and all, on the big lathe. The two tools I noticed were a medium (1" wide?) and very wide (2"+) gouge.
I can’t say specifically that was the cause, but from what I was seeing at the time I suspect that member did not have a lot of familiarity dealing with turning an object of that size and non-roundness, and got a chisel or two caught up. He did have a rather large gap between the rest and parts of the wood as he was turning it due to the irregular shape he was starting with.
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This is a good example on why its much better to speak up right away when something breaks, rather than waiting till the hounds are let loose to track you down. The cameras are patiently recording everything going on in the building so when someone takes the time to look through the video history we’ll eventually know what happened.
As a pretty experienced user my first thought was someone from automotive used the lathe tools as prybars, second was the tools were probably top quality made in china and performed as I would have expected, third was the toolrest way too far from the part and I would love to see a video of what was going on in the few moments before the tool snapped off, and how the second attempt resulted in the same outcome.
What other theories can we come up with while the investigation is underway?
And I do hope the user wasn’t injured. I found woodturning frustrating when I was first learning and had several catches bad enough to rip the bowl out of the chuck and throw it over my shoulder or knock tools off the wall behind the lathe.
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The member who broke these tools needs (A) their lathe certification access removed (B) remedial lathe training; (C) a lesson on how to notify the appropriate DMS Committee when they break a shared DMS resource, and quite possibly (D) to help pay for the replacement of the broken tools.
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did someone use these as pry bars?
Oh and by all means, don’t stop after you break 1 - keep going until you run out.
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FWIW, looking at this from a blacksmithing perspective, the fine metal grain on those tools looks like they nailed the heat treating - indicating a better vs cheaper tool construction.
Looking at where it fractured, inside the handle, I would guess the lip of the handle was against the tool rest and the full length of the blade was extended and cutting, that gave full leverage against the tool.
You can see the crack propagated in the upper right corner *the smooth shear, and it went from the right top across and you can see where metal started to peel on Left Side ( the wavy line along the top.
The bulging material at the bottom is where the shearing was leveraged against the tool rest, then bent and broke off. I’d bet the person had to holding very tight and with a lot of force to keep it from deflecting the tool. To do it three times shows indifference and determination IMO.
Not reporting it shows totally lack of responsibility. I don’t think retraining will change any of that. One time is Retraining, maybe two max. But three and just walking away?
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