Bandsaw accident or near miss

[RickG]

Hi All,
I'm very new to all of this. I did some woodwork at school about 40 years ago, and very little since other than DIY around the house.

So bandsaws are very new to me. An uncle recently got me into woodturning and as part of the setup I bought a used band saw. It's a DeWalt BS1310. Bought a couple of blades from Tuffsaws; following some advice here, fitted one and set about cutting some wood. The first cuts went pretty well and I was pretty happy with things.

At the weekend I was wanting to cut a log in 2 for turning and fired up the saw. The log is about 2.5-3" in diameter. So I cranked up the top guide and slid the log up to the blade. The blade grabbed the wood, turned it and one of my fingers got clamped between the log and the table.

With my free hand I hit "Stop" and extracted my finger. It was a bit blooded with skin missing, but I'd missed the blade..... phew!

OK, step back... What did I do wrong?
Cleaning up, I can see the log got trapped the blade is twisted and bent by the twisting of the log.

The good folks at Tuffsaws recommended 2 blades. 1 for template cutting and 1 for logs/blanks.
The blade I had fitted was the 3/8" 6-tpi blade - the wrong one.

Can you please tell me, is the grabbing of the blade down to having used the wrong blade?
Is it probable that I didn't have enough tension on the blade, maybe?
Is there anything else I should be looking at before resuming cutting wood?

PS, the finger looks a bit of a mess, but it's doing well and it's all going to heal OK.

 

[CHJ]

Offering a round object to the bandsaw without suitable chocking is the reason for your accident, there is nothing to stop the log rotating towards the unsupported side.

You must either provide a wedge chock on the front face, a support fence attached to the end and supported on the table or use a clamp to achieve the same.

 

[Doug71]

Been posted before but watch this from about 3 mins and you will see why your accident happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48Nvcoq ... e=youtu.be

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Knock yourself up a cradle or get a hot melt gun and glue wedges to the log to be cut to stop it rolling.

 

[Rorschach]

Been posted before but watch this from about 3 mins and you will see why your accident happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48Nvcoq ... e=youtu.be

Yep, excellent example of what not to do.

 

[RickG]

Many thanks, gents. I'll have a re-think on how to make a jig with an integral clamp to hold the wood to a slide, like the one shown in the video, but better.

 

[Jon.1976]

I've seen that video before. Pretty scary (hammer). During my apprenticeship, I had to spend some time in the firms workshop and was told some horror stories about the bandsaw. I still think most of them were made up but you never know, darwinism and all that (hammer)

 

[Jon.1976]

Forgot to say to op, glad you are ok.