Anyone bolted their circular saw, upside down, to the underside of a workbench??

eight fingers.

unless you’re from Norfolk isn’t this the standard number?

Sorry, six fingers and two thumbs.

Definitely a potential candidate for a Darwin award.

I’ve done it’s loads. sorry

But it’s got a proper kill switch fence and Crown guard. And you should never have the blade more than 10 mm to 15 mm higher than what you are cutting.

I’ve got a real table saw now just as dangerous in the wrong hands

This reminds me of the time I went and bought some foam to make a sofa with. The guy who sold it cut it to spec. He had 2 cutting tables, one for vertical cuts, one for horizontal. They both consisted of a blade on a band, about as thick and sharp as a razor blade going round at high speed. He put the foam on the table and pushed it towards the blade. Which was unprotected. On the horizontal cutter his knuckles stopped about 1cm short of the blade, for the vertical one it was his nose and forehead.

I don’t think he was one of those people who worked with his tongue sticking out.

It’s the stuff of nightmares.

Oh, and yes, a Festool Guide Rail Saw plus 2 cheap saw benches and a couple of lengths of 3×2 is excellent for making lots of quick accurate clean safe cuts. £333 at the moment.

I’ve done it’s loads. sorry

But it’s got a proper kill switch fence and Crown guard. And you should never have the blade more than 10 mm to 15 mm higher than what you are cutting.

I’ve got a real table saw now just as dangerous in the wrong hands

Actually that is rubbish, you want as much blade through as possible as this will stop the blade trying to bite into the timber, but allow it to cut cleaner as you will have more teeth cutting on the down stroke. This is why qualifications are important and not bad advice. Can you tell I did my blade changing refresher today. Have seen some nasty accidents on the correct kit, so wouldnt want to imagine the accidents on bodged kit.

Marcel

I don’t have any “qualifications” apart from having a joinery business for 28 years; I’m sure I do loads of stuff that is technically dangerous. I think the most dangerous thing about a circular saw bolted underneath a workmate is not lack of guards or isolators but the shear lack of oomph in the motor. A workshop table saw will have a 3 phase motor of at least 4KW, meaning the work can be fed through with very little pressure (so any loss of control will not result in you landing on the blade).
A lower blade height will mean MORE teeth involved in the cut at any point and less breakout on the underside of the work

I’ve been doing a bit of googling on this…as I use one occasionally…in fact, occasionally but often enough to have remind myself not to be blasé about it. It seems that current thinking is to keep the blade height higher (without being silly) as this means the cut is more vertical than horizontal and means less contact with the workpiece at any time during the cut – less chance of kickback and overheating. Hmmm…I think I’ll do a bit more googling on it, as I’d always thought blade height should be around a 1/4″ – 1/2″ above the workpiece height. 😕

That makes sense dd – more like using a handsaw.

Too much blade showing ruins your workpiece finish ime…

I find having minimal break through gives a much neater finish and less splintering.

Still have all my fingers.

As someone else mentioned .. Push sticks

I was working at a house the other week when the man of the house, a man in his seventies came out to the back yard shirtless (he meant business) and fired up one of these http://youtu.be/rHyhdVHzxGs. I was never as glad to see it throw a belt off so he could live until another time when I wouldn’t be there to pick up his torso/limbs/head!

No worse than a chainsaw…. If you respect it.

so many accidents happen on c/saws and spindle moulders, only use properley designed and made benches,with accessable off switch, and now all new stuff marked with the CE SYMBOL.

Also C/SAW benches have a riving knife to stop timber binding on rear of balde which can lift timber up towards you if timber jams, a crown guard to cover the top of the blade in case something should fall on blade, and also stops wood being flicked up, a dust extraction port, and a sturdy frame..

Oh and as one old timer patternmaker told me if you abuse a machine it will remember and get you back, be warned.

