Shopsmith Forums

Well, here we go. More ammo for the CPSC.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories ... round.html

Wow! All the tool manufacturers have a warning to not wear long sleeve clothing near these tools while in operation. At her age, she should know. As they used to tell us in the Navy, ignorance is no excuse! I'm sorry she got hurt, but a clamp works very well. Take the time.

At least it was a miter saw:rolleyes: Can you imagine looking down and seeng you r hand on the floor:eek:

jcraigie wrote:At least it was a miter saw:rolleyes: Can you imagine looking down and seeng you r hand on the floor:eek:

I wonder if this may be the beginning to rid the world of these just like they did with RAS.

I use my RAS almost everyday. Sears stills sell new ones.

I don't get it a power miter saw has a momentary on off switch, the blade is covered until the blade is lowered and there are all kinds of warning.
I don't know how this happened but I would think the person had to pull the saw down onto their arm and hold it there while it cut through their arm and severed the hand. If they had just left go of the switch the blade would have stopped and raised from the arm. The fact that the shirt got tangled was probably a result rather than a cause. However even if the shirt did get tangled just jumping when it pulled the arm in should have shut the machine off. Then I have to wonder how did a shirt get tangled in a blade that is covered with a shield until the blade is lowered.

There is something I'm missing in this story.

Ed in Tampa wrote:I don't get it a power miter saw has a momentary on off switch, the blade is covered until the blade is lowered and there are all kinds of warning.
I don't know how this happened but I would think the person had to pull the saw down onto their arm and hold it there while it cut through their arm and severed the hand. If they had just left go of the switch the blade would have stopped and raised from the arm. The fact that the shirt got tangled was probably a result rather than a cause. However even if the shirt did get tangled just jumping when it pulled the arm in should have shut the machine off. Then I have to wonder how did a shirt get tangled in a blade that is covered with a shield until the blade is lowered.

There is something I'm missing in this story.

Are you surprised? Incidents like this are always hard to understand.

Ed in Tampa wrote:I don't get it a power miter saw has a momentary on off switch, the blade is covered until the blade is lowered and there are all kinds of warning.
I don't know how this happened but I would think the person had to pull the saw down onto their arm and hold it there while it cut through their arm and severed the hand. If they had just left go of the switch the blade would have stopped and raised from the arm. The fact that the shirt got tangled was probably a result rather than a cause. However even if the shirt did get tangled just jumping when it pulled the arm in should have shut the machine off. Then I have to wonder how did a shirt get tangled in a blade that is covered with a shield until the blade is lowered.

There is something I'm missing in this story.

Some 'perhaps'.

Perhaps the hold on for dear life reaction took place with the 'trigger switch' hand when it started.

Perhaps the reaction was to pull the handle rather than push(see the above).

Perhaps it was a drop then pull design saw(I forgit the 'name'[sliding?]).[Much like a ras]

Perhaps the guard either was stuck 'up' or missing altogether.

Perhaps once the guard raised on to the workpiece, the now exposed blade grabbed the shirt sleeve. Once 'grabbed' the blade becomes 'self feeding'.


Still hard to envision without the saw choking' on all that.

I thought I read where the woman fell or stumbled into the saw, but I still don't know how the amputation happened. It does serve as a warning to exercise care around cutting tools, however; the unexpected can and does happen.

I would be interested to know what brand and type of miter saw it was. Were all the safety features intact etc......
We can all learn from an accident.