An experience, an observation and some advice....

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I have had my MM-16 bandsaw for a number of years and this evening I had an interesting experience.

While cutting some angled tenons on the seat support for a porch swing I'm building, the 1/2" blade broke. I can't remember having a blade break before. It was an interesting experience but not as terrible as I thought it would be. But...I was able to make some observations...

When a blade breaks balanced cast iron wheels can spin for one or more minutes. Don't be in a hurry to open doors. A broken blade could end up in that spinning balanced wheel and you could have another incident that was more catastrophic!

It really was underwhelming when it broke. I immediately just stepped on the footbrake which shuts off power and brakes the lower wheel. Then I opened the upper wheel cover and watched the top wheel spin for another minute or two. Then I realized the danger to which I had exposed myself by opening the door while the wheel was still spinning.

I investigated the break in the blade. It just broke straight across with a very slight tear near the back of the blade. If my memory serves me correctly, this is the original blade that came with the saw. I have had the saw for at least 4 maybe 5 years so I have gotten money's worth out of the blade.

Since my wife woke me up at 0300 this morning to take her to the airport, I decided to replace the blade and continue cutting tenons tomorrow.

[Van Huskey]

Good point Ken. Some people think a broken band flies out at you like a black mamba high on meth and Mountain Dew but in 99.9999% of the cases it is sorta anti-climactic, almost a let down...

However, it is a VERY good idea to let EVERYTHING quit moving before doing anything, not a bad idea to take a step or two back, you may just have the 1 out of a milllion meth head snake in there!

BTW you are a nice guy, my wife needs to go to the airport in the wee hours and I am giving here the yellow cab number... not really but I would think about it, since thinking is all I could do without gettin' hit!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Van,

Nez Perce County Regional Airport is less than a mile from our home. I drank coffee from 0300 until 0400. Drove her to the airport. Sat with her until they opened up the security line at 0430. She cleared security and I was home by 0433. I layed down on the couch in the living room, took off my HA and the sound processor for my cochlear implant (I went back to being deaf), turned on ESPN and woke up at 0830. After showering and shaving, I went to breakfast about 0930.

The woman is the mother of my 3 adult children and has put up with me for 44 years.

Besides...with her gone to visit her 89 year old mother for 3 1/2 weeks, I am King of the Castle and control the remote. LOL!

[Van Huskey]

Van,

Nez Perce County Regional Airport is less than a mile from our home. I drank coffee from 0300 until 0400. Drove her to the airport. Sat with her until they opened up the security line at 0430. She cleared security and I was home by 0433. I layed down on the couch in the living room, took of my HA and the sound processor for my cochlear implant (I went back to being deaf), turned on ESPN and woke up at 0830. After showering and shaving, I went to breakfast about 0930.

The woman is the mother of my 3 adult children and has put up with me for 44 years.

Besides...with her gone to visit her 89 year old mother for 3 1/2 weeks, I am King of the Castle and control the remote. LOL!

If that were the case here Rebekah would be walking... :D Actually, I would do anything for here and truth be known I function better at night than in the day, always have, it came in handy in the Army and mountain climbing (you usually start a summit bid between midnight and 1am) but most of the rest of my life it has been a handicap, not much you can get done at 3am except Walmart and the airport... unless you live in NYC. I used to work a lot in my last shop in the middle of the night, now I am too close to the neighbors and they are early to bed early to rise on both sides, one runs a landscaping buisness and the other has a 1:15 commute. It is helping my handtool skills though.

[Peter Quinn]

Good post Ken. I've had a a number of them break over the years at work, never lost one at home. It's always a bit startling to me when they make a loud POP, maybe blade smacking the steel frame innards? But my experience has been similar, pretty much an anticlimax after the initial surprise. I too opened that door once only to realize it was not a great idea and closed it quickly. I've never had any real damage done except to my nerves.

When my wife is away I just sit there in the evening staring at a dark TV screen waiting for it to turn itself on. It's been so long since I've held a remote I'm not sure how they operate. I'm not always thrilled at the prospect of doing the airport drop off, but I'm always bright and early with bells on for the pick up. If the wife and kids are away I'm probably in the shop and the remote can take care of itself!

