How not to operate a miter saw

[TRITON]

I dont know if any of you follow follow the newspapers but there was a report yesterday of a guy using a cheapo challenge miter saw to cut firewood. It went spectacularly wrong.
The key word in the article was 'Hoodie', as in he caught it in the blade as he reached in to lift the timber away. Result isnt a nice visual for those of us with one(most here I expect)
Managed to cut through his entire forearm, severing hand and wrist. There was a fair bit of claret spread about the saw and the tell tale ragged section of hoodie sleeve.

Sleeves ABOVE the elbows guys

Thankfully the surgeon managed to put it back on, though it looks a little offset

Actually the only one of these that has me work it with huge respect is the radial arm saw as you can see anything contacts the blade is going to be pulled under and cut off, and ive too good a visual imagination. I just hate it really, and its designed to come forward so it will take off anything.

Article - sorry really not work safe or for anyone with lax working practice or squeamish in the slightest.
2nd apology for being in the daily racist, i dont read this rag, was the first link.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9038791/Security-officer-49-chops-HAND-electric-saw.html

 

[akirk]

Might not show this to my wife (she is a hand surgeon, and I have just bought a mitre saw!)
I think though that it is not just a lesson of sleeves - but a question as to why someone would put their hand / arm under the blade at any point, let alone while it is still spinning...

My very risk adverse approach is simple,
once a cut is done, the blade is left to stop spinning before anything else happens...
to move wood out from under the blade (e.g. the trimmed waste) a push stick is used, or the remaining piece of wood - never a hand

if your body starts to think that there are times when it is okay for the hand / arm to be under the blade then there is little in-built avoidance of putting it under when the blade is running... better to build up a rule of no body part ever goes under that blade...

 

[RichardG64]

I'm going to use that for the Students in my workshop

 

[Spectric]

Yes that is all it takes, a moment where you start a job without mentally running through the hazzards and making sure you have reduced the risk. Loose clothing has caused so many injuries when working on rotating machinery over the years yet people still do it. I think that the task in hand takes over and people go safety blind.

 

[Alpha-Dave]

I hope he recovers well, and this is a great time to be alive in the UK: air ambulances and skilled surgical teams ready to go.

On a practical note, there are several odd things about this for me, especially the forces required to get through bone would have stopped the saw sooner that going all the way through, and that the blade has a spring to lift it up, so there would have been something pushing the blade down unless it was unguarded. Had he bypassed several safety components e.g. locking the guard up, and locking the power on with a cable tie?

As a Christmas present to myself I have just bought the Fastcap $10m stick. Not that it is a complete solution, but all steps are good.

https://woodworkersworkshop.co.uk/products/fastcap-10-million-dollar-stick

 

[Spectric]

Hi

These things happen in the blink of an eye, probably got snagged and then fell onto the saw to give it a faster cut.

 

[TRITON]

I'm going to use that for the Students in my workshop

Decades ago I started an engineering course, and part of it was a lecture from the HSE. During that they showed a number of full colour pictures of injuries sustained, and the one that I remember most was the workers hand, (still attached) on a white cloth, but the fingers all laid out where they should have been with an inch gap, a clear severing just above the knuckles on all 4.

Hi
These things happen in the blink of an eye, probably got snagged and then fell onto the saw to give it a faster cut.

We worked that out one class in college.
Surface planer block turns at X RPM, 4 knives and the speed of for example you deliberatly touchting the spinning block. Were you to do this we reckoned the finger would be in contact for a thousandths of a second, in which time it would have taken maybe 16 slices

 

[sammy.se]

These are always good reminders to me, so that I don't get complacent.
Glad he is ok (i.e. didn't lose the arm)

 

[RobinBHM]

I hope he recovers well, and this is a great time to be alive in the UK: air ambulances and skilled surgical teams ready to go.

On a practical note, there are several odd things about this for me, especially the forces required to get through bone would have stopped the saw sooner that going all the way through, and that the blade has a spring to lift it up, so there would have been something pushing the blade down unless it was unguarded. Had he bypassed several safety components e.g. locking the guard up, and locking the power on with a cable tie?

