Clark Harbaugh
11-19-2011, 7:01 PM
So, today I pulled a total knucklehead move and almost lost a finger in the process. When making a mitered cut with your miter saw, make sure you raise the little auxiliary fence, especially when it has a little sticker on it that states WARNING: Raise auxiliary fence before making a miter cut. I needed to put a 45 on a piece of scrap wood. I reached over for the 12" Hitachi miter saw that I have come to love to quickly make the only wood cut of the day. I unlocked and rotated the saw to 45 and even measured to make sure I was spot on. I braced the wood against the fence and fired up the saw. As everything happened in less than a second, I can't tell you for sure exactly how I kept my finger, but I'll try. About the time that the first tooth hit the guard, it forced the board I was holding to jump away from the fence momentarily. In that split second, my index and 'waiving you're #1' fingers slid between the board and the fence. At that same time, the blade bound up in the board and slammed the board, with my two fingers behind it, back into the fence. The torque caused by my fingers being in the way caused the blade to deflect to the left and hit the actual case that surrounds the blade, causing it to explode in a dozen peices.
My first reaction was to yank my hand out of the way to make sure all appendages were still attached, and thank God they were. However, the amout of blood pouring out of the top of my index finder was a bit more than disturbing. Now came the point where I had to go inside the house and tell my wife to get out of the kitchen sink because I had an accident with the miter saw. Her inital eraction, of course, was that she thought I was without fingers and she went into full panic mode. When I explained what actually happened, she went from affraid to angry and began the lecturing. Normally I would chastise her for nagging, but I figured this was a well diserved lashing. Once I got it cleaned up, I could tell that my only injury was a chunk of flesh about 1/2" x 3/8" was missing from the top of my finger. My finger was also black and blue and sweling, so I figure I may have fractured it slightly.
Before everyone lights into me about shop safety, let me say that I am usually overly anal about being safe in the shop. The moral of the story is that the one time you sacrifice double checking everything is the one time that you're going to get hurt. After I pulled my boxers out from where the sun don't shine and finally calmed down I realized how truly lucky I was to only possibly fracture a finger. And in case you're wondering, the saw is trashed. My favorite Freud 96T blade is now bent and missing teeth, so there's $125; The case on the saw has to be replaced, and that's another $170; the link that raises and lowers the blade guard is trashed, another $10; and of course the auxiliary fence, another $27. So, my 10 second brain fart will end up costing me north of $300 and the loss of use of a finger for a while. BTW, do you know how hard it is to type without using one of your index fingers?
My first reaction was to yank my hand out of the way to make sure all appendages were still attached, and thank God they were. However, the amout of blood pouring out of the top of my index finder was a bit more than disturbing. Now came the point where I had to go inside the house and tell my wife to get out of the kitchen sink because I had an accident with the miter saw. Her inital eraction, of course, was that she thought I was without fingers and she went into full panic mode. When I explained what actually happened, she went from affraid to angry and began the lecturing. Normally I would chastise her for nagging, but I figured this was a well diserved lashing. Once I got it cleaned up, I could tell that my only injury was a chunk of flesh about 1/2" x 3/8" was missing from the top of my finger. My finger was also black and blue and sweling, so I figure I may have fractured it slightly.
Before everyone lights into me about shop safety, let me say that I am usually overly anal about being safe in the shop. The moral of the story is that the one time you sacrifice double checking everything is the one time that you're going to get hurt. After I pulled my boxers out from where the sun don't shine and finally calmed down I realized how truly lucky I was to only possibly fracture a finger. And in case you're wondering, the saw is trashed. My favorite Freud 96T blade is now bent and missing teeth, so there's $125; The case on the saw has to be replaced, and that's another $170; the link that raises and lowers the blade guard is trashed, another $10; and of course the auxiliary fence, another $27. So, my 10 second brain fart will end up costing me north of $300 and the loss of use of a finger for a while. BTW, do you know how hard it is to type without using one of your index fingers?