Holy carp...Wood can fly really fast.

[wood-n-things]

I was trying to cut my time down in creating some ornaments. The kind that are round. So I made a simple jig that sits in my miter slot on my oscillating spindle sander.

Placed a nail in the wood half the distance for the circumference of my ornament. 1 7/8" from the belt for a 3 3/4" ornament.

Drilled a hole in the center of several pieces (5) of practice stock, which I had set up for a traditional stack cut.

I used the bandsaw to cut off most of the excess wood after drawing a circle with a string and sharpie...I can't find my compass after our move in February that's why. Sheesh always gotta have a critique in the crowd.....

Took the stacked somewhat rounded wood to the spindle sander, placed it on the nail used for a centering post, tested to make sure nothing was binding, turned on the spindle sander with the 4" belt on.

Now keep in mind it is hotter than blue blazes here today 105 outside and 92 in my shop, so I figured let a cross breeze in and it will give me the illusion that it actually feels cooler, so up went the garage door. My old shop had air conditioning in it, I miss my old shop....whaaaaaaa

Sorry I digress.....

Started sanding away and it worked,...It was actually making a circle...my shop vac was siphoning away most of the fine dust, there was a slight breeze coming in the door, Crystal Gayle was singing her lungs out on the cd player------------sweat was actually falling beside the work piece and not on top of it -------------------------------and then it happened.




wham..........zing......and a hunk of the wood off the top off the stack, sailed like a freaking Frisbee, out the garage door, glanced off the wind shield of my truck careened up and over the back of my startled Toyota Tundra like a 223 round richocheting off a steel pot and ended up in the neighbors yard across the street.

The good thing about all of this....his sprinklers cooled me off during the retrieval run.


Back to the drawing board.....Mumbling to myself---I hate cutting circles they are never symmetrical....

[Max]

Wow! I never thought a spindle sander could launch wood like that. Maybe you should concider making square ornaments. LOL. I had a record at our house for almost six months my sending a piece of wood about 25 feet from my tablesaw, then my son sent one almost 50 feet. I never want to see that again.

[Hobbyhorse]

The mind boggles!!!

[JohnB]

Mike,
Reading the heading, I thought you'd seen the light and been illuminated by the all knowing, all seeing fish.
Or maybe just watching to many old batman re-runs LOL

Machines can do some fun things eh!
Only fun though if you are not on the receiving end.

When I was doing my apprenticeship, I had to sand down a stack of nylon drawer runners that had already been fitted into grooves on the drawer sides.
The machinists had stuffed up and the drawers were about a mm two wide.
The sanded down nicely on a 12' vertical belt sander until I pressed bit to hard. The nylon softened, the belt grabbed and ripped the runner out of the drawer.
It went through the backs of 4 wardrobes before stopping halfway through the 5th.
No doors on the robes at that stage.

Needless to say, all the blokes wanted a shot and set up a ply target until the foreman spoiled the fun.

[Sally]

Scary! Glad you weren't hurt. Surprising how fast stuff happens. I spend half my life on the floor looking for propelled pieces - the other half of my life looking for my car.

[KtownScroller]

Good thing it didn't hit you Mike! I think I might have done something like that in the past. Maybe your next attempt would work better if you limited how many blanks you sanded at one time. And to think I need to do something similar with a 3/8" bushing. I hope my experiment goes better than yours. LOL!

[sawdustus]

Nothing like a rotary slingshot to wake you up.

george

[wood-n-things]

I have tried it now with just one piece of wood and it works pretty well. I re-traced the events in my head, and I now beleive the disc must have rolled part of the way. it's just to far to have a careening shot fly that far. LOL I'm glad i had the sander facing in that direction, I'd have a heck of a hole in the wall if not...LOL

Lesson learned, no stack sanding....

[wood-n-things]

Here are a couple of pics of my jig....Watch out it's dangerous.
Doesn't get any more basic than that..But it works for single pieces quite well.

[minowevie]

Shazammm. that was close. dang my friend, glad your ok. how is your truck window? I do circales on my table saw. or a saber. your friend , Evie