wrecked my miter saw

[Roger Fournier]

I had the same thing happen once with my Dewalt miter saw. I tried clamping to the bench as you have done, but the fence would spring back. I shimmed up the ends of the fence about 1/2 inch above the bench and clamped the center beyond the point where it was straight. When the clamp was released, it was much closer. A couple of more tries, and I got it perfectly straight. I'm very much more careful with round stock now!

[julian abram]

That has probably happened to all of us at least once, a puckering moment. Kinda like a tablesaw kickback. As others have said, when cutting small pieces use a sub fence that fully supports the stock and leave the blade down until it stops spinning. I cut several small dowels (3/16") today for wife's craft project. Here is the sub fence I lay on my miter when cutting small parts. It is just a 2x8 on the bottom with a 2x4 attached on the back.


miter saw sub fence.JPG rotated.jpg

[mike sato]

So I am going to need some advice on this one.

I had a 1.5 inch dowel that I wanted to cut some short sections off of to make vice handles before turning them on the lathe. To quickly make a nice square cut I went to the miter saw, first three cuts are fine, last one is only taking an inch or so off and the saw catches and throws the wood. Never seen that happen before. Ok fine that was weird but I find another small cut off from earlier and try to trim it (I know not the best idea to repeat but I thought it was a fluke) same thing happens, catches and shoots the piece out like a bullet.

Anyway I did not cut my hand, although it is rather bruised I guess I came out alright.

So later I go to break down a 2x4 and see the fence is way out of alignment. I pull it off and if I lay it flat on my bench it is so bent that when the ends touch the middle is an inch in the air. Apparently before the piece flew at me it hit the fence and bent the heck out of it.

I took it down to my hand tool bench and clamped it flat, I figured that maybe clamping it flat and leaving it for a bit might fix it but I am not optimistic.

Anyway, two questions.

1. What the heck happened that caused that kick back type reaction, can I not cut a dowel on that saw?
2. What is the best way to fix the fence?

Thank you for this thread. Hasn't happened to me yet but I can now see how that can happen. Sorta like trimming a short piece on a table saw using a miter gauge similar to this one:

Image from rockler.com
20350-02-1000.jpg
Where the table saw's fence is used as the stop to get same size cut offs, without using a spacer block. The small piece gets caught between the blade and the fence at an angle and the blade flings the piece toward the user. In the miter saw's case, it's a little different in that there is no fence behind the short wooden dowel so the blade flings it away from the user and the piece gets caught between the blade and the OEM fence, bending the fence.

You probably saved me from a similar accident.
Thanks,
Mike

[Brandon Speaks]

I found the wood piece today and could clearly identify what happened from the markings.

The cut went in about 1/3 of the was and then you could see the piece rotated nearly one full turn pulling the piece from left to right toward the blade leaving a screw thread type pattern. It apparently then left my hand and you can see where one tooth caught and this must have been when it was thrown. Just glad my hand was not pulled into that blade.

Anyway lesson learned about not cutting round stock on that saw. I could have done it with a hand saw in about the same amount of time anyway.

Also I am glad I learned about the danger of short cuts offs. While trimming a dowel is not a particularly common operation for me I do regularly use that saw to break down 2x and 1x boards and occasionally trim a piece short enough for it to be unsupported. A zero clearance sacrificial fence seems like an easy nearly free solution.

On the current fence clamping it flat did not work but using shims to clamp past flat got it close enough. Its not perfect like it was before but really this saw is used for rough not precision cuts in my shop anyway so its not the end of the world.

Thanks everyone for your assistance.

[Peter Christensen]

Maybe you have already done so but if I saw the fence had been bent that much I would be looking to see what else was knocked out of alignment, or the saw blade or arbor shaft bent?

[Brandon Speaks]

Maybe you have already done so but if I saw the fence had been bent that much I would be looking to see what else was knocked out of alignment, or the saw blade or arbor shaft bent?

That is a good idea. Nothing seemed obvious, but I should do a full check. A test cut was a little further out of spec than I expected from just the fence so something else might be off.

[Rick Potter]

For small pieces, a simple sled for your band saw will work wonders.

[Curt Harms]

If you're so inclined, you might be able to buy a replacement fence as long as you're not in a hurry for it.
https://www.kobalttools.com/contact-us

[Benjimin Young]

Brandon, THANK-YOU for starting this great thread, being honest and sharing your experience. I often take my miter saw for granted and perform quick cuts without taking the same precautions I would do on other tools such as a table or radial saw. Your post and all the great responses reminded me to stop and always work safe with ALL my tools. Thanks!! ;-)