# Accident with a "Skil" type saw



## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

Last night, my daughter called to tell me her husband cut off two toes with a "Skil" saw. I don't know what company made the saw, hence the parenthesis on Skil. He was cutting with the saw and after finishing the cut, placed the saw on the ground. Somehow, the guard stayed retracted and the saw ran over his foot severing two toes. The toes were hanging just by the skin. He was barefooted at the time of the accident. He is a shipyard worker, so steel toe shoes are mandatory in his job. Too bad he wasn't wearing them at home last night. Fortunately his big toe was spared. The surgeon will work on him today. This was a freak accident that could have been prevented.

Besides safety glasses, respirators, ear protection, we may need to add safety shoes and hard hats to our shop safety gear.


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## Sanding2day (May 6, 2013)

Used to have a circular saw that had that same issue, well worth fixing/replacing… Sorry to hear about the son law, hopefully a speedy recovery…


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## HorizontalMike (Jun 3, 2010)

*"...Barefoot?..."* @W^#%$! That being said, thanks for sharing. Accidents don't don't only happen between 9am-5pm. Something for ALL of us to remember.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

Man, that's ugly.

Any kind of casualness when working with circular
saws is asking for trouble.

Several years ago I was drawing in the house and
wanted something from the shop, a straightedge
maybe. I went to get it, barefoot, and I knocked
a chisel off the bench which impaled my foot.

The chisel is question has a round handle and
a narrow blade so it was easy for it to roll off
the bench. I always put them away now. I still
walk into the shop wearing sandals sometimes
but I'm a lot more careful and do put on shoes
to actually work in there.


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## TheFridge (May 1, 2014)

I think the number one safety tool we can use is common sense.


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## InstantSiv (Jan 12, 2014)

Sorry to hear about this… this is certainly no fun… Be careful everyone, this hobby/living can quickly turn into a nightmare.

--

Thinking about how this happened… the blade's teeth would be rotating from the back of the saw to the front. If it contacted the ground it would move the saw backwards. So he probably set it down 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock in front of him and it shot back towards his foot.

A safety precaution I always do with circular saws is to visually look at the guard before setting down. From this accident I think another good precaution is to set the saw down in a way that if it does shoot back it will do so in a safe direction. Similar to gun safety, point the gun in a safe direction until ready to shoot that way if the gun does go off unintentionally it'll shoot in a safe direction.


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## handsawgeek (Jul 31, 2014)

Very sorry to hear that. Saw accidents are very serious, indeed. 
In my book the best practice is to not even set a cirular saw down until the blade has come to a stop.


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## bigblockyeti (Sep 9, 2013)

I was removing laminate flooring from a bedroom in my house as part of an on-going project at the time, working when time would allow. I wandered in there one night after working, barefoot, and found the single 15ga. finish nail that I hadn't removed or bent over in the bottom of my foot. It only went in about 1/2" which was better than going completely through I'm sure, but was very painful at the time.


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## freddy1962 (Feb 27, 2014)

Sorry to hear about that. Circular saws are very dangerous, you have to watch the guard retract every time. Working on jobsites, these saws hurt more people than any other tool. I worked with a numbnutts guy who'd tap a wedge in the guard because it got in his way. He'd set the saw down and it would dance around. He lost 2 fingers on 2 different occasions.


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## Racer2007 (Jan 13, 2011)

Jeff , Sounds like the numbnutts guy was not all that Bright. He should have learned his lesson the first time.


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## BillWhite (Jul 23, 2007)

It still tweaks me that all circular saws are defined as "Skill" saws. If they were "skill" saw, wouldn't that mean that there was some SKILL involved?
Sorry if I sound cold, but it is what it is.
No shoes? Come on!
A loaded pistol to the head? DUHHH!
Bill


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## bigblockyeti (Sep 9, 2013)

No one mentioned skill


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## Gentile (Jun 3, 2013)

Will Sawstop make a worm drive saw?


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## Gentile (Jun 3, 2013)

Same thing happened to a buddy of mine, he had the guard tied back though…


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## SCOTSMAN (Aug 1, 2008)

I am sorry to hear of your friends accident.It could have been of course much worse bad enough as it was.
Could I add a word of warning re something I did with a cirular saw also.It was about fifteen years ago or so I nearly injured my wife Bronwen when I used a circular saw.I was cutting a piece of wood under a shed and asked Bron to hold it steady, then very stupidly as I was not very experienced at the time I applied the saw to the wood and started it up. It was a good job I had a firm grip of it as it kicked back almost cutting Bron on her face. It all happened so quick.
Moral of the story is never apply any saw to the work before it comes up to full speed .Also from your friends accident never lay a tool down til it comes to a complete halt.I never repeated this mistake again and always preach to other to be careful.I cannot over emphasize the force of the kickback it was quite a frightening thing and certainly made me take my time from then on with all potentially dangerous tools. and I have always slowed down with all machinery from that day on.Regards Alistair


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## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

Update: My son-in-law was cutting overhead and some debris got caught, holding the guard back. he didn't notice the guard was not down and placed the saw on the ground. He was released from the hospital this morning and will be out of work for 4 weeks. I kid him now to wear steel toe shows, hard hat, safety glasses when working around the house. By-the-way, it was his right foot, so he won't be driving for a while. I saw a picture; pretty nasty cut. Not all accidents are without a humorous moment. Here is a bit of humor.

