Cutting small parts and thin stock safely.

Small parts are where bandsaw injuries happen. The blade doesn’t grab like a table saw, so it is tempting to hold a tiny piece with your fingertips and push it through. The rule is simple: if your fingers would come within a hand’s width of the blade, use something else to hold or push the work. A few cheap jigs make small parts both safer and more accurate.

Tools for small parts.

• Push stick. Keep one within reach and use it for the end of every cut on a narrow piece. A notched stick or a push block with a heel holds the work down and pushes it through.
• Carrier board. Fix the small piece to a larger board with double-sided tape, a hot-glue dot or a toggle clamp, and feed the board. Your hands stay on the big board, far from the blade.
• Clamp or hand screw. A small clamp or wooden hand screw holds the part and gives you a handle to steer with.
• Zero-clearance insert. A table insert with a slot only as wide as the blade stops thin offcuts and small parts dropping into the gap and jamming. Make one from plywood or MDF to fit your saw’s insert recess.
• Sacrificial fence. A wooden face on the fence lets you cut strips right next to it without the metal fence touching the blade.

Thin strips.

To rip several thin strips, cut each strip off the outside edge of the board, the side away from the fence, so the strip is never trapped between the blade and the fence. A thickness guide clamped to the table beside the blade sets the width: slide the board against it before each cut. Use a push stick for the last part of each cut, and stop when the board gets too narrow to hold safely; finish that last piece another way.

Cut the shape first, then free the part.

When you need a small shaped part, mark it on a larger board, cut its outline while the board is still big enough to hold safely, and only then cut it free. Many small parts can be made in a row on one long strip and separated last.

When to use another tool.

Some parts are too small for a bandsaw however you hold them. A scroll saw, a coping saw or a sanding block is often the safer choice for the last few millimetres; see bandsaw, jigsaw or scroll saw.