(11-09-2017, 01:19 PM)Timberwolf Wrote: Many years ago in Gatlinburg Tn, I liked to go into a retail wood shop where they made furniture and other top dollar things out of mostly walnut..Back then tourists were welcome to go into the shop where employees were working at machines building furniture etc...They had several large wood lathes and were turning out all sorts of items to sell in their shop.
  The thing that fascinated me tho, was the "fan blades" the lathes had on the out board end of the head shaft..As I recall, they were all  hand made of wood and had four blades and in use they "pulled" air and light airborne dust away from the turner...back then, nobody wore a mask {45 or more years ago}
I had never seen that idea used before. There were no dust collectors like some use today.
   Those blades could give you a nasty bruise if you accidentally made contact.. But it occurred to me that these days, fans could be made using flexible plastic for the blades which may be more 'forgiving" if you did make contact..and if I did much turning anymore, I would make one...in addition to using a dust collector.

(11-09-2017, 05:35 PM)Arlin Eastman Wrote: Jack

Me being clumsy with some of the other vets as well we will stay away from this. 

(11-10-2017, 09:42 AM)Wildwood Wrote: Cost of an inexpensive/expensive dust collector or shop vac better op today.  Today majority of fans have cages or screens but even then not really healthy to operate while turning.  

You can make an argument for no dust collection turning green wood but not dry wood.  It’s not the chips that are dangerous to your health but dust particles seen or not-seen while turning or esecially when sanding.  Fans would distribute dust particles everywhere.  

So while a fan great for cooling the shop in warm weather, have no place around the lathe.

(11-09-2017, 01:19 PM)Timberwolf Wrote: Many years ago in Gatlinburg Tn, I liked to go into a retail wood shop where they made furniture and other top dollar things out of mostly walnut..Back then tourists were welcome to go into the shop where employees were working at machines building furniture etc...They had several large wood lathes and were turning out all sorts of items to sell in their shop.
  The thing that fascinated me tho, was the "fan blades" the lathes had on the out board end of the head shaft..As I recall, they were all  hand made of wood and had four blades and in use they "pulled" air and light airborne dust away from the turner...back then, nobody wore a mask {45 or more years ago}
I had never seen that idea used before. There were no dust collectors like some use today.
   Those blades could give you a nasty bruise if you accidentally made contact.. But it occurred to me that these days, fans could be made using flexible plastic for the blades which may be more 'forgiving" if you did make contact..and if I did much turning anymore, I would make one...in addition to using a dust collector.