CIRCULAR SAW SAFETY and the majority of the base AND PROCEDURE on the stable member of the cut. I am Bob Johnston, They didn’t realize that with Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA. the blade on the right, a right I have been a carpenter for handed person had to lean over 50 years. I have a free over the top of the saw to website: see the line of the cut. http://carpenterbooks.com. I A few years ago Porter- help instructors, students, Cable came out with the 345 contractors, carpenters, do- saw boss and the 423 Mag, it-yourself women and men blade on the left, and moved homeowners, volunteer the handle whereas it has church and home builders by equal gravity pull when you posting projects and hold the saw and make a cut. procedures, free for them to Craftsman also has a 5½” saw print out and use. The like this. Now some other foremost reason for the manufacturers are seeing the website is power tool safety light. Before this, all right- and procedure. handed people had were worm The circular saw is the most drives with the blade on the dangerous, misused, abused left. tool in the If you use your right hand to construction business. run a saw, buy one with blade In this article I am going to tell on the left; if you use your left you the procedures I have hand, buy one with the blade learned from using a saw for on the right. It is very over 50 years. dangerous to be leaning or When they made the first out of position when making a portable, electric circular cut and you need to see the saw they put the motor on the line to make an accurate cut. right, the blade on the left and The position of making a cut the handle was above the with an electric saw is the blade. When you made a cut same as making a cut with a and got to the end, the weight handsaw or hacksaw. The cut of the then big and heavy line, the blade, your forearm, motor would naturally make elbow and shoulder should all the saw fall off to the right be in one straight line. and butcher the end of the The first and foremost thing cut. So, an individual came up you do when you go to cut a with the bright idea of putting board is to make a mark for the motor on the left and the the cut. You need to check blade on the right. This left your tape and make sure the the main weight of the saw hook is not bent. Buying a

good tape is an investment in Same as keeping your finger your job, not a cost. off of the trigger of a gun. Measuring and cutting lumber Don’t touch it until you are to length is the most ready to make a shot. important thing you will do When you plug a saw into a when building a structure, if power cord you have created you want the building, a power supply for a tool that structure or cabinet to be could easily kill you or maim plumb and square. you for life. If you plug a tool cord in backwards (and it can be done) you have created reverse polarity, and it can kill you. Ask any electrician.

The mark on the left is the way about 90% of the carpenters I know, mark a board. Then they make a mark with a speed square on some part of it and then cut on the left of the line sometimes and Do as the picture shows; get sometimes on the right of the you some white-out and paint line. Who knows? the wide prong side white The small straight mark on the (wide-white). This is the white right is the exact place you (neutral) wire in the cord. want the blade to cut and is Then you won’t have to look the correct way to mark a each time and try to figure board, the wing mark on the out which way the prongs go left of the small mark is the in. waste side, and (wing is waste). Now we come to one of the most overlooked, but one of the most important procedures in using any power tool, plugging in the tool cord to the GFCI power cord. Always let this procedure remind you of loading a gun. This is the one that will get Keep your finger off of the you. If the ground is broken trigger (switch) until you are off you will be able to plug it in ready to make a cut. backwards.

Usually over half of the ground website, but if you don’t have prongs on nearly all jobs are one, use a couple of 2x12’s broke off; some people on the sawhorses to cut on. A actually do this intentionally. A frame table will pay for itself grounded cord cap has two over and over, in time and ¼” flat prongs. When you labor. break the ground off it will Just make sure they don’t easily go into the recep of a bow down. When you cut a cord either way. The best board and it is bowed down thing to do is replace it; next your saw will bind and kick best is to paint the left prong back, very dangerous. side white. For $3 I would Always have a place to put replace it. Most carpenters your saw. Never set it down don’t believe this, but the on the blade guard, never dead ones would tell you it’s drop it on the ground, and true, if they could. always lay a saw on its blade This little suggested side, the side the blade is on. procedure could one day save Two other good procedures I you or someone else’s life. have on the website are to Always have a good crowned install a hanger and frame table to cut on. Never cut a hook on your saw. These two board in the middle that is small additions should be on just lying on two saw horses, every saw that is sold. it will sag or collapse about I don’t know how many, but a 2/3’s of the way through the lot of saw injuries are caused cut and bind the saw and by the person using the saw cause the saw to kickback at standing on the cord. When you. The only time you can you are cutting and then you safely cut a board using only run out of cord the saw could two sawhorses and no frame kick back and cut you. table is when you are only Keep all of the area around cutting an end off. where you are using a saw Never use a circular saw to clean, leave nothing that could notch or cut out a stud that cause you to trip and fall while is in a framed wall. The saw will carrying or using a circular buck and you could end up saw. with a 4000 r.p.m. saw blade Furthermore, keep the whole in your chest. Use a jobsite clean. reciprocating saw for this I have been to jobsites where procedure. there would be piles of cut I show how to build a crowned off lumber, and the frame table to mount on saw carpenters would have to horses to cut lumber on and walk over these piles (tripping use as a work table on my and falling) to make a cut or

