shirt stuck in belt sander

[William Hamilton]

I swear all of this is true. At some point around halloween, the love of my life was creating a zombie halloween costume and decided a belt sander was the best way to rough up her shirt. Luckily she wasn't wearing it. There's a good amount of material stuck in the belt sander. Obviously it does not currently run. Anyone have something like this happen? Is there a trick to getting the fabric out, short of disassembling? Note to self: lock up your tools. The belt sander is a Ridgid R2740.
Thanks,
Bill

[Mike Henderson]

I hope you don't mind that I laughed out loud when I read your post. Sorry - no suggestions for fixing it.

Mike

[William Hamilton]

no offense taken.. I used it as an excuse to upgrade (can't argue with that one, right?) but would like to see if I can fix this and either sell it or have it as a spare

[John K Jordan]

I swear all of this is true. At some point around halloween, the love of my life was creating a zombie halloween costume and decided a belt sander was the best way to rough up her shirt. Luckily she wasn't wearing it. There's a good amount of material stuck in the belt sander. Obviously it does not currently run. Anyone have something like this happen? Is there a trick to getting the fabric out, short of disassembling? Note to self: lock up your tools. The belt sander is a Ridgid R2740.
Thanks,
Bill

Sounds like my Lovely Bride - any excuse is a shopping opportunity.

I would probably disassemble if practical. But then, I love to take things apart.

Sounds like my big diesel 3-blade mower when I run over a rope or something. For me that is 20 minutes with a sharp knife. Whether a knife would work in your case would depend on the clearances. If it stalled quickly perhaps the wad of cloth is accessible and can be sliced with a scalpel, x-acto, or maybe a filet knife and pieces extracted with hemostats.

JKJ

[Mel Fulks]

Unplug . Try to hand turn rollers in backward direction. Try to unlock the tensioner. Bring a knife. Give up hope of saving shirt.

[Bill Neely]

This is child's play, when I was in the Coast Guard someone flushed a skivvy shirt down the toilet and it got caught in the impeller of a sewage pump.

[Martin Wasner]

I've sucked up a shirt i was wearing, but didn't pack it in right. I was able to beck it out pushing backwards on the belt by hand.

If she pulled it in hard, chances are pretty good something is tweaked. Worth a shot though

I had a co-worker suck a finger into one. I watched another co-worker smash the case with a hammer to get the finger out.

[Yonak Hawkins]

Tell her next time to use a wire brush.

[Yonak Hawkins]

Tell her next time to use a wire brush.

[Rod Sheridan]

Tell her next time to use a wire brush.

Correction A MANUAL WIRE BRUSH.

I would hate to see someone try a powered wire brush for a T shirt.............Rod.

[Yonak Hawkins]

Correction A MANUAL WIRE BRUSH.

Yes. Thank you, Rod. We're often too quick to jump to a power machine when a hand tool will do fine, or even better.

[Bill Jobe]

I cannot be certain he was being honest about this, but when I worked at the time shop I retired from one of the old timers and I were discussing the seriousness of loose clothing around machines. He told me that years ago he was running a large radial drill and ACCORDING TO HIM it grabbed him by the shirt or pants ( I can't remember which) and it stripped him bare naked, aside from his belt. He said luckily he worked near a locker room.
That's not as far fetched as it may sound.
One job at a shop I had placed me in their machine shop and my foreman was quite serious about loose clothing. They had a lady running a drill that grabbed her by the hair and pulled her around several times banging her head on the back of the machine. She died as a result.

It was common place at my last job for guys to throw things such as wadded up pairs if gloves, at guys running drills. This was especially unsettling for me. To risky and basically placing that machine operator at risk of serious injury or death.

[Dave Cav]

Sounds like my big diesel 3-blade mower when I run over a rope or something. For me that is 20 minutes with a sharp knife.
JKJ

I backed my diesel tractor rototiller over the end of a 30 foot tarp once. That took a lot more than 20 minutes to clean up.

[Jerome Stanek]

When I worked in printing there was a guy that was a little slow and always wore ties. He was amassed at the folder where the papers would come down and 2 rollers would grab them and fold them he bent over and it grabbed his tie and almost pulled him in.

[Mark Wooden]

Cut the belt and then try to pull it out backwards. Maybe a thin bladed screwdriver to dig some o the cloth out.

Many moons ago, I, and about four others, saw a guy get his shirt tail caught in a jointer, and it ripped off across the middle of his back in a heartbeat.We figured his large stature- about 6' and close to 300 lbs- saved him from further injury. That shirt hung over that jointer till the shop closed down.

[johnny means]

Early in my career I sucked up the cargo shorts I was wearing. Very, very scary moment.

[Jim Dwight]

I was using my little 3x21 belt sander to strip a small area of floor over Christmas and ran over the cord and it caught between the drive roller and frame of the sander. The only way I found to get it out was to pull on it. It was very hard to get back out but I did it, and the sander is fine. A shirt is not likely to stand the force required but that would be OK. If it comes out in pieces, it would still be out. So I'd yank on the shirt, real hard. If that didn't work, I'd try cutting it out. One summer while I was in college I mowed overgrown lots for the city with a brush hog. Cement blocks did not stop the swinging blades but clothes lines did as did pantyhose (from trash bags thrown into the lot). I had to climb under the mower and cut them out. Not fun.

[Warren Lake]

my Neighbour recently snow plowed my driveway early morning, didnt realize my newspaper was in the snow, said another neighbour helped him clean it up. both of them are in their 80's shes 85. I was routering years ago red green shirt on not tucked in. Spiral end mill 3" cutting hanging out, one of the times I set the router down the wind from the router pushed up under my shirt as I turned it to put it on a carpet on the bench, the shirt wrapped around the cutter and pulled the router into my stomach, fortunately it stalled the router, a 3HP porter cable. That one had good potential to be serious. After that made a stand to hold running routers so they didnt have to be turned on and off for some production stuff, that worked well close and convenient and safe. Jim done the same on my 3 x 21 Rockwell its a great machine and still have the original power cord. only repair on it the on and off switch replaced with a heavy duty one.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

This is child's play, when I was in the Coast Guard someone flushed a skivvy shirt down the toilet and it got caught in the impeller of a sewage pump.

I always tell guests not familiar with head usage, "if it didn't go in your mouth and out your ---, don't flush it!

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I read the title and was expecting something more like this:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?ipadtype=3&sts=17184&utcoffset=-240&v=EGSORXNPMKE&has_verified=1&layout=tablet&client=mv-google

[terry mccammon]

When I was a young engineer, this whole question of clothing/watches/bracelets getting caught in rotating machinery was the reason for the insistence that everyone wore what we then called a duster (but really wasn't), more like a long apron that came from just under the neck to below the knee along with a sort of sleeve garter that left the area between the palm and up on the forearm clear. Of course no rings/watches/etc. The idea was a smooth front, tie securely behind the apron bib and nothing to catch on the hands or arms.

Incidentally there was a female turner with rather long hair who was killed at the lathe when her hair became caught in a work piece. I asked a noted turner who shall be nameless about his long flowing beard and he said he had caught his beard but the hair was thin enough that he had not been pulled at all.

[Bill Jobe]

Yes, long hair is a serious thing when running drills. One place I worked for a while a lady who had long hair was grabbed and scalped. That is a major accident. She later died after they had done all they knew to do.

[Rick Potter]

On a lighter note, this reminds me of the time my wife called me at work to say my RAS was making a lot of sparks. She had decided to make herself some simple drawers for her socks, and cut them out on the RAS, thinking that the steel carpenters square laying on the saw table was part of the fence. Sawed half way through it before she called me.

Yes, she did finish the drawers, and they worked fine for years. Matter of fact, so did the sawblade.

[Bob Glenn]

All too common. Loose clothing has no place around power equipment. While in a college wood shop class, I saw a student get his sweat shirt wound up in a lathe. Luckily, it ripped it off before he was pulled in. When women wore dresses to work in the industrial plant that I worked at, a woman had her dress removed by a roller conveyor. When I was HR Mgr at the same plant, I had to arrange for post traumatic stress counseling for employees that had to help get an employees arm out of a roller conveyor. His shirt tail became wrapped around the roller and he reached down to free it and his hand became trapped in the cloth. His arm was wrapped around the roller with a severe compound fracture. Yes, we had rules against untucked shirts and loose clothing. No they weren't being followed. We finally insisted engineering make the first set of rollers on conveyors unpowered.

[William Hamilton]

Well, some cutting and a little brute force and I was able to back out the shirt. The belt sander works, although there is a clicking noise when its in operation. I may open it up to take a look at the gears, belt etc.