tms wrote:
…that when properly used, the bandsaw is the safest machine in the wood shop. Mostly, this is because the blade is almost completely encased in steel. Only as much blade is exposed as needed for cutting the stock on the table. But I wonder how many heart attacks they have caused?
When the blade on a bandsaw fails, it breaks under tension, catastrophically. It really sounds like a rifle shot, right in front of you. Oddly enough, it’s the narrower blades that startle me the most. The larger ones tend to give some notice that things aren’t right, they start tick, tick, ticking as they propagate a crack in anticipation of failure. The narrow ones, BANG! without warning. I swear my heart needs to restart itself after each time one of those things breaks.
I think it may be time to pour a drink and call it a day.
Cheers,
Tom
heheheh, cheers Tom! Thanks for the story, and I'm glad you're alright!
I can't even remember the last time I used a bandsaw, but I remember hearing about the blade breaking back in woodshop days in high school.. but Mr G didn't go into the details of the different size blades getting ready to break... "tick tick tick" as opposed to "bang"... Thanks for sharing the story
!
The only real detail I remember about using a bandsaw, is that sometimes you have to set the rip fence "crooked" to allow for the flex in the blade.... start off making the cut freehand, and then set the fence according to how it wants to feed, if that makes any sense...