Stopping bandsaw with wood?

[Billy Trinh]

Just curious if anyone use scrap wood to stop bandsaw blade? With power off, i don't think it would cut very far thus wouldn't shorten blade life as much. I wouldn't mind cutting a few bdf less for the life of a blade if i don't have to wait for it to wind down every time.

[Mike Cruz]

Personally, I don't see a problem with it. But, I'm not an expert on the matter. Only thing I could see is that it might put undo (or at least more than normal) stress on the guide bearing behind the blade.

[Jim Rimmer]

Relax. You're in the shop for fun and a hobby. What's a few seconds to let the saw stop on it's own? :confused:

[Keith Westfall]

Only thing I could see is that it might put undo (or at least more than normal) stress on the guide bearing behind the blade.

?? How could this be any different than regular sawing?

[Mike Cruz]

Keith, as I said, it was the only thing I could think of that might be a negative. But let me explain... When you are sawing, the blade keeps moving, so whatever forward pressure you put on the wood into the blade gets released into the wood as a cut. If you are trying to stop the the blade with the wood, you are pushing the blade back more that the teeth can release the pressure into the wood (as a cut). If that didn't paint the picture for you, let's try this. Picture trying to make a cut on a BS with only a constant 80 rpm with a high feed rate. The teeth wouldn't be able to remove enough wood quickly enough, so the blade would be pushed against the back bearing with more force than what it is designed for.

Could this really hurt your saw? Probably not. It was just the "only thing" that I could think of that "might" be a reason not to do it...for the saw's sake. As Jim mentions, for the "person's sake", just slooooooow down. I get that. I also get how having to wait for your saw to stop can be a bit of pain sometimes and make you get impatient.

[Harold Burrell]

I have developed my own technigue for stopping the blade, that I hope will be of help to you.

What I do is very carefully reach around the blade and...from behind...pinch the moving blade between my index finger and thumb. It can be a tad tricky at first. But if you stay at it, and with a little practice, you will get be be quite good at it.

Don't worry too much about shaving the ends of your fingers off. Over time, the nubs will actually form to the contour of the blade.















(OK...that is just sick and twisted. Please forgive me for my foolishness.)



:o

[Mitchell Andrus]

If it's taking more than 7-8 seconds to stop you have too much lubrication in the bearings and you haven't cranked the last bit of life out of the blade's tensioner.

A poorly maintained BS will stop much more quickly saving you the problem of stopping the blade yourself. Ease up on the maintenance... maybe spray it down with some rusty water - that'll should slow it down some.
.

[Myk Rian]

I've used scrap to stop the blade. It doesn't hurt anything.

[Frank Drew]

Speed is a force multiplier of blade geometry and sharpness in its fight with a piece of wood (think of the piece of straw blown into a tree in a tornado), so reducing speed might dull the blade a bit more than would happen in normal use. Might.

Unless you need to change the saw's setup at that moment, though, simply walking away and letting the saw slow down on its own seems easy enough.

[Greg Portland]

I tried this once. The tooth caught at slow speed, bent the tooth and ripped the blade off the wheel. Not recommended. My current BS has a brake so this solves my problem :cool:.

What happened was that my feed rate caused the tooth to try and take too big a bite off of the wood. The rotating mass of the wheels caused enough force to result in the damage. I'm not sure if you can feed slowly enough to not have this problem while still causing the blade to slow down significantly. Lower mass bandsaw wheels may allow you to get away with this technique.

[Bruce Page]

I let mine coast to a stop & I have a foot break on it...

[Billy Trinh]

Thanks all. Just thought I'd ask before trying something stupid :p. I take my time in the shop for the most part, just get impatient sometimes and don't want to leave a running blade unattended.

[Fred Belknap]

My bs has cast iron wheels and it takes a long time to come to a complete stop. I caught myself doing some adjusting before it stopped which could be a safety thing. I found a large piece of rubber and mounted so that I could put pressure on the motor pulley. I can use my foot to stop the bs in 4 0r 5 seconds.