Marcel I’m up to date thanks

The op asked about running a skill saw upside down….. you want him to run 50mm of blade with no guards! Cutting 20mm board so he gets a cleaner cut. My table saw will only run 30mm max above the material .it’s about the right blade for the timber and feed speed. I see so many people trying to cut 100 mm timber with a fine tooth blade that has no capable space to remove waste the blade jams they push harder and you can guess the rest. Your talking ideal world practice and a skill saw upside down is not in that category.

A crown guard fitted correctly and you can run the blade high. the blade will stay sharper for longer too depending on the pitch of the tooth.

The only problem I see with blade set at 20mm above the work is when people feed it to fast (ham fisted). The idea is if the blade is only 20mm above the work you should not be able take your arm off.

The worst accident I have ever witnessed was with the blade set as you stated blade high with crown attached I had changed the blade to cut a 100mm post down the length set the saw up along with the “do not use sign” on the bed went to get my ear defenders and someone used the saw to cut 18mm mdf the 80mm or so of blade took his hand and wrist off.

As a hand surgeon who has stuck quite a few fingers back on after people have accidentally cut them off it is interesting to note how many responses to the question “How did you do this then?” start with “Well I know I shouldn’t have but…”

C.O.I: on call over weekend, hoping not to meet any STWers!

Oh Yeh push sticks people.

Tinytim if everyone used spindle moulders you would be OK. No bits left to sew back on. eek

Holy crap Docstar..you can just see the old boy ripping an old piece of parquet flooring, thumb either side of the blade…..
Whilst we’re on amusing tales: I had just finished laying an oak overlay floor last Tuesday (I had had to replace a couple of sq/m of worm eaten existing boards prior to this) and was settling down for the night when the customer phoned to let me know one of his cats was meowing from underneath the new floor! 😀

I did go and lift a board in an adjacent cupboard to let the mite out (once I’d finished laughing)…

Right I’ve just looked at that video. my god!

And just in case anyone is ever considering mounting a bench saw blade to a cordless drill to “speed things up a bit” it doesn’t cut wood half as well as it cuts your fingers…(!!)

Black@decker did an adapter for that my granddad had one .

Sounds insane,

Wire wheels on drills are vicious and un controlable enough, cant imagine a drill with a circular saw blade :/

Oh have I started something.

I think the point I was making is that correct machine for the correct job. Current thinking is higher blade height so kore down cut. Obviously correct blade choice you wouldnt use a cross cut for a rip. I like some of the others do this for a living. I am qualified and I did by blade changing refresher today. Maybe some people need to move with the times and look at what is new and current advice. I think.we can all learn ftom each other, I have been taught some cracking ideas hy apprentices as they are not weighed down by all of the rules. I dont agree with mounting circular saw upside down, and I dont agree with old school ideas on blade height. 28 years in the game or 2, whatever works for you is fine.
I work on items in excess of 1million. We are not allowed breakout.

Marcel

you will have more teeth cutting on the down stroke

It’s only ever the teeth on the “down stroke” that does the cutting on a bench saw, by the time the timber reaches the “up stroke” the cut has already been made. Unless of course you feed it from the wrong side of the bench saw.

And there won’t be more teeth cutting – the saw blade will have exactly the same amount of teeth it started with, however much you move it up and down. Feed it slowly if you want to use more teeth to do the cutting.

Of course in the case of a handheld circular saw the opposite is true, ie, it’s the “up stroke” that does the cutting while the “down stroke” does nothing, which explains why the underside of ripped ply is always more splinter free than the top side.

As for my personal digits qualifications is concerned**, I have 8 fingers and 2 thumbs, but only just – I almost lost my left little finger on a bench saw. The first I knew of it was the blood spraying off the blade into the air, I didn’t feel any pain (that came later). Luckily I was moving my hand very slowly (I won’t go into detail) so it just cut the flesh and only 5 stitches were required.

** To be fair I’m a site carpenter so I only have the limited experience of working for short periods in joinery shops, mostly providing support.