I'm pretty new to bandsaws, having mostly used my table and miter saw for everything. I picked up a Rikon 10-306 last year and have only used it for a few small tasks. I needed to slice a small amount off of a live edge offcut for a project, and due to its small size and uneven edge, I didn't want to attempt running it through my table saw, so I did the "safe" thing and put on a new 1/2" Timberwolf 4tpi blade and set all of the guides.
Not wanting to start with my good piece, I took a piece of scrap - a (too small) ash coaster that I could resaw. I gently pushed the wood in against the fence and into the blade. After only a quarter inch or so, the piece was taken away from me by the saw with a bang and I felt a punch to the sternum. I shut the saw off and checked out the piece. One of the sections of coaster had effectively exploded and been thrown back at me, but not before damaging the throat plate of the saw.
I'm really not sure why this happened which has me kind of gun shy going back to the saw. I did follow up and started pushing a small piece of 2x4 scrap a bit through the saw when I noticed how unstable it was, as if the saw were about to grab the piece again. I took a closer look at the blade and noticed a big warp not far from where the blade is welded together. I am pretty sure this was not there before as I made sure all of the guides were not touching the blade before I turned it on for the first time. I suppose the blade could be another casualty of the incident. That said, I'm still not sure what caused the problem. Any ideas?
See the "warble" here:
This is as far as I got:
Piece missing:
And
Piece: