Peter Quinn
12-03-2008, 7:48 PM
I work in a cabinet and millwork shop that specializes in hardwood products. We make a wide range of things from flooring to custom furniture. I'm in between more extended jobs and currently assigned to small custom molding runs and ASAP orders. I looked at my stack of job cards for the day and....oh no, SYP Nosing and Cumaru stair treads! I figure the Cumaru is way to heavy to start the day with, so I decide to start with the pine.
Nosing is easy enough to make. For any that aren't familiar with it, it forms the edge of a flooring system, usually for a second floor balcony next to a stair system. This order was for 1" X 5 1/4" nosing with a bull-nose, then 1 1/4" at full thickness, then it drops to 3/4" thickness to match the flooring. For long runs we make it on a big molder, for short runs we bull-nose two edges of a board twice the finished width on a shaper, dado the center on a TS with a power feed, and rip to split it for two pieces. Simple stuff.
So it takes 30 minutes to shape and dado the boards, 45 minutes to clean the pitch from that nasty yellow pine off the saw and dado set, a half hour to clean the sticky shavings from the saw cabinet and DC lines. I hate SYP, wish I had started with the cumaru at this point. Last step, rip the boards to split them.
I rip the first three boards quick and simple; our cabinet saws have no guards, no splitters, big out feed tables and push blocks. None of that pesky safety equipment to slow down production. :rolleyes:The fourth board gives me pause. This one has bowed a bit over its width from the 1/4" dado and has a few cracks on one end that set off little warning bells in my head, not sure what the warning was yet, but I grabbed a second guy to help guide this one through the saw. Quicker than setting up a feather board.
I'm about 7' into ripping a nine foot board, my helper is now at the out feed end just sort of guiding as I push, getting ready to catch the wood as it exits the blade when BOOM in a flash the board seems to explode with great force, both sides of the cut bow radically and grab the back of the blade hard as the side against the fence starts to burn against the front of the blade, and the board splits randomly along the two feet not yet through the blade.
The other guy held on to the board for all he was worth, I bumped the saw off with my knee while holding my end down, no panicking but nerves on full alert now. I have seen some pretty radical releases of tension before, but it always expresses it self from the beginning of a cut. This one went 7' through the blade perfectly straight then exploded with a pop that could be heard above the saws noise and brought the foreman running from the other room to see what was going on. When we pulled it off the saw what had been two straight rips for the first 7' had bowed almost three inches over their 9' length. Scary stuff.
So please be careful out there guys. No injuries from this incident other than some mangled wood and frayed nerves. Not sure a splitter would have held back the explosion I witnessed, but some kick back pawls would have been a comfort. Sure glad I wasn't ripping this one alone.
Nosing is easy enough to make. For any that aren't familiar with it, it forms the edge of a flooring system, usually for a second floor balcony next to a stair system. This order was for 1" X 5 1/4" nosing with a bull-nose, then 1 1/4" at full thickness, then it drops to 3/4" thickness to match the flooring. For long runs we make it on a big molder, for short runs we bull-nose two edges of a board twice the finished width on a shaper, dado the center on a TS with a power feed, and rip to split it for two pieces. Simple stuff.
So it takes 30 minutes to shape and dado the boards, 45 minutes to clean the pitch from that nasty yellow pine off the saw and dado set, a half hour to clean the sticky shavings from the saw cabinet and DC lines. I hate SYP, wish I had started with the cumaru at this point. Last step, rip the boards to split them.
I rip the first three boards quick and simple; our cabinet saws have no guards, no splitters, big out feed tables and push blocks. None of that pesky safety equipment to slow down production. :rolleyes:The fourth board gives me pause. This one has bowed a bit over its width from the 1/4" dado and has a few cracks on one end that set off little warning bells in my head, not sure what the warning was yet, but I grabbed a second guy to help guide this one through the saw. Quicker than setting up a feather board.
I'm about 7' into ripping a nine foot board, my helper is now at the out feed end just sort of guiding as I push, getting ready to catch the wood as it exits the blade when BOOM in a flash the board seems to explode with great force, both sides of the cut bow radically and grab the back of the blade hard as the side against the fence starts to burn against the front of the blade, and the board splits randomly along the two feet not yet through the blade.
The other guy held on to the board for all he was worth, I bumped the saw off with my knee while holding my end down, no panicking but nerves on full alert now. I have seen some pretty radical releases of tension before, but it always expresses it self from the beginning of a cut. This one went 7' through the blade perfectly straight then exploded with a pop that could be heard above the saws noise and brought the foreman running from the other room to see what was going on. When we pulled it off the saw what had been two straight rips for the first 7' had bowed almost three inches over their 9' length. Scary stuff.
So please be careful out there guys. No injuries from this incident other than some mangled wood and frayed nerves. Not sure a splitter would have held back the explosion I witnessed, but some kick back pawls would have been a comfort. Sure glad I wasn't ripping this one alone.