When my son-in-law was outside cutting, my grandson was there watching. When the accident occurred, my grandson rushed inside and asked my daughter for a towel and that he had cut himself. My daughter said "go get a band-aid". "No" said my grandson, "a towel". It wasn't funny at the time, but looking back, there is a shade of humor.


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## Finn (May 26, 2010)

I just heard of a guy here in Texas that lost control of a circular saw and it cut an artery in his leg and bled to death! Medics got to him but he died on the way to the hospital. Dangerous hobby we have here.


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## Manitario (Jul 4, 2010)

Sorry to hear about the accident. I am more afraid of my circular saw than any other powertool I own.


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## DrDirt (Feb 26, 2008)

> It still tweaks me that all circular saws are defined as "Skill" saws. If they were "skill" saw, wouldn t that mean that there was some SKILL involved?
> Sorry if I sound cold, but it is what it is.
> No shoes? Come on!
> A loaded pistol to the head? DUHHH!
> ...


Well Bill - Skil (only one L) is the company. Agree it becomes a casualty of a name in these cases.

Maybe it is just that Skill is needed to operate it safely - - especially overhead while standing on a ladder/chair/5-gallon bucket?

But it is just like everyone refers to all cola/Soda as a "Coke" or go make a "Xerox" copy of something on a Cannon or Minolta copier.


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## SCOTSMAN (Aug 1, 2008)

Yes it's true there is a major artery in your thigh region if cut, the blood comes out under such pressure that you will literally lose so much you would go into shock and quickly die in a few minutes.( four I think.) If however you get a tourniquet on quickly then you can obviously cut down the blood loss to a trickle or stop it till help arrives. Alistair


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## matador8 (Jun 5, 2013)

Sorry to here about your daughter's husband accident. I'd work with builders that took their guards off on a 9'' circular saw. One builder had the habit putting the saw down before it had stop. He did it once to often, but this time the button had stuck on and the saw took off ran over his foot. He was lucky he had his steel caps on, but it also ran over power cords. His work mates wasn't happy with him. I have 3 circular saws and I hate using them.

Graham.


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## OldWrangler (Jan 13, 2014)

If you were to avoid everything in your shop with sharp edges, all you'd have left would be sandpaper and glue. Since that wouldn't let you build anything, you have to have tools that can cut you as well as material. The keys to keeping parts like fingers and toes are alertness and concentration. Don't work in the shop when you are tired, sleepy, pissed off, had a fight with the wife and drunk. Even that said, accidents do happen and sooner or later there will be one that will leave it's mark. Things like shoes, gloves, and safety glasses are awfully good ideas.

And always count your fingers when you quit for the nite. "I don't always have accidents in the shop but when I do I prefer very small ones. Stay safe my friends"


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## UpstateNYdude (Dec 20, 2012)

I sold my nice Milwaukee saw after I got my Festool track saw because of the added safety of using it, I like that you have to push the blade out of the saw for it to contact anything and if it doesn't retract back I'll know before I set it down plus, it has a riving knife. I'm not starting a Festool fanboy post and yes I know Festool costs a truck load of money I'm just saying I like those safety features.


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## Redoak49 (Dec 15, 2012)

I am real sorry about the accident and hope he recovers.

It should be a reminder to everyone to wear appropriate clothing for the job. Going barefooted while working on a job with power tools seems a bit risky. It is a personal choice as how you dress while in the shop but going barefooted would not be one I make.

The circular saw ranks up near the top of accidents with woodworking tools.


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## nailbanger2 (Oct 17, 2009)

I'm sorry to hear about the missing toes. For those that have "dumbass" stories about people that wedge or tie the blade guard back, here's a story. I started working with a crew (two others and myself) that wedged the guard. It was one of the things the crew chief went over the first day I worked with him. If I used one of their saws, I made damn sure when it went to the ground it was into a piece of 2×10 or 12 that was placed at every saw horse just for this reason. I myself left the guard in place, wedging the guard with the square carpenter pencils if I had a difficult cut, then pulling it out immediately afterward. I was cutting rafter tails one day (overhead) and went to set my saw down when I looked (out of habit from using their saws) at the guard. It was indeed jammed with the offcuts of the tails. I would have been in the same boat except for the vigilance instilled in me by those guys' saws. Just because you have a Sawstop, don't do dangerous things. Most important, know what the dangerous things are.


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## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

This being one of the least watched forums, I'm glad people are actually reading about safety.


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## spclPatrolGroup (Jun 23, 2010)

> If you were to avoid everything in your shop with sharp edges, all you d have left would be sandpaper and glue.
> - OldWrangler


I sanded through the skin on the pads of my fingers sharpening chisels on sand paper, so maybe we should just limit ourselves to glue only.


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## 280305 (Sep 28, 2008)

> I sanded through the skin on the pads of my fingers sharpening chisels on sand paper, so maybe we should just limit ourselves to glue only.
> 
> - spclPatrolGroup


I agree. I was once going a little wild with a sanding block in my right hand and sliced into a finger on my left hand with the edge of the paper. Usually a paper cut is nice and clean. But with the grit, it was a mess.


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