Who says bandsaws have no kickback?

Wow, what a bummer. Must be a combination of the blade size and the round stock. Glad to hear there weren’t any lost body parts. Skin heals and lessons are learned: thanks for sharing your misfortune with us all so that we all learn.

-- Brian, Lebanon PA, If you aren’t having fun doing it, find something else to do.

Yeah, bandsaws pull down. With round stuff that presents a problem.

I’m sorry you got hurt, but am very glad it wasn’t any worse.

-- http://www.north40custom.com -- http://north40studios.etsy.com --

Do you get to go back for a checkup? :) Hope the healing goes well, and sorry to hear about your unfortunate circumstance.

Oh man that sounds painful

I guess the blade tried to spin the stock and it rolled forward into your face?

I bought a polycarb face shield two weeks ago after another LJ posted a picture of his face getting whacked, and I use it for just about all operations – even those that “seem” safe. About half the time I wear reading glasses while I work and a face shield doesn’t care what I am wearing beneath it.

I don’t know how much it would have helped you, but maybe it would have been the difference between cuts or bruises.

As Peter said, glad it wasn’t worse.

-- Joe

Doh!!! resaw before cutting the round corners. I,ve actualy seen this done at my old work, thankfully without the gore. It,s was all over in a milisecond and luckily the guy had nothing more than a stunned look on his face. Get well soon mate, and just tell people you got it in a knife fight with some bikers, it sounds more impressive!

-- if the hand is not working it is not a pure hand

And I’ve always wondered how Sam Maloof cuts parts on the bandsaw WITHOUT HOLDING THE PIECE DOWN TO THE TABLE TOP. Man that guy must be strong (or stupid??)!!! I’ve seen him sculpt entire chair parts without the wood touching the table…and no kickback. But his cuts weren’t on round stock either.

Sorry to hear about the accident. You did good to get yourself to the ER. I’d have passed out as soon as I saw the blood…what a wimp…

Oh, and by the way, don’t cut 4” pvc dust collection pipe on the bandsaw either. You won’t quite get right-hooked in the face, but you’ll sure have two smashed thumbs!!

I also apologize for laughing out loud as I read your story. It was well written. I must be a real sicko !! ;-D

-- Lane Custom Guitars and Basses

It’s good to read there’s no permanent damage!

I hope the recovery goes well. The boxing analogy is pretty amusing! <g>

-- - Please help keep Lumberjocks an enjoyable escape by refusing to participate in political discussions. Simply spit out the bait and ignore the thread...

alanealane, remember that SAM is missing the tip of one of his fingers also!

Thanks for your story Padre, I have been getting too comfortable with my bandsaw of late, time to rethink what I’m doing.

-- Never board, always knotty, lots of growth rings

Holy Cow! I don’t remember when I was boxing waking up and feeling like this!! I did play hockey from pee-wee through college graduation (with time out for Uncle Same, drafted in ‘71), and I was a goalie, but I wore a mask. HMMMMM, I wonder where that mask is now?? :)

I did brake my nose 6 times, well, actually 8 if you count the surgery to correct the first 6 and then getting blown up in a truck while I was in the service and walking away with nothing more than a broken nose. Not all hockey either. Actually the count was: hockey 3 – nose 0. fight 1 – nose 0, water polo 1 – nose 0, football 1 – nose 0, surgeon 1 – nose 0 and truck 1 – nose 0. :) The nose never seems to win. Kinda’ like the Buffalo Bills and the Super Bowl. (Yes, I am a Bills fan.)

Last night at the ER they told me to rinse after eating. They did NOT say that eating would feel like pulling porcupine needles out of the base of your nose!!! So no need to rinse since I can’t eat. LOL.

My nose has gone on complete strike and is doing nothing more than issuing forth various different bodily fluids of various colors and consistencies.

I am staring to look like a dalmation in the facial area, and I am only talking out of the left side of my mouth since the right side looks and feels like it has been permanently shut with CA glue. :)

I still have all my teeth though. And no broken nose. :)

-- Chip -- Manchester, Connecticut "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."

Padre, all the assistant gave you was “a script for antibiotics” ? dissapointing… next time you should aim for more damage…;o)

glad to hear all teeth are in place… I had a similar thing happen to me, and I can only relate to your experience, and on the same note -to the stupidity of the case – after hearing so much that the bandsaw is the ‘safest’ tool of them all, it’s easy to lower your guards when working with one. I had cut 10” off of the end of an apple log, did that on the bandsaw, since the entire log was large and heavy, it was easy for me to stand to the side of the blade (2 feet away) hold the log and move along with it through the blade – the problem was when I was about to clean up the 10” cutoff piece… for some unknown stupid reason , I didn’t think of putting the straight cut face on the table top, and instead kept it on it’s rounded bark…. that thing flew like a torpedo, luckily for me, I was still to the side of the saw, and not behind the piece… only caught my fingers – and damn that hurt. left some serious marks on my cast-iron table that took me a lot of elbow grease to clean up (aka impact was severe).

hope recovery is fast, and the nuisances that accompany it will be mimimal ,and pass quickly.

-- When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

Padre,
I before I was your follow up post, I was going to say that I took a cross check to the mouth that put my teeth through my lower lip when I was baout 1/2 as old as I am now. Didn’t knock out any teeth, but did knock em pretty crooked, and only about 3 months after my braces had come off. As I see it, the score is:

Bandsaw 1
Hockey 1
Us 0

Hope you feel better. The mouth has a lot of nerve endings. Very painful spot to get injured.

I just got off the bandsaw about 30 minutes ago thinking, “Hey, this is the safest piece of equipment made”. Serendipity…
Hope you are doing well. I had a router table incident about a year ago, know what you are going through. Hang in!

-- jack -- measure once, curse twice!

last month a bandsaw kickback put my helper in the emergency room . please be careful , it is a tool that deserves respect like any other -

-- rob

Sorry to hear about your situation. I’ve had bandsaws grab a log that I was trying to cut into smaller chunks. I didn’t have any damage done other than a bent bandsaw blade.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Prayers for a quick recovery. Mentioning boxing reminds me of a Milwauke Hole Hog with a large wood auger hanging up that got away from me. Came around and hit me squarely on the jaw! Didn’t knock me off the ladder, fortunately ;-)

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

Thank you for your thoughts and sympathy. It’s been a few months and while the finger looks normal, I have no feeling at the tip (which was routered flat). It could have been worse but I have a wife that first drives fast, asks questions and scolds me after I feel better! lol

-- jack -- measure once, curse twice!

Sheesh! I had no idea that could happen, and I’ve been looking forward to resawing when my new blades get here next week (Timber Wolf 1” 2TPI and 3TPI). I am positive I would have tried pushing a log through the blade sideways by hand at some point pretty soon. Thanks for taking one in the face for my knowledge! I’m going to live with all of my teeth in place thanks to you :)

Also, I’m glad you’ll be alright.

I understand what happened, and how, but it’s still hard to imagine that it can. I almost feel like we should all have cameras all around our shops, always recording, and then whenever something goes bad, we can all pass around multiple angles, like a football game replay, and analyze together what went wrong.

-- Gary, Los Angeles, video game animator

Padre, WOW! Sorry to hear about the accident, but you kept your humor.
It’s important to learn and laugh about the accident. You put a great spin
on the human side of your expierence. Your graphic discription has cautioned
me that this can happen. I do have a bansaw in my shop so your post has
made me aware.

Get well soon, and watch those fingers.
TheHarr

-- The wood is good.

Just so that we can make sure that this doesn’t happen again… Was it the combination of the fence and round object that caused the incident or would this happen if I was moving a round piece across an unfenced top? With other tools it seems like when you get kick back it is more related to the lateral pressure from a clamp or fence creating a pinch point.

You have our prayers for speedy recovery!

-- Jay

Thanks for sharing! We can all use the heads up on safety.

-- spanky46 -- Never enough clamps...Never enough tools...Never enough time.

And lido does taste terrible. I had a throat thing a few years back and amongst the things given to me was a bottle of that to “gargle” with. The pain was pretty bad, and I did all the other stuff they gave and told me to do, so I figured I’d finish the evening with a nice gargle, looking forward to some relief from the pain…so I poured out the measure of that clear fluid into the little plastic cup, and blithely tossed it back…and promptly spat Lidocaine all over the walls of the bathroom. I don’t even know how to describe the feeling, and after 2-3 minutes of gagging, I don’t think I need to. Worst thing I’ve ever had in my mouth, no question.

-- "That which has in itself the greatest use, possesses the greatest beauty." - Unknown Shaker

I tried cutting something round on my BS shortly after I got my first one…again, I got very lucky. Just the busted blade that was stuck into the wood. I am guessing that the cause is the round stock as my blade was a 6 tpi.
I hope you skip any infections.

-- jstegall

I’m sorry about your accident. I’ll bet that;s the biggest puck you were ever hit with.

I’ve always been cautious when using a bandsaw, because of some of the horror stories I’ve heard about them.

One, that I’ve mentioned before, was a student was stabbed by a flying blade while standing on the side watching

someone else sawing. the blade broke, & ricocheted off the table, & hit him in the chest.

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

Wow, thank you all for your warm thoughts and prayers.

I feel a LOT better today, and actually went out and cut up the rest of the bowl blanks on the table saw! ;)

-- Chip -- Manchester, Connecticut "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."

Dick, did the student survive?

-- Chip -- Manchester, Connecticut "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."

I just did a search for “bandsaw kickback” on Google and this was the first link that came up.
I just had something kick back on me a couple days ago. I’m making a bandsaw box with heart shaped drawers (actually leaves that are shaped like upside-down hearts). I set up the fence to slice off the front and back of the drawers, placed the first drawer so the two “lobes” of the heart were firmly on the table, and proceeded to slice off the back of the first drawer. Less than 1/4” in the blade grabbed the piece and bounced it up with a loud bang. Luckily it missed me and only damaged a mostly unseen area of the piece that I can fix with some filler.
I ended up clamping each drawer firmly in a handscrew clamp and sliding the whole assembly across the table. That worked real well and I’m going to keep it in mind for all cuts on smaller pieces, not just the ones that might kick back.

To answer Jay’s question about what causes it… The fence has nothing to do with it. It’s like when you step on a tennis ball… not square on the top of it, but off to the side. The pressure will make the ball come shooting out from under your foot. The bandsaw blade catches and pushes the workpiece down the same way as your foot on the tennis ball.

Thanks Chip for an eye-opening story and I hope you’re all healed up now, a month later.

Wow, that sounds most painful. I wonder how much a full face shield would of helped in this scenario. Probally would of skipped the splinter at the minimum. Get well soon!

-- //FC - Round Rock, TX - "Experience is what you get just after you need it"

LOL, a full face shield, in my opinion, would have prevented a trip to the ER. I purchased a full face shield immediately and wear it religiously now. I also purchased a Trend Airshield Pro and love it. Use it all the time on the lathe.

-- Chip -- Manchester, Connecticut "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."

Hey Chip. Just around the corner in Meriden. Was reading about your ordeal. Sounds like you really lucked out. As bad as it was, your post will help us, and you, down the road. Glad to hear you’re doing well. Stay safe!!!! Al

-- Al Meriden, Connecticut

that’s crazy wow I glad you came out of it alive

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

Glad you made it. As soon as you are able, get back in the saddle and strap on that helmet! There’s too much wood that needs working…

-- jack -- measure once, curse twice!