Re: Bandsaw safety
Mike Schwing from Md.
>As a result of my injury, I have altered my technique to include several of the suggestions given here recently. Most notably keeping a finger or two on the edge of the table so the hand can't possibly reach into the blade, and the other being to move behind the blade and pull the piece through to completion.
I don't think what I was doing was remarkably unsafe but it certainly could have been improved upon. On hindsight, complacency had probably set in as I'd done basically the same thing hundreds of times without incident.
When I was learning to use the tablesaw I had a kickback injury that threw a 4 inch piece of bloodwood directly at my chest - it probably should have stopped my heart. It totally collapsed my left pectoral muscle for several days, and I had a very clear indentation of the corner of that wood in my chest. That accident kept me away from the table saw until I was certain I wouldn't make the same (dumb) mistake again. Nobody had taught me table saw do's and don'ts, so I learned them the hard (and almost fatal) way. That wasn't the case here as I had a lot of bandsaw experience but just like the tablesaw incident - it has given me a healthy dose of respect for the tool that I didn't have before.
I'm sure glad I still have my finger, that 3tpi blade doesn't really cut cleanly in flesh like it does in wood. Nasty looking.
