Respect the Band Saw

[Bill Holt]

After reading the TS post and DP post it is time for me to confess.

10/12/2016, I wanted to notch the side of a log. The log is roughly 10" long and 5" in diameter.  I was holding the log by both ends, hands nowhere near the 3/4" blade.  I lost control of the log, it rolled up onto both little fingers, crushing off the left one at the first joint, and, severely damaging the top tendon on the right finger (requiring a steal pin through the first two sections of the finger.

The nurse removed the first bandage after a week, it was very painful.  Trying to keep my wits about me, I said "you cannot cure stupidity".  His response "This ought to be pretty good therapy though."  I believe he is right.

I have always thought of the band saw as the safest power tool in the shop.  At 71, my grip is not what it use to be.  I should have used a sled, hand screws, or the miter fence....LESSON LEARNED.

[Stwood_]

Ugh. I never cut rounds like that without it being held someway besides just my hands.
Rounds roll when the blade catches it. Rounds roll. Rounds roll.....

[EricU]

Good point, Bill.   Logs are probably the worst case.  I think I saved myself from that one because of a letter to FWW where someone pointed out how dangerous it can be.  Right now, I have a board with a twist in it that I want to rip on the bandsaw because it will save some thickness.  I'm having to control myself from just winging it

Just about anything that cuts is potentially dangerous.  There was a post on here a while back about someone that severely injured their hand with a chisel. 

back when I was buying my bandsaw, my wife reminded me that my sister cut off the tip of her thumb with hers.  Of course, my sister was recently diagnosed with ADD at age 60.  She told me that and I was shocked that it took so long, the rest of us knew that years ago.  My response was, "oh, you are just figuring that out?" She probably thought about 5 other things while she was making the cut.

my worst shop accident was when I was getting my milling machine working. A motor I was hooking up was not working right, so I pulled on the timing belt. Big mistake, the motor started and dragged a finger through the timing pulley. I was lucky because I pulled it out before it got in too far, but it squashed it bad enough that I needed a couple of stitches. Of course, I had gotten all excited about getting it to work and this happened at 3 in the morning. At which point, my wife told me that a colleague's husband had recently jointed his fingers at 3 in the morning. This is when I resolved to never work with power machinery when I'm tired.

[jteneyck]

Sorry to read that Bill.  I hope you heal up well and are back in the shop soon, if not already.  There are just so many ways to get hurt, yet most times nothing happens and we start thinking unsafe practices are OK.  I'm as guilty as anyone.  Thanks for sharing your story.  Every one of these makes me think, twice, about what I'm doing and what could go wrong, before I flip on the switch.

John

[AHill]

Ouch!  The worst cut I've ever suffered was from a BS.  Just lost track of where my left hand was pushing something through the cut, and I suffered a deep cut to one of my finger tips.  I should have gotten stitches, but I just bandaged it up well and carried on.  Seems like it bled forever.  Hurt like the dickens for a few weeks afterward while it was healing.

I'm respecting anything that has moving parts.  Whether they cut or not.

[MichaelMouse]

Tough way to learn, will the pin steal the joint, making a stiff finger?  Tendon damage is second in seriousness only to amputation in hand injuries.  My encounter with the blade was a positively moronic one (according to the fight surgeon) involving the knuckle on the right ring finger, but thankfully not the tendon.   All I did was turn off the saw and brush the sawdust away a touch too early.

[frigator]

I tried cutting some 6in PVC pipe once with my old MM20 and it was going well. Then I tried to cut a short pie in half and it literally exploded in my hand and send  slivers of PVC everywhere, including my face.  I dont even know what happened. My eye protection saved me that day and now I am more careful what I put in a bandsaw.

[vernonator]

Only shop accident I have witnessed happened on a band saw while in High School shop class (in ancient times when HS still had a shop) kid had cut out his shape and had a bunch of small pieces left (he had made several relief cuts) and was flicking them off the table with his thumb/middle finger with the blade still running. Yes...he flicked it right thru the blade, took off his finger tip right below the nail....nasty.

[Steve N]

After reading the TS post and DP post it is time for me to confess.

10/12/2016, I wanted to notch the side of a log. The log is roughly 10" long and 5" in diameter.  I was holding the log by both ends, hands nowhere near the 3/4" blade.  I lost control of the log, it rolled up onto both little fingers, crushing off the left one at the first joint, and, severely damaging the top tendon on the right finger (requiring a steal pin through the first two sections of the finger.

The nurse removed the first bandage after a week, it was very painful.  Trying to keep my wits about me, I said "you cannot cure stupidity".  His response "This ought to be pretty good therapy though."  I believe he is right.

I have always thought of the band saw as the safest power tool in the shop.  At 71, my grip is not what it use to be.  I should have used a sled, hand screws, or the miter fence....LESSON LEARNED.

Hand clamps were mentioned, and here they may not have helped. But you can always make a really quick sled, that will carry either lengthwise, or crosswise
Probably at the root of all injuries, if you had to come up with one universal reason, it would be poor planning, this can take the form of words like haste, rushing, not being familiar with, and a whole bunch more. Thing is if we all ran it through in our head first asking, what could possibly go wrong, there would be a lot less accidents.