Zachary Hoyt
03-10-2021, 11:28 AM
I had a very odd thing happen in the shop last night. It was a learning experience, and no lasting harm seems to have been done. I am posting this in case it may prevent the same thing from happening to someone else. I was starting to resaw a 1/8" layer off a roughly 15" long, up to 6" wide piece of curly ash, about 3/4" thick. It was not a regularly shaped piece. I had cut the live edges off, but the sides were not straight, and both were a bit convex. It always makes me nervous to start a cut on the bandsaw where the leading edge is not in contact with the table, so I made sure the guide was set low enough so that the back end of the wood could not be flipped up and bring my hands into the blade.
I had just begun to cut when something happened, as far as I can tell the blade caught and pulled the front end of the wood down and it spun into the air and hit my right between the eyebrows, just where that ridge of bone sticks out over the eyes and nose. It also bent down the center of the 3" dia. x1/16" thick aluminum throat plate I made for the bandsaw, so it hit hard. I got a bump about the shape of an Oreo cookie on my forehead, which came up within a minute or two but had mostly receded by this morning. I also have a triangular red patch there containing 3 or 4 parallel scratches. So far ibuprofen for the swelling and aloe for the scratches seem to be helping, and no serious damage seems to have been done. I have what I hope will be a temporary mark of Cain sort of thing, but that's okay. I am very lucky that the wood didn't hit me in the eye or the mouth. I will not cut anything this way again. When I resaw I will make the bottom side flat or concave first, even if it isn't the best wood utilization.
I had just begun to cut when something happened, as far as I can tell the blade caught and pulled the front end of the wood down and it spun into the air and hit my right between the eyebrows, just where that ridge of bone sticks out over the eyes and nose. It also bent down the center of the 3" dia. x1/16" thick aluminum throat plate I made for the bandsaw, so it hit hard. I got a bump about the shape of an Oreo cookie on my forehead, which came up within a minute or two but had mostly receded by this morning. I also have a triangular red patch there containing 3 or 4 parallel scratches. So far ibuprofen for the swelling and aloe for the scratches seem to be helping, and no serious damage seems to have been done. I have what I hope will be a temporary mark of Cain sort of thing, but that's okay. I am very lucky that the wood didn't hit me in the eye or the mouth. I will not cut anything this way again. When I resaw I will make the bottom side flat or concave first, even if it isn't the best wood utilization.