Bandsaws can Kickback too

Ned Bulken

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Lakeport NY and/or the nearest hotel
I was over at Mark's shop last night, for the inaugural 'let's make some sawdust since it is warm enough' event. And I thought a bandsaw box would be just about ideal for a project. I brought along one of my cut-offs from Stickley, cherry as it turned out, which had some pretty amazing flame/curl in it. We jointed one face of the board, then proceeded to rough out the shape, cut off the back, the front etc...

When it came time to work on the drawer I was using the fence and a push stick to slice off the back of the drawer, which was kidney shaped, the saw grabbed the piece and flung it down into the table, which ricocheted and hit me in the chest. No blood, and not even a bruise, but it sure was an eye opener. I kinked the blade as it turned out, so I get to replace a brand new blade. At least it wasn't a t-wolf. Funny thing the original way I was Going to do the cut was freehand, but I thought I would do it the 'safe' way using the push stick and fence. The little voice wasn't loud enough and I screwed up.

We finished the cuts, this time I hand held the drawer, got through the three cuts left for the box and then swapped out the blade to his normal 1/2" one.
No pics, as it was just simple shop work, but it was fun (other than the carnage) noone got hurt, (other than the bent blade) and Mark learned how to make a bandsaw box, which he had never had occasion to try.
 
Yup....that's the one way that a bandsaw can kick is down. Mark Duginske points that out in his book but it's still safer than back at you...no bounce!
 
LOML was resawing some curly maple for a customer last year, and apparently he didn't have a good grip on it, because it jumped back and hit him square in the mouth!! Fortunately he had his lips open, but the piece of wood hit him in the front tooth and loosened it for a few months. He still isn't sure what happened--only that the big Hitachi band saw tried to make him eat that piece of maple!
 
Had a similar experience using a 3/4"X3tpi blade and trying to cut a 1/2" piece of wood. Grabbed, kicked and kinked the new Timberwolf blade. My rule now is to not use three tooth blades and not to try cutting small pieces with anything less than a six toother. Glad ye weren't hurt Ned.
 
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