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They said it could happen......

Started by Jim_Rogers, December 14, 2006, 05:17:16 PM

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Jim_Rogers



And it happened to me today......

First time in 12 years of sawing.....

(What I'm talking about is the broken blade coming out the saw dust chute.....)

Be careful out there.....

Jim Rogers
Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
Woodmizer 1994 LT30HDG24 with 6' Bed Extension

Dave Shepard

One of the first things I was told was to not ever walk past the chute when the blade was running.  :o Sounds like a good idea to me.


Dave
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

Tom

Usually a blade will stay inside of the shroud on a Wood Mizer.  Sometimes the broken band sticks to the tire on the bandwheel and gets a little extra thrust after it breaks.  

It's scenes like this that make me talk to folks who catch sawdust in their hands at the chute.  I have visions of the band impaling their palm.  What a scary image.

I've actually seen bands come twirling out of the front of the shroud, on the power side, on mills with no brake and power belts inside of the shroud.  The safest place for an off-bearer is behind the head of the mill on the idle side.

Not only will these bands break in two, but sometimes will break in several pieces and send a 4 or 5 inch long piece 20 or 30 feet  out the chute side of the mill.  It's common sense that stuff will exit on that side because that's the direction of all of the motion.

Playing in the sawdust while the mill is running is a dangerous proposition. :)

rebocardo

> Playing in the sawdust while the mill is running is a dangerous proposition

Just like the people that think it is okay to walk in front of the chute of a running chipper because the branch looks finished.

Dana

On my LT-30, if the blade breaks, it comes out the side almost every time. Usually there is a couple feet sticking out. :o
Grass-fed beef farmer, part time sawyer

woodmills1

Dana, check the fingers inside the shute.  They may be bent out of position.
James Mills,Lovely wife,collect old tools,vacuuming fool,36 bdft/hr,oak paper cutter,ebonic yooper rapper nauga seller, Blue Ox? its not fast, 2 cat family, LT70,edger, 375 bd ft/hr, we like Bob,free heat,no oil 12 years,big splitter, baked stuffed lobster, still cuttin the logs dere IAM

Cedarman

Our sawdust exits our Baker scragg at knee level. One time the band broke and went through the sawdust pipe and out the side.  Ever since then we keep a wide 3' tall 1" oak board there to intercept the blade in case someone walks by at the wrong time.
I am in the pink when sawing cedar.

Dan_Shade

I snapped a blade on my LT40, it popped out of the guard, I don't remember all of the specifics, it wasn't bad, but it was bad enough to go "i'm glad nobody was standing there".

I make everybody keep a distance from the sawhead.
Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

Dana

Woodmills, there aren't any fingers in there to bend. No evidence to there having been any either.
Grass-fed beef farmer, part time sawyer

Kevin_H.

I had the same kinda problem last week, my blade stuck through the black WM discharge hose by about 6". put a nice little slice in the hose.
Got my WM lt40g24, Setworks and debarker in oct. '97, been sawing part time ever since, Moving logs with a bobcat.

Jim_Rogers

Quote from: Tom on December 14, 2006, 06:10:37 PM
Not only will these bands break in two, but sometimes will break in several pieces and send a 4 or 5 inch long piece 20 or 30 feet  out the chute side of the mill.  It's common sense that stuff will exit on that side because that's the direction of all of the motion.

I had that happen to me once, too....
but only once,,,,, so far......

I used to keep that short piece of blade in my coat pocket to show people at the breakfast dinner when they'd ask what size blade did my sawmill use. I'm not sure if it's still there or not, haven't seen that jacket yet, this fall....

Jim Rogers
Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
Woodmizer 1994 LT30HDG24 with 6' Bed Extension

MartyParsons

You can install 3 5/16 X 3 1/2 bolts in the chute if somone has removed the safety fingers in the chute. As per safety letter 1144 if you need a copy let us know.
"A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty." -Winston Churchill

Dave Shepard

I had my first band break about two weeks ago. It was a brand new band, and I was only about 18 inches into a wide cut in a dead elm, and I didn't hit any hardware. It broke into two pieces, one of which went up this sawdust pipe past the white plastic elbow on the top! :o




Dave
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

tomboysawyer

A few days after I installed some PVC on my chute to send the sawdust down on Buzz (previously known as Frankenmizer) I had a band break and go right throught the PVC elbow about 12".

It was one of the few days I didn't have my camera or cell phone (w/camera) on me. I so wanted a picture of that. We show the hole to all new visitors who will be around the mill while it is running. No one but no one walks by the chute with the blade moving.

Having seen that, I could believe a blade could go through a 1" oak board not far, but I'd seriously consider putting my money on the blade and not the board.

Broke one this past weekend now too. My regular tailer is lame, so we had a new helper, and they were both standing back at the carriage controls. I had just raised the head and was bringing it back and they tought I'd hit the cant with it. I was almost a foot away from the cant - not in a cut, had just revved the engine up and it broke.