[Rich Engelhardt]

Some people think a broken band flies out at you like a black mamba high on meth and Mountain Dew but in 99.9999% of the cases it is sorta anti-climacticYeah - but - it's that .0001% that makes life entertaining ;)...

No one knows for sure what happened and how it happened,,,,but,,,, somehow a bandsaw blade ended up nailing Terry "the high school shop jinx" Hahn's shoe to the floor in shop class.

He's the same one that sanded 1/2 inch off his thumb one day on a 1" belt sander, put a 10" glue up through the planer just to see why he shouldn't and decided to use a cutting torch on a magnesium high jump bar instead of a hack saw...

I know it's wrong and all - but - I stll get a chuckle out of the cutting torch episode.
I'd probably have a different point of view if someone hadn't knocked the burning cutoff out of his hand as he was headed to the water barrel with it to put it out...

[Kevin Bourque]

In Trade School, my instructors told us story after story about the unfortunate student who was seriously injured by a flying band saw blade of doom!!!. He hadn't heeded their warnings about the proper position to stand while cutting and paid the price for it. I think most of the horror stories come from the "good old days" when band saws didn't have very good blade guards, or none at all.

The first time a blade broke on me I didn't even know what had happened. I was still pushing the wood through, wondering why it wasn't cutting anymore.

[Matt McColley]

Even on the big 36" Tannewitz saws at work, it's still anti-climatic. Makes quite the noise, but basically falls limp in the cabinet.

+1 on leaving the door shut untill all has stopped moving.

We run a huge vertical band saw resaw in our pallet operation that has 8" wide blades and is driven by a 100 HP electric motor (the little bigger than a full keg of beer). The saw is a 1960's vintage Stenner, made in the UK, and it is amazing to see it take an 8x8 oak timber and slice it up into boards like a hot knife going through butter. I've heard it gets a little exciting when that beast breaks a blade, but I have not seen it first hand. The saw has hydraulic driven serated feed rollers about the diameter of a large coffee can, but a foot tall.... you do NOT want to get your mits caught in those feed rollers.... I physically cringe just to imagine it.

[Jim Becker]

Good advise about not opening up the machine until it's fully stopped, Ken...something almost anyone could inadvertently do in haste to ascertain what happened. It's the "little things" that tend to reach out and bite us... ;)

[Sid Matheny]

I have had a two or three to break and have been lucky but still not fun. At times it is nice to be able to take off the cochlear implant and rest in a soundless world. Have had mine about 4 years now and totally deaf in the other ear.

Sid

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Sid,

I have a CI on my left ear and a HA on my right ear but only test 10% with the HA only. When I take them both off at night I am deaf. Since my wife travels more than I do, we bought a bed shaker system that monitors the telephone, door bell and smoke detector and with a coil placed between the mattress and box springs, shakes the bed to wake me up in the event one of the devices is active. And you are right.....there are times when being deaf has it's advantages but those times are few and far between!

BTW Sid...I have only had my CI for 6 months.

[ray hampton]

Ken ,having a machine that rocks the bed, good idea, will it dump you out of the bed ? if you are driving your car and someone pull up beside of you with their radio turn all of the way up , can you feel the sound waves ?

[Joe Hillmann]

I know when I was helping out with a woodmizer sawmill when a blade would break they would do lots of damage. The chute where the sawdust was thrown out had 4 1/2 inch bars welded in place to catch the blade when it broke, 3 of the bars are bent and the fourth one is missing completely . I know that those are much bigger blades and higher tension then a wood working saw but I just want to point out that a broken blade can be very dangerous.

[Bruce Volden]

[QUOTE=Ken Fitzgerald
Besides...with her gone to visit her 89 year old mother for 3 1/2 weeks, I am King of the Castle and control the remote. LOL![/QUOTE]

It has been my observation that men who claim the above--will lie about other "stuff" too! ;)

Bruce

[Chris Parks]

I have had a two or three to break and have been lucky but still not fun. At times it is nice to be able to take off the cochlear implant and rest in a soundless world. Have had mine about 4 years now and totally deaf in the other ear.

Sid

My wife reckons I switch off and don't listen and I haven't got any hearing assistance at all! It is good to see an Australian invention helping people.