As a Christmas present to myself I have just bought the Fastcap $10m stick. Not that it is a complete solution, but all steps are good.

https://woodworkersworkshop.co.uk/products/fastcap-10-million-dollar-stick

that looks good and a fantastic video review -I think I will be getting one.

 

[artie]

that looks good and a fantastic video review -I think I will be getting one.

Where is the Video?

 

[smackie]

Decades ago I started an engineering course, and part of it was a lecture from the HSE. During that they showed a number of full colour pictures of injuries sustained, and the one that I remember most was the workers hand, (still attached) on a white cloth, but the fingers all laid out where they should have been with an inch gap, a clear severing just above the knuckles on all 4.

I did a similar engineering course in the late 80s in Glasgow and it was mandatory to sit thru the 2 hours of safety video and briefing before being allowed out on the floor to actually be near machinery for tuition (some of which had come from the BREL St Rollox site and was suitably enormous).

I like to think I have a strong stomach but I can still vividly remember some of the post-accident photos 35 years later. I won’t mention the injuries but they all involved either lathes, pillar drills or bandsaws.

Definitely shaped my attitude to working with fast spinning parts.

 

[Alpha-Dave]

Where is the Video?

 

[Terrytpot]

Is it just me or does the repair look like a particularly dodgy scarf joint? In all seriousness, I still find it hard to believe that the re-attachment of severed parts is at all possible let alone fairly common place..

 

[Peter Sefton]

Just been preparing for a wood machining course next week, first bit of kit on the agenda the Mitre Saw. After a general safety introduction on the basic workshop rules of no hoodies, wooly pulleys, long hair, keeping your hands clear using push sticks, blocks and jigs and isolating machines. Interspersed with a few stories to help concentrate the mind, understanding the difference between a crosscut/radial arm and the mitre saw is fundamental along with the difference between rip and cross cut blades. This HSE info sheet is a good starter and their video is also useful.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/wis36.pdf

 

[Spectric]

The problem with safety is that it starts within, you can only teach so much but unless that person adopts a safe attitude to working practices they are just waiting to learn from experience. Peter what you need to do is to demonstrate what a mitre saw can do to a lump of meat, make sure it is nice a bloody so all the students get some splatter and that might hammer the message home.

 

[RobinBHM]

Actually the only one of these that has me work it with huge respect is the radial arm saw as you can see anything contacts the blade is going to be pulled under and cut off,

I worked at a large furniture factory that had a hydraulic cross cut -all you had to do was put your foot on the pedal and the saw came towards you -fast!

and it had a big cut width -probably about 900mm

 

[XH558]

Might not show this to my wife (she is a hand surgeon, and I have just bought a mitre saw!)
I think though that it is not just a lesson of sleeves - but a question as to why someone would put their hand / arm under the blade at any point, let alone while it is still spinning...

My very risk adverse approach is simple,
once a cut is done, the blade is left to stop spinning before anything else happens...
to move wood out from under the blade (e.g. the trimmed waste) a push stick is used, or the remaining piece of wood - never a hand

if your body starts to think that there are times when it is okay for the hand / arm to be under the blade then there is little in-built avoidance of putting it under when the blade is running... better to build up a rule of no body part ever goes under that blade...

I bet she is 'handy' to know.

Yes OK, I am getting my hat and coat...........

 

[doctor Bob]

poor bloke, looks horrendous.

 

[Jelly]

Actually the only one of these that has me work it with huge respect is the radial arm saw as you can see anything contacts the blade is going to be pulled under and cut off, and ive too good a visual imagination. I just hate it really, and its designed to come forward so it will take off anything.

If you think RAS's are scary, you should see a pendulum saw! (Although I think since PUWER98 manually operated ones are effectively banned, thankfully).

In both cases with the very obvious gigantic spinning blade you'd think it would be obvious to not try to hold things by putting your arm or hand through the swept path of the blade...

Yet people continue to do so!

 

[TRITON]

Pendulum saw.