Brian_Rhoad

My Breezewood mill doesn't have a dust shoot. The blade guard doesn't cover the bottom of the blade on the sawdust exit side. The sawdust exits under the gaurd in a straight line from the blade. In 14+ years of sawing I've never had a blade break into pieces. I've had blades break, but they stop in the log as soon as they break. I watch my blade closely for wobbling. When it starts to wobble I know a crack has started and I replace the blade. I think I can count on one hand the number of blades that have broken on the mill. I have had alot of them crack, but I change them before they break completely.

Brucer

I have a 3' section of blade (with very dull teeth) that I use for clearing sawdust from the kerf if I have to back the sawhead through a cut. If a helper persists in walking past the sawdust chute while the saw is running, I give a quick demo. I pick up my section of blade, hold it like a javelin, and tell the offender to imagine it travelling toward him at 100 km/h (60 MPH). Then I tell him that that's exactly what's happening every time he's in line with the chute.

Amazing how effective a visual aid can be ;D.
Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

Percy

Sometimes, on rare occasions, the blade will break when its just comming out of the log and the blade guide arm is extended due to the width of the cut. On my 70, sometimes I gig back with the blade spinning and a blade breaks while cutting air. They tend to make the first time viewer a bit skittish and I still get a heart mermer when it happens.
GOLDEN RULE : The guy with the gold, makes the rules.

slowzuki

I lost a blade at full speed before I had guards on the mill.  It simply rode off the front of the bandwheels, dropped onto the rails while spinning full speed, spun a few rotations until a tooth hooked up them threw itself sideways faster than I could blink and tore into the side of the garage leaving a nice mess like a cat had been clawing it for the last 5 years.

Dave Shepard

I bet that was an eye-opener! :o :o


Dave
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

Dave Shepard

The steel pipe didn't stop the band this time! This is why I tell people to give me some DanG room when I am sawing.




Dave
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

Jim_Rogers

I know this is an old thread but it needs to come back to the top again.....

This just happen to me again yesterday......

This time the blade came out the sawdust tube and broke my pvc elbow all to pieces.....

My camera's batteries were dead and I couldn't get a picture of the mess.....

Not only did the blade come out the sawdust tube but the entire blade came out of the machine and wrapped itself around the mill bed rails and timber on the mill.

I was inches from entering the cut......

I wish my camera would have worked as I wanted to show the position of the blade before I had to move everything......


Maybe I'll recreate it for the picture once my batteries are up to snuff again......


Jim Rogers
Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
Woodmizer 1994 LT30HDG24 with 6' Bed Extension

TexasTimbers

I've shot 2 of them out like that. Maybe 3 but 2 for sure. I am always also cognizant of people around my mill for this reason. There have been a couple of times I found myself walking by the chute while the in the cut and did not stop the powerhead to do what I had to do; I grabbed a chunk of wood and held it over my hip/side and walked by.

Overly cautios maybe, but those of us who've seen the blade exit and heard the sound, it isn't a stretch to believe it would go right inside you. That would be a real nasty scenario since the blade always stays partially in the saw. You'd have to walk along with the powerhead until it hit the stop, then hope someone will come along so you can ask them if they mind bring your cutting torch from the shop, and oh by the way you'll need to operate the torch while I hold the waterhose between the cut and me.

One last favor, do you mind driving me to the ER now? ;D
The oil is all in Texas, but the dipsticks are in D.C.

schmism

so who has reinforced the chute/elbo with some plate that the blade WONT get through?  seems like a simple solution.
039 Stihl 010AV  NH TC33D FEL, with toys

Tom

Keeping the blade from going through the material of the chute is a simple fix.  It's the knowledge of what happens when pieces of broken blade get out into the open environment that causes a sawyer heartache.  I've seen many people reach into a stream of sawdust as a sawyer is sawing and catch handfuls of sawdust.  They don't think of what can happen if the band breaks, and the sawyer is usually having a heart attack trying to get the "don't do that" words out of his mouth.  Broken band can exit the mill in more places than the chute, depending on where it breaks and what it hits.  While a bandmill is inherently one of the more safer ways of sawing logs because the band is buried or covered for most of its travel, it can still be a dangerous tool if some caution isn't excercised.

Fixing symptoms, like the broken chute problem is easy.  Fixing the problem, which is keeping people out of the area of danger, can be a more difficult one. A man hasn't eyes everywhere he needs them.  That is why a short safety course at the beginning of the day is a good thing.

WH_Conley

I had a blade come completely through the chute, rubber hose tied up, and go a total of 37 feet from the end of the mill to the far end of the blade. After I hung a tarp as a temporary back wall another blade came out and went 14 feet and stuck in the tarp. And people wonder why I get bent out of shape when I catch someone on that side of the mill.
Bill

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