Bandsaw safety tip

Re: Bandsaw safety tip

Mike Schwing from Maryland

>Thanks Terry. When you described this yesterday, I didn't quite get it, and still don't. The only way I can imagine what you are describing is if you stand facing the back of the blade and rotate the blank that way, with the blank on the outside of the blade?

That would have prevented my accident, yup! Never really considered standing behind the blade.

Re: Bandsaw safety tip

Bill Hale / The Wood Spinner

>Mike

I stand beside, behind the blade. My bowl blank is on the outside of the blade. I use the gruv in the table for my left hand little finger so that that hand can not move in to the blade.

I reach around behind the blade and use my right hand to pull the blank into the blade. Do not reach further than about 2:00 oclock and you can not get a finger if you slip.

This is the machine I consider the most dangerous in the shop. My saw is a 3hp 20in. and I have the utmost respect for it.

Do not work on it with any distractions.

Good turning and be safe.

Bill

Re: Bandsaw safety tip

Doug Leite

>Mike,

I did about 6 hours of "Milling" wood on my 16" old Walker Turner that has a 1 1/2 HP motor. I use a 3/8" X 3 tpi blade and I was cutting Koa wood chunks that were up tp 24" sq. X 10" thick into 2 X 2 5/8 pieces. Although I have done this a lot of times previously, I thought about your mishap all day and was probably a little more cautious than usual.

Thanks for sharing and I pray for you to heal well, and quickly.

Aloha, Doug

I'm not trying to...

BubbaBob

>...speak for TD, but since the first time I ever held a turning tool was in his shop, and that day he showed me the basics of turning from blank to rough turning, I think I have a clue as to how his method works.

As you face the front of the saw, stand to the left side facing the teeth. Place the blank, flat side down, on the saw table with the majority of the wood to the front side of the saw, and the entry point of the blade at about 11 oclock as you look at it from the side you are standing on. When you begin the cut, the thumb and index finger on the left hand pushes the wood into the blade, and the little finger on the left hand is hooked under the saw table, preventing the hand from going past the table edge, while the right hand guides the direction, both toward the left hand, and, when you start cutting too wide, toward the blade. Your left hand cannot get into the blade because your little finger is effectively a "stop", and your right hand is too far from the blade to be a problem unless you are rounding a REAL small blank.

From the mountains of N GA...

In my bib overalls...

All fingers still attacked and unscarred (thankfully),

BubbaBob

PS...except that stupid time I tried to hold the tool while off the end of the tool rest to do that last 1/16 inch without moving the rest...

Dang Bubba, you WERE listening!

TDaniel

>

Well, I do...

BubbaBob

>...occasionally.

BTW, I noticed my Yellow Jackets are in San Antonio playing in the Final Four. Your Dawgs are where?... Oh yeah...at home watching it on TV...hehehe.

BubbaBob

Re: Bandsaw safety tip

Keith Tompkins

>HI Bill, I posted some of my bandsaw tips on Mike's "ouch" post.

I worked in a large furniture factory for many years. Although the bandsaw can seem pretty dangerous, your chances of being KILLED on it are pretty slim.

I once had a shaper cutter explode while I was using it. It punched a 6" diameter hole in a concrete wall and cracked it from top to bottom.....AND the wall behind it! If it had hit ME, I wouldn't be writing this. I am still wary of shapers.

Statistically, table saws and jointers are far more dangerous than the bandsaw, I believe. Planers? A co-worker in a rough-mill had a board jam in a huge planer. Instead of shutting off the machine, he looked down to see what happened.....the resulting kickback fractured his skull. Jointers? well, you get the idea.

This is gruesome stuff but reinforces the point....think safety! Know where your hands are and anticipate each cut.