Band Saw Accident

[Greg Crawford]

Recently I had posted about Sawstop's next product being a bandsaw, because it has the second highest rate of accidents in a wood shop. I also talked with a man I work with about it just days ago. He is a VERY experienced woodworker. Last night while making a bandsaw box, he cut a knuckle on a finger so badly they couldn't save the fingertip, had to remove it.

I guess we have a mentality of the bandsaw being safe, so we get complacent. I know I have. They are very safe, but like anything in life, there are risks. Just stop and take a minute to access what you're doing and think of what could go wrong, and take the proper precautions. Keep the upper guide close to the work, use push blocks/sticks, featherboards, etc. A finger is worth a few minutes for safety.

[John Thompson]

Did he describe to you "how" he severed the knuckle beyond repair :confused: It is hard for me to imagine after using one for over 30 years but... if there is a way someone will find it.

Sarge..

[Larry Fox]

Sorry to hear about the accident and wish him a speedy recovery. I had a small one myself.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=62150

[Anthony Whitesell]

As an engineer whom has worked with automated equipment, the act of stopping a bandsaw should be significantly easier than stopping a table saw. The main problem with stopping the tablesaw is that if the motor is stopped instantly, the interia in the blade could/would loosen the arbor nut either partially or completely. Thus the SawStop brake works by stopping the blade and not the motor. With a bandsaw, due to the tension on the blade, stopping the blade instantly via a brake mechanism on the wheels axles should be a piece of cake with no ill effects to the bandsaws parts or the blade. Now with that said, detecting when to fire the brake is a whole different story and hence why SawStop is business.

[Greg Crawford]

John,

I just got the word from a friend, so haven't spoken with him directly. The box he was making was going to be tall, so I'm thinking the material he was cutting was thick. It also had lots of curves. My guess is he was guiding the thick material and something snagged, so he pushed harder and it gave way. It was basswood, so it would cut very easily, so it could have happened fast.

If I get more information that may be helpful, I'll post that.

Greg

[Mark Roderick]

I think the most dangerous thing about a bandsaw is that it's so safe. You feel so comfortable with it, it's not too hard to push your finger into the blade.

[Paul Atkins]

When I fire mine up I remember the butcher cutting leg bones - zing!

[Lance Norris]

As an engineer whom has worked with automated equipment, the act of stopping a bandsaw should be significantly easier than stopping a table saw. The main problem with stopping the tablesaw is that if the motor is stopped instantly, the interia in the blade could/would loosen the arbor nut either partially or completely. Thus the SawStop brake works by stopping the blade and not the motor. With a bandsaw, due to the tension on the blade, stopping the blade instantly via a brake mechanism on the wheels axles should be a piece of cake with no ill effects to the bandsaws parts or the blade. Now with that said, detecting when to fire the brake is a whole different story and hence why SawStop is business.

My understanding of SawStops' bandsaw is that it will cut or somehow break the blade and thus relieve the tension and this will cause the blade to stop. I dont have any references to quote, this is just something I remember reading somewhere.

[Pete Bradley]

All the more reason to buy a big scary bandsaw instead of a small one to help avoid getting complacent.;)

Seriously though, the band is going by at 3000 feet a minute or more. You put a hand in there you'll do some serious damage before the pain hits.

Pete

[Burt Alcantara]

I recently had a Man vs Bandsaw incident where the Bandsaw won. It was, of course, all operator error. On my newly purchased G0514X2 I had installed a Lennox bi-metal 1/2x14 blade to cut a number of dry blanks and boards. A while later I cut some green logs. The initial cuts looked like the wood was planed. Unbelievably smooth.

So, I continued cutting more logs but noticed that they were getting harder to cut. Finally, one blank was really not cutting so I began to push harder and harder and then...YOW. Blood. Got 2 knuckles on my right hand. Not bad enough to go to the hospital but a nasty cut anyway.

I discovered that the teeth had clogged. The blade was cutting, but gumming its way thru the log. I replaced that blade with a Timberwolf 1/2x2 green wood blade. Now, the saw cuts easily and cleanly. My knuckles are grateful.

Burt

[glenn bradley]

John,

I just got the word from a friend, so haven't spoken with him directly. The box he was making was going to be tall, so I'm thinking the material he was cutting was thick. It also had lots of curves. My guess is he was guiding the thick material and something snagged, so he pushed harder and it gave way. It was basswood, so it would cut very easily, so it could have happened fast.

If I get more information that may be helpful, I'll post that.

Greg

Thanks for the reminder to all of us to keep safe. It always happens "fast", otherwise we'd dodge it. No matter how long you've been running a tool that cuts, it will still cut you if get into it. I am sorry for your friend's accident and hope he heals fast.

[Steve H Graham]

Green wood blade? Man, I need one of those. I had no idea they existed.

[Myk Rian]

The main problem with stopping the tablesaw is that if the motor is stopped instantly, the intertia in the blade could/would loosen the arbor nut either partially or completely.
Since the arbor is turning in a ccw direction, stopping the blade instantly would make the inertia of the motor TIGHTEN the arbor nut further, on a left tilt saw. This is assuming the pulley is on the left.

[Dave Cav]

So far this year all the power tool related cuts in my school shop have been on the bandsaws (all minor). The only other cut was when I let a student use a SHARP chisel....

Dave C

[Anthony Whitesell]

I've never figured out which saw is which, left tilt versus right tilt, so forgive my newbie nieveity. I would have thought that they would have used the opposite thread on the opposite tilt. If as you say, a left tilt tightens when the blade is stopped and a right tilt loosens, what keeps the right tilt arbor buts from loosening under load?

Also, stopping the arbor has the opposite effect of stopping the blade. From your reference of a left tilt saw, if stopping the blade tightens the arbor nut due to motor momentum and the friction of the nut on the blade. By the same method stopping the arbor and motor but not the blade may/will loosen the nut because the blade will keep spinning in the direction that loosens the nut.

[Myk Rian]

Also, stopping the arbor has the opposite effect of stopping the blade. From your reference of a left tilt saw, if stopping the blade tightens the arbor nut due to motor momentum and the friction of the nut on the blade. By the same method stopping the arbor and motor but not the blade may/will loosen the nut because the blade will keep spinning in the direction that loosens the nut.
That is correct.

[george wilson]

Left tilt would LOOSEN the arbor nut.

The bandsaw is the fastest cutting saw in the shop.

[William Falberg]

Those 1/2" - 2TPI Timberwolf blades are the ones I re-set for THICK green wood and they'll separate body parts before you know what happened. Even before you get them on a saw, they're vicious, and watch your eyes when un-coiling them. Band saws are safe only when you respect the blade. It's a good idea to never push anything directly into a moving blade; no matter how much wood you think is between you and it. I see guys getting in close for detail work and it makes me cringe. It makes you think, sometimes, on how to maneuver little pieces around the blade but it's worth the effort to find an intermediary instrument, like a pointed awl, screwdriver, or channel-locks; anything that would give you some distance and separation from catastrophe. I'd rather sacrifice the workpiece than lose a personal part. It only takes one slip - they're fast.

[Greg Johnson]

I have been in the grocery business for over 40 years. When I first started, it was about 50% of the meat cutters that had all their fingers. I never could understand how they were so casual running whole chickens through at the speed they did. A good butcher could cut up a chicken in about 5 seconds. I always felt there was not that much difference between a chicken bone and a human finger to the saw blade. It would do an equally good job on both. Thankfully there have been a lot of safety standards applied to this industry over the past few years.

The other industry that used to lose a lot of fingers in this area were the Cedar Shake Splitters.

I think I like my desk job now!!!!:)

Greg

[Don Morris]

I have to own up. I did a little number on my band saw with the same middle left finger too a year ago as Larry did. Wanted to cut just the edge of a piece of wood so I raised and tilted the piece off the table...NOT A GOOD IDEA...BAD OPERATOR DECISION. Cost me two sutures and a lot of comments from LOML and two sons since I am always talking about "how safe" I practice my wwing. One small break in your thought process can really do you in. We work in a very dangerous hobby/livelyhood. Never forget it.

[Carlos Alden]

It's not just the hobby/livelihood that's dangerous. When you look at the aftermath of a car accident or tablesaw encounter it's very clear that as things that exist on this planet we're very soft. We're just a bunch of meat and calcium rods, filled with salty water, and we exist in an environment of hard metal things all around us. It stuns me to think of us hurtling through space in glass and metal enclosures, just inches away from each other, at 60 mph, blithely ignoring the reality of the situation. It's a miracle that we live as long as we do.

Geez... Just scared myself silly. Don't think I WILL drive down to get a movie for tonight.

Carlos

[Gary Kvasnicka]

My Father was a butcher, when I was a kid he owned his own small store. I will never forget what he said to me the first time I was going to use the band saw to cut pork chops. "Son there are two kinds of butchers in this world....fast ones...and ones that have all their fingers." He then displayed his ten fingers to me and said "Nobody has ever accused me of being fast. A band saw is designed to cut meat and bone... it will cut your parts off as fast as these pork chops. Always be careful and keep your fingers away from the blade." That was at least forty years ago, I have never forgotten his words and I still have all my fingers.

[Tom Veatch]

I ususally use my hands to guide and push the work into the blade UNTIL the blade is an inch or so from exiting the work - more if it's taking appreciable force to move the work into the blade. Then a push stick/block takes the place of my fingers. I can find more scrap for push sticks, but regrowing fingers, last I heard, wasn't an option.