Accident with a "Skil" type saw

Used to have a circular saw that had that same issue, well worth fixing/replacing… Sorry to hear about the son law, hopefully a speedy recovery…

-- Dan

”...Barefoot?...” @W^#%$! That being said, thanks for sharing. Accidents don’t don’t only happen between 9am-5pm. Something for ALL of us to remember.

-- HorizontalMike -- "Woodpeckers understand..."

Man, that’s ugly.

Any kind of casualness when working with circular
saws is asking for trouble.

Several years ago I was drawing in the house and
wanted something from the shop, a straightedge
maybe. I went to get it, barefoot, and I knocked
a chisel off the bench which impaled my foot.

The chisel is question has a round handle and
a narrow blade so it was easy for it to roll off
the bench. I always put them away now. I still
walk into the shop wearing sandals sometimes
but I’m a lot more careful and do put on shoes
to actually work in there.

I think the number one safety tool we can use is common sense.

-- Shooting down the walls of heartache. Bang bang. I am. The warrior.

Sorry to hear about this… this is certainly no fun… Be careful everyone, this hobby/living can quickly turn into a nightmare.

—-

Thinking about how this happened… the blade’s teeth would be rotating from the back of the saw to the front. If it contacted the ground it would move the saw backwards. So he probably set it down 10 o’clock to 2 o’clock in front of him and it shot back towards his foot.

A safety precaution I always do with circular saws is to visually look at the guard before setting down. From this accident I think another good precaution is to set the saw down in a way that if it does shoot back it will do so in a safe direction. Similar to gun safety, point the gun in a safe direction until ready to shoot that way if the gun does go off unintentionally it’ll shoot in a safe direction.

Very sorry to hear that. Saw accidents are very serious, indeed.
In my book the best practice is to not even set a cirular saw down until the blade has come to a stop.

-- Ed

I was removing laminate flooring from a bedroom in my house as part of an on-going project at the time, working when time would allow. I wandered in there one night after working, barefoot, and found the single 15ga. finish nail that I hadn’t removed or bent over in the bottom of my foot. It only went in about 1/2” which was better than going completely through I’m sure, but was very painful at the time.

-- "Lack of effort will result in failure with amazing predictability" - Me

Sorry to hear about that. Circular saws are very dangerous, you have to watch the guard retract every time. Working on jobsites, these saws hurt more people than any other tool. I worked with a numbnutts guy who’d tap a wedge in the guard because it got in his way. He’d set the saw down and it would dance around. He lost 2 fingers on 2 different occasions.

Jeff , Sounds like the numbnutts guy was not all that Bright. He should have learned his lesson the first time.

It still tweaks me that all circular saws are defined as “Skill” saws. If they were “skill” saw, wouldn’t that mean that there was some SKILL involved?
Sorry if I sound cold, but it is what it is.
No shoes? Come on!
A loaded pistol to the head? DUHHH!
Bill

-- [email protected]

No one mentioned skill

-- "Lack of effort will result in failure with amazing predictability" - Me

Will Sawstop make a worm drive saw?

-- "I cut it twice and it's still too short"

Same thing happened to a buddy of mine, he had the guard tied back though…

-- "I cut it twice and it's still too short"

I am sorry to hear of your friends accident.It could have been of course much worse bad enough as it was.
Could I add a word of warning re something I did with a cirular saw also.It was about fifteen years ago or so I nearly injured my wife Bronwen when I used a circular saw.I was cutting a piece of wood under a shed and asked Bron to hold it steady, then very stupidly as I was not very experienced at the time I applied the saw to the wood and started it up. It was a good job I had a firm grip of it as it kicked back almost cutting Bron on her face. It all happened so quick.
Moral of the story is never apply any saw to the work before it comes up to full speed .Also from your friends accident never lay a tool down til it comes to a complete halt.I never repeated this mistake again and always preach to other to be careful.I cannot over emphasize the force of the kickback it was quite a frightening thing and certainly made me take my time from then on with all potentially dangerous tools. and I have always slowed down with all machinery from that day on.Regards Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

Update: My son-in-law was cutting overhead and some debris got caught, holding the guard back. he didn’t notice the guard was not down and placed the saw on the ground. He was released from the hospital this morning and will be out of work for 4 weeks. I kid him now to wear steel toe shows, hard hat, safety glasses when working around the house. By-the-way, it was his right foot, so he won’t be driving for a while. I saw a picture; pretty nasty cut. Not all accidents are without a humorous moment. Here is a bit of humor.

When my son-in-law was outside cutting, my grandson was there watching. When the accident occurred, my grandson rushed inside and asked my daughter for a towel and that he had cut himself. My daughter said “go get a band-aid”. “No” said my grandson, “a towel”. It wasn’t funny at the time, but looking back, there is a shade of humor.