Just realized my band saw blade was binding for months - nearly lost a finger last Tuesday

I was ripping some 8/4 hard maple in my shop outside Nashville last week and the blade started kicking back hard, almost pulled my hand into the teeth. Turns out I had been using a 1/4 inch blade for everything for over a year, way too narrow for thick stock. Has anyone else had a close call from using the wrong blade width for too long?

3 comments

3 Comments

mark_chen6215d ago

Did you check if the blade was dull too" - absolutely, that was part of it. I was running a 1/4 inch blade on 8/4 maple, which is just way too narrow for that kind of cut. The blade was also getting dull from me forcing it through thick stock for months, but the width was the bigger problem. It would wander and bind up because it didn't have enough set to clear the sawdust. Honestly I'm lucky I didn't lose a finger way before that Tuesday.

emma_garcia15d ago

Did you check if the blade was dull too, or was it just the width that made it bind up like that?

keith27415d ago

@mark_chen62 nailed it. Same reason my cheap drill bits snap off, too much torque on a thin tool lol.