Bandsaw blade explodes

SE,

You're going to think I'm yanking your chain, but I use the 'guitar string' method: twang it with my finger and listen for the sound. After awhile you can tell by the sound about how tight it is. Used this method on the big 7' Grob at work, on both my wood bandsaws, and my power hacksaw. It does work. The idea is, you don't want it any tighter than necessary to stay on the wheels and well aligned.

I'd urge you to cover that hole. Sometimes it's called a 'throat plate'. Make the width of the slot the same as your sawblade, it'll 'waller out' after a little use and have just the right amount of clearance. You do want to make sure your blade adjustments are all done, before you do this.

Oh, you go where there's the longest uninterrupted length of saw blade, that's usually from the back of the bottom pulley to the top of the front. Which means you have to take the cover plate off.

Hope this helps.

Les

Torby,

Heh, heh. Would you like some possible insight into their thinking? Maybe something like this:

Joe: "We gotta change out that big blade. Dull. Gonna let go pretty soon. It shed some teeth awhile ago."

Sam: "Yeah, I heard that. Ain't that bad, yet. Quite a few teeth left."

J: "Let's get 'er done."

S: "Aww, mannnn, like, that's a lotta work. That blade's more'n 10 feet long. Let's leave it for second shift."

J: "Ain't no second shift. Get the the blade stock out--whoa, look who just walked in!"

(Knowing glances exchanged.)

Torby: "Hi, ho, Fellows! Can I do a few cuts on the big saw?"

J & S: "Why, oh heck yeah! Go right on ahead, she's ready."

(Sound of bandsaw spinning up, sound of metal being fed in--BANG!-- Sound of muffled shriek.)

T: "Aw, I broke the blade!"

J: "Ah, come back after lunch.... it's okay. Everybody screws up now 'n again."

Back in my sawmill days, we would lose one of the band mills occasionally. We heard a story one time of a head rig that broke its abnd saw cutting a big fir log. The saw wrapped itself around the bottom wheel down in what was called the "**** hole." Curiously the crew gathered around to peer down into the bottom wheel while the sawyer wond down the wheels. The broken saw decided it had enough of riding around the bottom wheel came flying out like a coiled spring. People scattered like crazy as the saw came out and ran around the mill floor. Fortunately no one was hurt, though some pants were stained.

Later after this story had made its rounds, were cutting second growth pine in our quad mill, when one of the logs broke in the carriage. One saw backed off the mill and ran itself into the housing and the other three saws broke into pieces flying around the mill. Again we were lucky, nobody got hurt, though the cant sorter got chased by flying saw pieces. Thise were the days.

I never worked in a sawmill, just hauled logs in either to sell or for lumber for my buildings. (Or both.) I was cutting over 400 acres of second/third growth. Wore out or ruined 4 McCollough's when they were the saw to own. Now, they're crap. This sawmill, ca 1966, that I hauled to was a 4 ft (?) circular saw run by a 4 cyl International stationary. Also, worth noting, it hadn't changed much since the '50s, when son took over from father. One day I'm going to model it for my RR.

I've never seen a bandsaw mill, I understand they're popular out west or in the tall timber. (My g.father was a topper in the 30s in Washington state.)

When you're working with machines that are moving seriously fast in feet/min (I forget the correct terminology--ah, surface ft/min) when something goes 'bang', a good plan is to either hit the deck or go away until everything's quiet. Not crowd around to see who got his. But guys who work in sawmills don't have a lot of imagination, sometimes. (I'm cursed with overmuch, which is prob'ly why I've got all my body parts.) Nerves ain't much, tho.

Appreciated your post, info like that tends to accumulate. And the cant guy, gotta feel for him, y'know?

Les