When arm saw ruled

[Osvaldo Cristo]

I am impressed by this movie I found by chance: https://youtu.be/HiGH0Qsu3ak (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiGH0Qsu3ak&feature=youtu.be)

I hope you enjoy it like myself!

[Lee Schierer]

Interesting film. That was a lot of lumber. Impressive production set ups. Not a lot of safety equipment or guards on the machines.

[Andrew Seemann]

I do like those old WWII war effort films. They are a little terrifying though to the modern safety-oriented mind. It is interesting to compare how many people it took to build things back then, compared to the modern computer/automated world, and that is with a pretty good helping of automation and production line work back then too.

[Ole Anderson]

Great film, thanks for the share. Imagine how nail guns would have been appreciated too back then. Now I can see why some of the old DeWalts needed 7.5 hp. Truly amazing, the production that was attained during the war effort on many fronts.

[Rick Peek]

I cringe watching how close they are to those blades with no guards. I’ll bet thousands of people got maimed doing that work.

[Thomas McCurnin]

When I was starting out in the building trades, we had one saw to build tract homes, the radial arm saw, the Comet Clipper. It was a large beast with something like an 18 or 20" cross cut capacity and could also rip sheets of plywood. It was mounted on a trailer and other than our Skil 77 worm drive saws, this saw ruled the tract home construction world. Table saws non-existent in that world.

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[Andrew More]

Does that thing run on pure coal, or do you need to attach it to belts from a water wheel? :) I'll bet you didn't have any problems with the saw tipping when you put a board on it.

[Matt Day]

I’ll suggest the idea that LESS people got hurt back in the day. The people that ran those saws knew what they were doing. You couldn’t buy one of those size at your local big box stores like today where every bozo can buy one and cut their fingers off.

[Ray Newman]

I utilize the base facilities at Ft. Lewis and there still are some of those WW II barracks scattered around.

[Rick Peek]

I’ll suggest the idea that LESS people got hurt back in the day. The people that ran those saws knew what they were doing. You couldn’t buy one of those size at your local big box stores like today where every bozo can buy one and cut their fingers off.

Maybe so, but I’ll bet not a day goes by where some very skilled people have saw accidents. I myself know multiple people who have done construction their whole life’s, that are missing digits. Pretty sure if you get hit with one those blades your gonna be missing more than a finger.

[Tom M King]

I want one of those big'uns with the crank handle feed. I still use a couple of RAS's, with only the same guard shown on the single blades. My outfeed tables in my tablesaws don't have slots in them. Crosscutting with sleds on a TS always scared me.

[Mel Fulks]

I lean toward the idea that dedicated sober workers stay safe. One place I worked had a large saw that sped forward when you
stepped on a floor pedal. It was rare that anyone but the dedicated cutter used it. I don't think I ever saw him step on
the pedal without both hands clasped behind his back .

[Stephen Rosenthal]

I don’t have a table saw but have 2 RASs, which contrary to popular opinion I feel are safer than a table saw as long as they’re set up and tuned properly. I use them for crosscutting, ripping and dados. Sheet goods are cut with my Skilsaw or PC trim saw. My dad was a carpenter in the Army Air Force during WWII. When he returned from Europe he was assigned to the construction crew at the O’hare Field Military Airport in Chicago before being discharged. I’ll bet many more of those workers developed and died from lung diseases due to breathing the sawdust every day than injured themselves on those saws. That’s what eventually killed my dad.

[Bill Carey]

Thanks for posting that Osvaldo. Reminded me of the time I spent managing a wall panel plant (on a much grander scale of course). All about efficiency and effective repetition.

[Ole Anderson]

Those big RAS reminded me of the big cedar shingle saws. Those look scary! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpd3ZOoI7kk

[David Utterback]

I’ll suggest the idea that LESS people got hurt back in the day. The people that ran those saws knew what they were doing. You couldn’t buy one of those size at your local big box stores like today where every bozo can buy one and cut their fingers off.

May be fewer people but many more workers, i.e. employees, were injured. Industrial safety standards, many of which originated to protect the enhanced value of human output during WWII, were often developed by what are now called consensus groups which included business owners and workers' compensation insurance company safety officials along with the contracting government agencies. The latter, in the War Dept., relied on these products to win the war so the incentive to keep production at near full capacity was very high.

[John Gornall]

I started in a shop of this type in the early '60s - WWII vintage and worked it's way through the post war housing boom. 6 of the big Dewalts. Not a finger missing - safety was serious. First day the boss handed me a broom and told me not to touch a machine untill I was trained and he approved. The boss traced his hand, cut out a template leaving one finger off and painted red hands missing a finger on every machine. He fired anyone not serious about safety. And the swing saws for cutting the big fir. 36 inch blade and 40 hp on a swinging arm - shop built, well guarded. Big fir - 16 inch beams, fir plywood 4 feet by whatever length you wanted - I ran red cedar through a planer all shift and never saw a knot. Miss those days,

[Darcy Warner]

One of my favorite videos, which always gets ruined by the nanny state safety police.

If you want to avoid any accidents, stay in your living room and don't use tools.