*graphic warning* Saw safety, replace guards!

[jclaudii]

5 min of inconvenience would have prevented this mistake. So far I am lucky in that no fingers were severed just lacerated! And so far feeling and movement is still there.

This happend on Saturday from a chop saw of which I just put a finishing blade on to make a few cuts. Thinking ill use it for a few cuts and take it back off for the ripping blade. After my cut I let off the trigger and went for my cut wood and when pulling back I caught the blade with the top side of my fingers.

Stressed wife, stressed kids, ER visit. And now going to hire a helper to finish my flooring project.

5 minutes, folks! Perhaps even less to make it as safe as it could be. All please be careful in our usage of tools that we use often, I think we get complacent in their use and disregard the dangers from time to time.

Happy Holidays y'all.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Thanks

This DID have a saw blade on it and was my go to saw for many years. Replaced by a cordless. Now this was used to clean up seams on a steel roof. Friends always called it my OSHA saw!

 

[jclaudii]

Don't wear a hoodie with strings dangling while using that. Eeek

 

[Rebeldad1]

rule of thumb on any rotary saw....
always wait till the blade stops before removing wood or before putting hands in the blade area.

most all saws have some kind of brake to stop the blade after power to the saw is cutoff (like the finger switch on a miter saw or circular saw

 

[Industrial Toys]

Especially on mine! Always knew to wait for the blade to stop, before setting it down. Keeps the mind sharp though! No wiggle room for daydreaming. YET, I don't like getting within a mile of a table saw!

 

[jclaudii]

I just got an old table saw from FB Marketplace for use in this same flooring project. Used it to make several cuts to remove the tongue for the wall boards to start the first row. This is an older Craftsman that does not even have the kickback guard/fin thing so I was using minimum blade protrusion and paid alot of attention. Still didn't like cutting those longer planks as it did want to bind and some...which would cause the board to try to climb the blade some. My chop saw is an older GMC model that does not have a brake when trigger is released. Neither does the old table saw. I am all for folks being involved in their own safety but a bit of help accident prevention can be handy.

 

[4570Man]

Raising the blade significantly reduces the piece climbing the blade. It’s probably not sharp either. Btw I bought a flooring shear that’s a life changing tool if you’re doing much laminate floor.

 

[stephenh]

Things like this can happen so fast, and change one's life. At my job, we had a sales rep' who used to come in every few months. He and I would chat a little about chainsaws. Once he came in after he'd been gone a year or more, I'd forgotten about him. He was a different man. He'd gone out one morning on his property to cut off a small-diameter limb that was in the way of someone walking beneath this tree. He held the saw up at just over his head, cut the branch, it caught and kicked back into his face. He'd had a year or so of surgery, reconstruction. It had cut through his cheekbone and across one eye socket. His face was distorted and always would remain that way. They saved his eyesight. He said he had reminded himself how dangerous it was to hold a saw like that, then did it anyway because it was one 1" branch and would only take a few seconds.

 

[CobyRupert]

Raising the blade significantly reduces the piece climbing the blade. It’s probably not sharp either. Btw I bought a flooring shear that’s a life changing tool if you’re doing much laminate floor.

Thanks for info. Can you or others speak more on the subject of setting blade depth.
I never know how, or why, to adjust the depth of my circular saw.

All I know is that when cutting a “corner” out of a board, sheet of plywood, etc.. that a deep blade (cutting “upwards”) makes matching the corners easier as the cuts aren’t beveled. But there must be a reason blade depth is adjustable.
Does it make a difference on whether board will get “splinters” when cutting, or is that a function of what type of blade you’re using?

Pardon the hijack of the thread regarding this “related” topic, let me know if I should post these questions separately.

 

[MF243RedTop]

Thanks

This DID have a saw blade on it and was my go to saw for many years. Replaced by a cordless. Now this was used to clean up seams on a steel roof. Friends always called it my OSHA saw!

View attachment 678448

The outer insulation missing off the wires are a nice touch!
Dealing with power tools that apply to metal work, it's not if, it's when you're going to get bit at some point.