[eugene thomas]

the joys of having motor brakeon my new band saw. all the fun things not have to worry about.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

+1 on tooth getting caught. My PM has a cheap POJ plastic throat plate insert. Can't find a metal one. I've blown it up and jammed the blade. No permanent damage, except for the insert. So I won't be stopping the blade either.

[Bob Wingard]

If you want a brake, look into adapting a "band" brake from a go-cart to your saw. A small drum gets attacked to the pulley and a small, springy band is installed that has a friction material lining attached to the inside of it. One end of the band gets anchored .. the other gets attached to a hand lever/foot lever/electric solenoid that pinches the band and applies the brake. Mounting of the components varies with the application, but it normally isn't very challenging

[Rick Moyer]

Why or when is this a problem for people? I have yet to shut off the saw and stand there and wait for the blade to stop.. for what???
Either I am continuing to cut something (letting the saw run) or I am done(shut off saw and move on to next task). What is everyone doing that the time for the blade to stop is such a problem?
(I am not in a production mode, but I don't understand the problem, I guess)

[Rich Engelhardt]

Why or when is this a problem for people? I have yet to shut off the saw and stand there and wait for the blade to stop.. for what???
FWIW - I'm from the "watched pot never boils" school when it comes to some things.
No matter how much of a rush I'm in, a blade or motor spinning down has my undivided attention until it stops.

I experienced something similar once with, what's known in firearms parlance as a "hang fire". In a nutshell, a hang fire is when you pull the trigger, the firing pin hits the primer and the round doesn't go off - right away. You're supposed to count to ten & all the while keeping the muzzle pointed at the target (presumably being the safest direction to point the muzzle).
I went through the motions of counting, got to ten and was just lowering the muzzle when the round went off!
240 grains of .430 in. dia. lead came out ahead of 2x.0 grains of Hercules 2400 powder.<-- A very. very. very stout .44mag handload. Off book by about 10% - give or take.

Anyhow - that close call taught me to expect the unexpected when dealing with anything that has the potential for destruction attached to it.

Spinning and/or moving blades have the same potential to do damage as they do to perform work - just like a firearm. in kind of an iromic way, the more dangerous and destructive some things are, the more useful they are when put to good use.

I don't mind at all, since then, spending a few seconds to watch my table saw, bandsaw or drill press wind down.

FWIW - a lot of people also pooh- pooh the idea that a hang fire can occur. I know I had some reservations when I read about them some 40 years ago. I was lucky enough to have it happen to me very shortly after I got into handloading/reloading.

[Mike Cruz]

Rich, I've had a round in my .357 not fire after I pulled the trigger. It is QUITE unsettling. I have to admit I didn't count to 10 after the hammer fell. It was more like 100...then about another 50. I held that think pointed down (I was outdoors in a field with my father and brothers on vacation) for about 10 minutes. I just KNEW Murphy's law was waiting for me the second I opened up the cylinder to unload it. Luckily, the round never fired. Scary, scary thing to have happen. And while a .357 packs a heck of a punch, a .44 mag certainly tops it. Glad you are okay. Thanks for reminding me about that day. It's something I ought never forget.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Mike,
I take 100% of the blame for what happened.
New to reloading, careless handling of the primers - my early stages of "the most powerful handgun in the world and can blow your head clean off -itis" :D

I learned after that that the guys that use tweezers with primers aren't "little old ladies that should take up knitting".
Oils from your hands/fingers can contaminate them PDQ.

I also came to appreciate the fact that a "juiced" handload is mostly roar and thunder (which is fine if that's what your after).
When I started backing my loads down, I started hitting smaller and smaller things at much farther distances. ;)

<grin> Maybe there's a tool tie in there too eh?

[Mike Cruz]

I can't blame myself for my incident...it was store bought ammo. Then again, because it was for target practice, I shopped around for the cheapest stuff I could find. Maybe I should blame myself...:rolleyes: