Comment by Doxin
2 days ago
> If you let your mind wander, you might end up with a cut on your finger.
If you let your mind wander you might lob off a finger before the pain signal reaches your brain. Band saws are safe in that they are largely unlikely to do anything unexpected. They are very dangerous in that they seem so safe.
No one is going to messing around with a table saw. The danger is obvious. It's very tempting to be unsafe around a band saw since it seems so safe.
If you want to see some scary stuff go look up how bandsaws are used in slaughterhouses. They'll use them to lob a whole cow in half in under a second. Now imagine what it'll do to a finger while you're looking the other way.
Usually you aren't feeding wood into a bandsaw at the rate they're feeding cows into a bandsaw at a slaughter house though.
Apart from being a complete dunce, the usual way to get cut with a bandsaw is to be feeding with too much uncontrolled force and hitting a soft spot in the wood or running the blade out of the wood.
But yeah, when I'm teaching, the safety talk includes the line "Every piece of meat you see in a butcher shop was from an animal that was cut up with a bandsaw."
If you want to see something truly terrifying, the ones they use to cut up foam are big enough to cut a massive block of foam, and the blade is just a big, continuous band of razor blade.
> Apart from being a complete dunce
Or growing complacent.
I think we largely agree on the dangers of a bandsaw to be honest. The only disagreement seems to be how likely it is for a skilled operator to fuck up. Which is for sure debatable unless someone drags in statistics, but given the context I still feel like calling a bandsaw safe in the context of a childrens toy is reckless at best.
> If you want to see something truly terrifying, the ones they use to cut up foam are big enough to cut a massive block of foam, and the blade is just a big, continuous band of razor blade.
Yikes, that does sound like the sort of machine I'd not even want to be in the same building with. I sure hope they don't ship those blades coiled up like they do with regular bandsaw blades. You'd need a bomb difusal robot to unpack that safely!
I think being aware of becoming complacent is a really good point. If you're doing a bunch of really repetitive work, it's a good idea to take a break and get your head back in the job at hand rather than letting it wander.
I'm fortunate in that I'm self-employed and get to arrange my work to switch things up as needed. I'm also not usually making a million of anything that would demand doing the same operation for extended periods. I realize that not everyone working in wood has these advantages.
> If you let your mind wander you might lob off a finger before the pain signal reaches your brain.
I'm curious if you have ever used a bandsaw? Woodworking bandsaws just do not cut that fast. It would take multiple seconds of sustained pushing to get through all the meat and bone, it would be very painful and messy. You have a FAR better chance of cutting off your finger with a sharp common kitchen knife than a bandsaw.
Woodworking band saws will easily cut that fast. Perhaps not through a hard wood, but flesh and bone isn't as tough as a lot of woods. Go have a look at how fast a band saw will cut through an animal carcass. It's VERY quick.