OT: Sawmill Oopsie

[52 Ford]

THIS is why you can't run a sawmill by yourself. There's supposed to be a guy (or a couple of) pulling the boards off the saw as they're cut (instead of holding a camera). Sawmill Accident - YouTube

Watch that video. It's a short one and not graphic. He HAS to have broken ribs from that.

 

[eKretz]

I saw that one yesterday. That definitely did some damage. He should have stayed off to the side until that board was cleared too. I also think his board puller was probably the one holding the camera and I definitely heard him say "oh shit" at the end. I guarantee that definitely did not feel good. Hopefully he's okay. I could definitely see that being fatal if he was unlucky.

 

[52 Ford]

I saw that one yesterday. That definitely did some damage. He should have stayed off to the side until that board was cleared too. I also think his board puller was probably the one holding the camera and I definitely heard him say "oh shit" at the end. I guarantee that definitely did not feel good. Hopefully he's okay. I could definitely see that being fatal if he was unlucky.

Yeah. If it was ANY worse, I don't think it'd even be allowed on YouTube. That would be like getting hit in the chest with a sledge hammer. A big sledge hammer at that. You're right about luck. If it had hit him in the neck... yeah. Scary.

 

[Limy Sami]

Ouch! ...that's gonna hurt in the morning.

 

[boslab]

My neighbour took most of one hand off using a tractor driven circular saw, dangerous business saws
Mark

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I worked on machines as big as houses in my engineering career but the machine I treated with the most respect was the circular saw in the workshop when I worked at the high school. They are not to be trifled with. Even then it threw a few smaller items at me !

Regards Tyrone.

 

[moonlight machine]

Years ago my grandfather had a saw with about a 3' diameter blade powered by a Jeep engine, no clutch, just a belt drive off the engine. It had a table with a back board and this lot pivoted down low so you would lay a log on it and pivot it into the blade crosscutting the log. I hated that thing! we would lay a log on it holding up the end with the tractor bucket and a chain. you would make a cut, drive in from the end with the tractor and log and make another cut. sometimes it would kick back at the person pushing it into the blade, (me) Did I say I hated that thing?

 

[Ray Behner]

A great friend almost died that way. Got it right in the forehead. You can still see the impression of a cracked skull. This was 25 years ago and he now has Parkinsons. I was told that the accident initiated it. Don't know. A bunch of us go to a nursing home in Coshocton, Ohio every once in a while to visit John. He just lays in bed shaking 24 hrs a day. I guess the worst part of it, is he's still sharp as a tack in the mind. Everything he does has to be done by others.

The worst part is the sawmill was poorly built by an idiot. I'm no professional, but I do know circular mills quite well,
Ran one for many years. Just your avg. 52" blade sawmill. Problem is just like ^ this video, there is no "shark fin" behind the blade. The board leaned the wrong way (because it could) and caught him square in the head. He laid on the ground from early morning until quitting time.

 

[eKretz]

In this particular case, I'm not sure the riving knife (shark fin) would have helped. Those are very good at preventing pinch/closure of the kerf, but that wasn't what happened in this particular instance.

 

[GregSY]

It looks like a very basic, old school saw...it seems like it was built with a bare minimum of materials and effort. In other words, as soon as there were enough moving parts to cut wood, they stopped working on the saw. A couple vertical posts of steel pipe would have most likely prevented the cut slab from exiting toward the operator.

Circular blades are always dangerous, no matter what type of saw they are in. Of course, the radial arm saw is probably the worst of all since the rotation wants to pull the blade towards you. When I use my radial arm saw, all brains cells are turned on full blast.

 

[Ray Behner]

In this particular case, I'm not sure the riving knife (shark fin) would have helped. Those are very good at preventing pinch/closure of the kerf, but that wasn't what happened in this particular instance.

Boy, I don't know. I've watched it several times and notice the board going off the table and down toward the track. If there was anything vertical behind that blade to the height of the blade, it sure couldn't hurt.
We called them shark fins because they weren't vertical. They curved around the blade on the backside to the top.

 

[blcksmth]

I don't think I have ever seen a sawyer that stopped the carriage while the wood was still near the saw blade. The log always clears the blade by a comfortable margin.

Bob
WB8NQW

 

[dgfoster]

I worked on machines as big as houses in my engineering career but the machine I treated with the most respect was the circular saw in the workshop when I worked at the high school. They are not to be trifled with. Even then it threw a few smaller items at me !

Regards Tyrone.

About 15 years ago had about a one foot piece of 1 x 4 ride up an snag the top of my 10 inch table saw blade. The blade dug in and threw that piece my direction at 5000 sfpm (60 mph). I was, by habit, standing out of the line of travel. But it punched a hole in the drywall 15 feet away. I never patched the hole. I always point it out to someone new to table saws as a “good lesson.”

Denis

 

[gustafson]

In this particular case, I'm not sure the riving knife (shark fin) would have helped. Those are very good at preventing pinch/closure of the kerf, but that wasn't what happened in this particular instance.

I understand that is not what they are made for, but I think it might have stopped the roll into the blade for long enough for the board to tip off the saw structure.

 

[Bill D]

As youtube rolls into the next video it has one of a guy running a similar saw with no safety glasses. He has a piece of plexiglass between himself and the blade, but still.
Bill D

 

[eKretz]

Boy, I don't know. I've watched it several times and notice the board going off the table and down toward the track. If there was anything vertical behind that blade to the height of the blade, it sure couldn't hurt.
We called them shark fins because they weren't vertical. They curved around the blade on the backside to the top.

It certainly wouldn't have hurt, that's for sure. Might have helped, might not. Looked to me like it caught the front edge of the blade and after it caught, it never went past the top of the blade before getting launched, so I think the riving knife probably wouldn't have done much. Bet he's wishing he had at least tried it now though.

 

[richard newman]

Wow, no way to tell how much damage that poor guy suffered. Luckily the end was square and not pointed, that would have been much worse. It does seem like some sort of vertical support after the blade could have prevented this.

A Woodmizer bandsaw type mill eliminates that danger, and is much safer for solo operation but is significantly slower. For the same reason I prefer to use the band saw over the table saw when practical, way less drama.

In my 55 year career as a professional furniture (and now banjo) maker my only serious injury came from a big beam leaning against the wall that slid down and crushed my thumb, ripping it open. Stitches right thru my thumbnail!

 

[henrya]

I don't think I have ever seen a sawyer that stopped the carriage while the wood was still near the saw blade. The log always clears the blade by a comfortable margin.

Bob
WB8NQW

This^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^.

Along with apparently getting distracted while working with dangerous equipment. This kind of stuff requires 110% attention all day long.

 

[Modelman]

The carriage goes plenty far past the blade, you can see the log ends a couple feet from the last post, and that last post goes past the blade. But, the board stops as soon as it's cut free, because it's not on the carriage. That's what the pull-off man is for, if he would have done his job. A riving knife wouldn't have helped, as they are normally shorter than the blade so they don't get jammed up if the log is bigger than the blade projection.

Dennis

 

[GregSY]

The thing that lingers in the back of my mind - as with many of this sort of video - is not one of safety, It's also not one of personal injury, or any one of a hundred things.

It's the simple, unavoidable truth that even if you set out with a $50 million R&D budget and a team of highly talented engineers and millwrights, you could never design and build a machine that so effectively launched a big, heavy slab of wood any more efficiently. In fact, you'd probably never be able to achieve the same results - not to mention the sheer terror.