Miter Saw Accident Chris Griffith Update

[Gary Lange]

This is from his daughter Amanda Woods to me in a personal message. This is what seems to have happened to Chris.

Hi Gary,
I spoke with Chris' dad and my mother last night to get the absolute truth, as far as we know, out to all of you, and to alleviate any and all speculation.

As far as we all know, Chris was trying to use a laser level on his miter saw. So, the place on the saw where the laser should mount is a circle, and the mount on the laser is square. The way that it was explained to me is this "It was like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole". Needless to say, because of this mistake the blade came loose and cut Chris under his arm and severed an artery. It took the ambulance 11 minutes to reach the house, and his father DID try to stop the bleeding, but he had already sustained too much blood loss, and had passed out before the ambulance arrived. He arrived at the hospital in Decatur, and was them Med Flighted to Huntsville, and by the time they reached Huntsville Hospital, he was already gone.

But, since Chris was alone in his shop at the time of the accident, we will never know exactly what happened.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to me in order to set this straight. I appreciate the way that you have handled this.

Sincerely,
Amanda Woods

[Gary Lange]

This should help our members to understand somewhat anyway what happened and how this can be prevented in the future.

[John Schreiber]

I'm sorry to hear of the loss. A freak accident to be sure. A reminder that we do not have as much control as we think we do.

[Eric Larsen]

Bump...

Just had a near miss with the miter saw. I was cutting 1.5" stock to final length for an outfeed table.

I was on the last cut (isn't it ALWAYS the last cut). The moment the blade hit the wood, I knew something was terribly wrong. I was also using the saw on the floor of my shop, cutting on one knee. Recipe for disaster.

I let off the button immediately and watched as the blade kept spinning for several seconds. The beginning of the cut was ragged, and the kerf was two or three times too wide.

My blade had loosened up. I thought these things were supposed to get tighter as they cut if the arbor nut wasn't properly tightened. But no, there was some serious slop here. And I use a 12" chop saw. Any number of very bad things could have happened, but didn't, thankfully.

[Bruce Page]

Wow Eric!
I'm going to check the nut on my miter saw!

[Chris Barnett]

The tangential velocity of a 12 inch blade at 3600 rpm is about 128 mph. The nut should be torqued to the specified value to obtain the design tension in the bolt, and thus adequate friction between the bolt and nut threads. I use the typical 1/4 turn after contact to obtain adequate loading, but other conditions may be different. Do these chop saws specify a recommended torque value?

[glenn bradley]

Wow Eric!
I'm going to check the nut on my miter saw!

And a quick check in my shop on everything else, just in case.

[Gary Lange]

We all need to engage our brains and think about what we are doing at all times around the machinery and anything else we use. It only takes a little longer to do something right. Something done right the first time won't come back to bite you later and it makes things easier. All Please Be Careful!!!!!

[Gary Click]

I had problem with the blade loosening on a 10" Craftsman Miter Saw about 15 years. I couldn't understand why the blade would loosen because the rotation of the spindle should try to tighted the spindle nut.

Turns out it was caused by the blade brake. When the saw trigger was released the spindle stopped very quickly and the inertia of the blade tried to keep the blade spinning and loosened the nut.

Returned it.

Had a Craftsman Nail Gun that like to fire on it own also. Used it until it fired a nail into my hand. Returned it also but that is another story.

[mreza Salav]

I too have had the experience of the nut on my MS going loose. I noticed it after a cut the blade kept spinning even after I had let the key go!! wondered what had happened until I checked it after it stopped. Yup, the nut was loose and the blade was spinning on the arbor
Very scary situation indeed.

[Colin Giersberg]

I hadn't seen that in any of the local newspapers, but I will look for the obituary. He apparently lived fairly close by. Sorry to hear about that, and yes, I will check my mitersaw too.

Regards, Colin

ps. Do you know when the accident occured, just to give me atimeline for looking in the paper.

[Glenn Clabo]

Funeral for Christopher Lee "Hawg" Griffith, 39, of Hartselle will be Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008, at 1 p.m. at Oak Ridge United Methodist Church with Bro. Tom Elder officiating and Peck Funeral Home directing.
Burial will be in Oak Ridge Cemetery. Visitation will be tonight from 6 to 9 at the funeral home.
Mr. Griffith died Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008, at Huntsville Hospital. He was born April 8, 1969, in Morgan County to Ralph Leslie Griffith and Shirley Griffith. He was preceded in death by his mother.
Survivors include his wife, Terry Lynn Baker; his father, Ralph Leslie Griffith and his wife, Janice, of Hartselle; one brother, Gregg Griffith (Samantha) of Trinity; two sisters, Nanette Brannon (Jeff) of Georgia and Cyndee Shahan (Randy) of Hartselle; and several nieces and nephews.
Pallbearers will be B.J. Johnson, Gary Parker, Charles Sanders, Roy Wayne Griffith, Bruce Garner and Mark Woods.

[Scott Wigginton]

My deepest sympathies for Chris' family.

This does remind me that I have a *cough* neglected *cough* monthly checklist for all my equipment (tractors, lawn equipment, cars) and I will be quickly printing out a new one for tool care (cleaning, sharpening, and most importantly safety checks, especially tightening the arbor on all spinning tools). I know we're supposed to precheck any tools before usage, but if we're all honest with ourselves we know how often we just fire a tool up ready to cut...

Self-enforcement is always the hardest part. We become lax in our own methods doing things we'd never let a visitor get away with. Unfortunately it often takes a tragedy to set us straight.

Big red reminder sign being printed off as we speak.

[Aaron Beaver]

And a quick check in my shop on everything else, just in case.

I just took off my blade and cleaned it, put it back on, but I think I will check again to make sure.

I do have one question: Would the blade guard stop the blade from hitting you if it did come loose. My blade is always covered by the blade guard from start to finish, I know its plastic but I thought it would stop the blade even if it did ruin the guard.

Prayers and thoughts with the family.