My 1st Darwin Award for 2010

[John Lannon]

I was making a couple of zero clearance inserts for my Delta contractor saw. I have to use a dado blade first when cutting up thought the plate because my regular blade doesnt lower enough....... no sweat right?

Turned on the saw and started raising the blade through the plate.

The garage instantly fills up with smoke wihin 3 seconds......:eek:

Hmmmmm.....turn the saw off.... and look under the table....... and DUH!!!!!!!!!!

Blade on backwards. :rolleyes:

[Mike Heidrick]

Crazy but it does cut some though right? I seen an old farmer grab a ancient circular saw with an old blade on it. Now way was it going to cut I thought. IBD but the blade was on backwards and it went right through the piece of wood he was cutting. Scared me and I was amazed - I would have lost a bet that it would cut I know that.

[Todd Trebuna]

Phew, I'm not the only one. :)

[Brian Kent]

Congratulations! That's a real accomplishment to ge an award on the fist day!

[Brian J McMillan]

Years ago we used to cut aluminum soffiting in a sled with a plywood blade mounted backwards in a skill saw. It worked ok. Now you can get a proper blade for it.

Here is a trick for cutting styro-foam in a table saw. If you use a wood blade you will get mountains of floating magnetic-like particles of dust sticking to everything in site. Use a metal or concrete cutting blade and it just melts its way through with very little dust.

[David Epperson]

It's not a Darwin Award if you didn't remove yourself from the gene pool...Perhaps a Murphy Award?

[Dan Mitchell]

Phew, I'm not the only one. :)

+1. And I did it with a WWII!

[Paul Ryan]

Years ago we used to cut aluminum soffiting in a sled with a plywood blade mounted backwards in a skill saw. It worked ok. Now you can get a proper blade for it.

Here is a trick for cutting styro-foam in a table saw. If you use a wood blade you will get mountains of floating magnetic-like particles of dust sticking to everything in site. Use a metal or concrete cutting blade and it just melts its way through with very little dust.


I had to rip a couple pieces of facia a few years ago when I sided my house. At the time I had a old tiny rockwell aluminum table saw that I used. I put a circular saw blade in backwards and put on a face shield. It worked great. I donated the saw to the salvation army sometime back. I kind of wish I would have kept it for cutting, stuff like that or pressure treated lumber, but I really didn't have room for it. In my experience putting the blade in backwards does have its uses. But I don't think it would shine when trying to cut phenolic.

[Greg Peterson]

I thought we were only able to get one award?

[Glen Blanchard]

Glad to hear that someone has taken this award from my hands. The torch has been passed!

[Neal Clayton]

It's not a Darwin Award if you didn't remove yourself from the gene pool...Perhaps a Murphy Award?

do you get credit for blood?

i drove a drill bit through my thumb today, slipped off of a square head trim screw. deflected off of my thumbnail and only took a small chunk, but a chunk nonetheless :(

i did manage to cut dovetails for 8 drawers after without ruining the other thumb, though.

[Ed Garrett]

About 20 years ago I mounted my lawn mower blade backwards. :eek: I ran it for a year without noticing any change in cutting quality. When I removed the blade the next year to sharpen it, I wondered why it was still so sharp:confused: Then I noticed wear on the back of the blade. :rolleyes: I've not sharpened it since... :o

[David Epperson]

At least yours was accidental. But reminds me of a story from many years ago.
I worked with a man who was the foreman over the machine shop. He'd dropped something heavy on his thumb and had one of those throbbing painfull blood blisters under the thumbnail. He'd been complaining about it for a few hours, so some of us suggested that if he relieved the pressure it might not throb so bad. I suggested he use a small gauge drill and BY HAND drill through the nail, someone else suggested a hot paperclip. He opted for the drill method. I've done this before with good results, but I guess I have more patience than he did, as he decided that a drill press would be quicker.
All went fine I guess until the bit broke through the nail - at which point the rapidly spinning 1/16" bit sucked his thumb up to the chuck.

He still did not remove himself from the gene pool...but it was debated for quite some time as to whether or not losing that particular set of genes might have been a better thing. :D

[Ed Griner]

How did you think the Japanese started making those great saws?

Ed