Video - Saw Blade Protection

[Radio Fixer]

I will look at a plain old piece of wood differently next time Lawrence.

Think they had one of those big saws at the Amberly Museum when I went earlier in the year but it wasnt in operation. Apparentlt when it is its a big crowd draw (all roped back of course!)

Gary

[Yorkie]

What was it 10 accidents a day? So a lot of folks aint doing it right

Gary

Lack of training? contempt for commonsense safety precautions?

Or yet further proof of Darwin's theory of the non-survival of the stupidest - nature's way of culling numpties perhaps?

Hopefully, they're not breeding

You can buy a chain saw from Amazon or wherever, take it out of the box without reading the instructions, climb up a tree and start lopping branches (or limbs). Many people do just that, but some get away with it, in the same way that some step into the road and don't get knocked down by a bus. Others are less lucky. Never their own fault of course - someone walks across a railway line texting on their phone, and is tragically hit by an oncoming express train. Railtrack's fault, obviously, (not) for not protecting them from their own stupidity.

I have a set of extending aluminium ladders on which there is a warning sign - 'Danger, do not allow to come into contact with overhead electric cables - danger of death'. Really, I never knew that!

[Retired]

Hi,

What an interesting thread. Gary kindly sent me details of this saw safety device and I agree it is most impressive. Unfortunately however a machine can be covered in guards and safety devices but someone will find a way of having an accident.

http://www.training-its.co.uk/paslodehil...course.asp

David as usual makes a lot of sense in that many accidents are caused through lack of common sense or sheer stupidity. Another thing plays a part though and this is ignorance; many novices buying these potentially dangerous power tools/machines have never used one previously in fact many might not have even cut a piece of wood using a hand saw. We all make silly mistakes whilst learning a new skill but it is the degree of mistake which is the problem; hit your thumb with a hammer is most common and I'm sure many of us has repeated this lots of times but once the switch is thrown on a machine a silly mistake becomes much more serious and in many cases has proved fatal. I can pop into Screwfix and pick up a big Paslode gas cartridge nail gun; any novice playing with one of these guns will soon find out that it doesn't take much to trigger the gun firing the nail in an instant. I've used air nailers many times and own two but I treat them with respect. Out of curiosity I just looked on the web for "Hilti nail gun regulations" the search brought up the above training center. I've been on training courses sponsored by the firms I worked for but would a novice be willing to pay hundreds of pounds to attend such a course. Perhaps it would pay the government to set up such training centers free of charge because the cost would be saved through the NHS and hopefully many "accidents" avoided.

David also mentions chainsaws; these too can be highly dangerous when operated by someone unfamiliar with safe working practices around machines; saw-benches and portable power saws are equally as dangerous but any adult can buy these.

I worked for a firm where a highly intelligent top manager asked an employee to check the managers car windscreen wiper saying it wasn't cleaning the windscreen; the employee found the wiper blade unit completely missing just leaving the arm and the tip of the arm had scored a large arc across the windscreen; this is a true story because I was shown the car.

I wonder what would happen if such a guy was let loose with a chainsaw or nail gun?

I was brought up from the age of 15 around huge machines all having open belts and gears but fortunately I was very well supervised; actual basic training on the use of hand tools and power tools could easily be covered in a day. In my last job I was in charge of the timber department and previous to me taking over employees would wander in and start machines to cut a bit of wood etc. I compiled a list of all these people and arranged for an instructor to come on site and every person using these machines from then on must have the basic training certificate; this training included me and the regular employees who had used the machinery for many years. The timber department was then locked at the end of the shift.

I've seen people do the stupidest things as I have done but I hope I'm going to be around for many years to come even though I'll still do stupid things.

Kind regards, Col.

[pwdrive]

I will look at a plain old piece of wood differently next time Lawrence.

Think they had one of those big saws at the Amberly Museum when I went earlier in the year but it wasnt in operation. Apparentlt when it is its a big crowd draw (all roped back of course!)

Gary

Hi Gary, the Stenner saws could be found in just about every sawmill in the land, some are still going strong, they are built like a battleship, the rolling tables on the one in the picture are made of half inch steel plate, the headrig is all cast iron including the band wheels, the wheels in the picture still have a good crown on them and still maintain their balance, the tension on the blade has to be high normally over 1,000lb, the blade tracking is set so the gullets of the band are approx 3mm hanging over the front rim of the band wheel, this distance has to be maintained otherwise band cracking can occur, the saw doctors will weld up to four cracks as long as they are no more than about 25mm deep, any more than that then the band is usually scrapped. A properly sharpened band will cut for around a max. of 4 hrs total.
Robinson also made some excellent bandsaws, their 48" resaw was a good machine, still a few of them kicking around.
Yes there is more to timber than meets the eye, soon as a log is opened up the sawyer knows the best way to convert it for the best use. Today lasers and computers work out the cutting pattern to get the optimum yield.
Stenners saws were made in Tiverton.
There will be plenty of ash around soon if that diseae gets worse, trouble is the politicians are on the case now.

Lawrence.

[Retired]

Hi,

That Stenner rig is surely one nice piece of kit Lawrence and thanks for sharing it.

I used to visit a wood machine exhibition in the midlands and Stenner used to be showing their band-saw which always impressed me. I actually put my foot in it whilst talking to the salesman; I was touching the frame and saying you can't beat cast iron. I was informed it was actually heavy gauge steel plate as you state; the surface finish made it look like cast iron. These are machines built in the old tradition to last many lifetimes unlike the tinny offerings on sale these days built down to a price not up to a quality. Our local timber yard has one of these big Stenner saws.

What a shame it is that our heavy engineering is in decline and many of the old companies who manufactured top brand machines are no longer trading. Many of the foundry's have also closed. We are fortunate Lawrence to have worked with some top class machinery.

http://www.stenner.co.uk/home/

Kind regards, Col.