Radial arm saw injuries

[Jerome Stanek]

30 years no RAS accidents 1 table saw kick back that required stiches

[Rick Potter]

I believe I stated in the first post that the numbers are interesting, but not very helpful. They were the only stats I could find. That is why I asked the question. It would be nice to get some 'real world' info. I certainly don't intend to compile statistics, it is just that after so much discussion of how dangerous a RAS seems to be...........how many of us know of someone hurt with a RAS, and how did it happen??

OK, perhaps my original question was not clearly stated. If so, I apologize. Let me try again.


QUESTION: Do you know of anyone who has been injured using a radial arm saw???



So far, we have three incidents. Any others??

Let's not get off track please.

Rick Potter

[Matt Marsh]

Yep! I know of three. Two people that cut fingers off, and another that had a large splinter in the face/eye. One of the digit losers was a high school shop teacher that had the dado blade ride up and he lost the tips of two fingers on his left hand (seems it was first and middle). The splinter was another shop teacher. The large splinter entered his cheek below his safety glasses with enough velocity that it punctured his eyeball. I can't recall what he was doing on the saw at the time, but I do remember watching them hustle him off in a car with the splinter still sticking out from between his fingers. I also remember him giving us a pep talk about safety when he came back a few days later. They saved his sight. The other digit loser is a good friend of mine who is a carpenter. He simply got complacent and sawed through his fingers on his left hand during several repetitious crosscuts. His cut was such that he lost all of his pinkie, most of his ring finger, and just the tip of his middle finger.

[Joe Hillmann]

My stepdad had his hand nearly cut off when cross cutting with a radial arm saw. He was cutting and the blade cought and started to self feed (or what ever you would call a kickback on a radial arm saw). Some how what would have been the cut off end of the board ended up jumping up on to the fence which caused the arm of the saw to be deflected up and to the left and ran right into his wrist. The fact that the arm got forced up prevented his hand from being completely cut off. It cut all the tendons on the back of his and cut into one or two of the wrist bones.

He said it happened so quick he didn't know what actually happened until after it was over, but I suppose that is the case with any kick back accident.

[joe maday]

As a follow up to my prior post... my father when he was 16-17 worked in a lumber yard after school, using the RAS. As he was removing wood from the table, the saw blade
kicked out" and ran over/through four fingers on his left hand. For some unknown reason someone removed the weight that retracted the saw. he looked down and saw his fingers lying on the table. Like the post by matt Marsh the fingers were cut on an angle. The doctors said they would never be any good and only be in the way, so they removed the remaining parts.The result was loosing all four fingers right to the knuckle, only left with a palm and a thumb. He too said it happened so fast and felt like someone hit his hand with a hammer. Went on to become a mechanic, bodyman, woodworker and autobody shop owner. To his credit it never held him back and he never thought as hiself being dissabled in any way. My opinion ....No question about it.... The RAS is more dangerous than a TS.

[John McClanahan]

Usually when I mention that I prefer to push cut, the FUD mongers come out to scold me on my dangerous use of the saw. What's interesting is that a lot of RAS injuries involve self feeding, as a result of climb cutting (cutting on the pull).

I should also mention that I have only used 10" saws. The big 3 phase saws could be a different story.

John

[John TenEyck]

A Niagara Falls high school student cut off his hand with a RAS about 10 years ago I think it was. I remember reading about in the newspaper; didn't know him personally. I believe they were able to reattach his hand. Personally, I've never had an accident with mine, but I sure have an acute awareness of where I put my hands while using it. I wish someone would invent a guard like on a CMS for the RAS, or has someone?

John

[Bill Graham]

I've worked with various RAS models since the mid-80's and still can count to 10 without taking off my shoes so I guess I'm qualified to offer an opinion...

My observations:

1) Proper blades are a Good Thing. You wouldn't put a table saw rip blade on your slide-miter saw, what makes some folks think they'd work fine on a RAS?

2) For a blade to climb on top of the work and track into the operators hand(assuming the operator has enough sense not to put his hand into the path of the blade) means a)the saw doesn't have enough power to push the blade through the stock and b) the beam has to deflect in the X and Y axes. Underpowered and under-engineered for the application, thank you Crapsman. I've always felt more comfortable using the big 14-16" Delta or DeWalt saws than the cheap 10" versions made by whoever. Those scare me and make me extra careful. My rule is that if I can pick it up I don't want to use it.

3) I had a friend years ago who was an insurance engineer working with commercial lumber mills and millwork factories. His big thing with RASs was no return spring, most of the injuries he investigated occurred after the cut was made and the operator failed to return the carriage to rest after the cut. Think: 16" blade spinning in front of your face and you're reaching past it on both sides to remove the offcut and push the stock into position for the next cut? Sounds like a candidate for a Darwin Award to me.

And no, I don't know anyone personally who's been injured on a RAS. I do know several folks who can't count to 10 because of table saw and circular saw accidents.

Just my thoughts on the issue.

Best,
Bill

[Pat Barry]

John, I don't know what a FUD monger is, but I thought I would check a user manual. Here is from Craftsman radial arm saw user manual:
* Start and finish cut with blade in rearmost position, behind fence.
* Firmly hold workpiece flat on table and up against fence.
* Cut only one workpiece at a time.
* Pull blade through workpiece only far enough to complete cut, and never more than half the diameter of blade.
Norm, I recall had a saying "be sure to read, understand, and follow the safety instructions that come with your tools.
OK - I'm a FUD monger - be safe.

[Ole Anderson]

If anyone is worried about RAS injuries, just install one of those god-awful-guards-designed-by-a-lawyer you see at HD.

[Bill Geibe]

Matt - Those were severe accidents. I'm wondering how the guy got the splinter in his eye as you'd think that cut off wood would be going the other direction (unless he was ripping). And Joe, that's scary that the saw's arm moved left with your step-dad's accident. I didn't think that would happen if the arm was locked.

A question for both of you (or anyone else, for that matter): Lets do the same question but change it a bit - How many people do you know that have been injured by table saws?

Bill

[Tom Ewell]

The last serious injury that I've heard of was a guy severing four fingers off using a bandsaw, seems to me, that saw would be considered one of the safer powered cutting machines. Personally I've had kickback bruising from my tablesaw, knicked a finger tip off with a portable plane, snot knocked by a revolving piece of stuff in my drill press, wrist almost trashed by a heavy electric drill binding in the work, finger poked by a finish nailer, thumb bludgeoned by a hammer more than once, pipe clamp to the head dropped from a second story, air nailed a ring shank nail through the thumb knuckle, I could go on but the oldest stationary tool I've had around is a Craftsman RAS, the worst to happen so far is a "self feed" which caused the blade to bind and the overload to pop shutting it down. I always do the pull cut with a firm elbow along with a shoulder upper body rotation allowing for a more controlled cut.

[Joe Hillmann]

Bill.

I am almost positive the arm was locked when the accident happened. That saw was only ever used for 90 degree cuts.

[Thomas Hotchkin]

50+ years no RAS accidents, started with a 18" Comet RAS when I was a teen working for my father. To day I have two RAS. I like them both better then my CMS. Tom

[Rob Damon]

Got my first RAS in 1980, 10" Sears Model and currently have a Delta 5 hp, 18" RAS and have never even come close to a dangerous moment. On the Delta, I always clamp the work and keep both hands on the saw handled with a stable stance.

I wonder if most happen from ripping cuts (which I don't do) or from holding the wood with one hand and pulling/pushing the blade with the other and not percieving how close your hand is to the blade?

Rob