to get material. This makes no And remember what I said in sense, none at all. Besides the carpenter book, there is that, if you keep your scrap no such thing as an accident; stocked, you can use it, like the carpenter on the roof instead of cutting a new stud stepping on a piece of osb for a 24” block. with saw dust under it and fell There were over 250,000 off the roof, he created this saw injuries last year that environment and did not have required emergency room control over it. There is care. always something wrong, either the operator is using the wrong procedure, not thinking about what they are doing or there is something wrong with the tool of which you are responsible for keeping in safe working order. A tangled cord on the floor could cause you to fall on a running tool and cost you

Now we are ready to make a your life or limb. No accident, cut, but first you need to you should have laid or place always remember to wear the cord in a safe position. safety glasses when First set the blade depth of operating any saw or power the saw blade the thickness tool. of the board to be cut plus Another thing, we were in my 1/8”. Fill your saw cuts on door shop one day working on your frame table with drywall a planer when suddenly the mud when you get a lot of main table saw started them in your table. This will running, no one had turned the keep a smooth clean surface switch on. We took the cover to saw. off the switch and it was full of wood powder, it had shorted and started itself. Always unplug tools when changing blades/bits or working on them. Another important thing to remember is to focus on the procedure you are doing, totally, don’t be thinking of anything except controlling I marked on the back of my this saw safely. saws the depth of cut the plus

1/8”. 1½” is actually 1 5/8” member while it is still running, depth of cut. This saw is set This is the most important for a ¼” cut but the actual part of this article, letting a blade depth is 3/8”. blade stop before removing Make sure the blade is set at from the completed cutting 90º to the base for a square position. Same goes for a cut. router/grinder or any tool. Place the nose (front) of saw If you will do this on every cut base on the board to be cut, you make, the rest of your life, with the blade about a ¼” from your chances of getting cut the board to be cut, align the with a circular saw are almost blade with the mark as zero. straight as you can, slide your If you are on my job I will let speed square up to the side you by a couple of times, but of the base and grasp it with if you persist in bringing a your hand and secure it to the running saw out of a cut it board. tells me your not listening or The side of the saw base and you don’t care. I will relieve the speed square should be you of your job. That is how exactly parallel. important I know this Start the motor and slowly procedure is. push the saw forward until it Go to any job, anywhere, and just touches the board, if you see how many people let their are a little off the mark, back saw stop running before they the saw up 1/8” (while it is lift it out of the cut. I can still running) and the vibration already tell you what you will of the saw will let you go to see. Hardly any….. the left or right and get the After a few hundred cuts you blade lined up with the mark. will learn to let go of the Now you can go ahead and switch before the cut is push the saw slowly through complete, and the saw will be the board and let the saw do dead when the saw makes the its job. Do not crowd the saw completed cut. (push it too fast). Now for those of you that You will feel when the saw has have used a circular saw very cut through the board, little and that I have instilled a because they will both move, fear of even picking a circular only slightly, but you will see saw up let me tell you that a and feel them separate. saw is a safe tool if used Now, do not move the saw, let properly. the motor and blade come to Proper, safe procedures of a complete stop. using a circular saw are Never lift or move a saw from easier to learn than improper a cut or take it off the procedures. You could not

pay most of the carpenters I have total control of the saw. know enough money to read and use the information in this article. They know it all. They are the ones you want to stay away from when they make a cut. For your first few hundred cuts, I suggest not using a speed square as a guide. Make you mark, then draw a line on the board and make When you cut about ¾’s of the the cut. It takes a little longer, way through the board the but it will build your saw will bind and kick back. confidence, using a saw. Never This is very dangerous. depend on a blade guard to You are not in control in this protect you from getting cut. position, all you have to do is Blade guards are a piece of get on the other side and machinery and they are make the cut and let the small notorious for hanging up and piece fall to the ground. not going back down, One more thing, if you are especially when you drop the cutting a board and the motor saw on the guard a few times. slows down, you are either Blade guards can hang up. crowding the saw (pushing The question is not, if a blade too hard), cutting on a bowed guard is going to hang up, it is down table, have a dull blade when…. or you are into pitch tension. Keep the guard lubricated and Pitch tension, when cut into, keep the housing clean of will close or open the saw cut pitch and sawdust. you have made. I have cut into On a new saw or old saw, some 2x12’s and the saw check all of the screws and would bind in the first 6” of bolts and make sure they are the cut. I would get the saw tight. About 75% of out and the saw kerf that I carpenters keep their guards cut would be closed. I was tied up. Some carpenters ripping a 1x12x8’ one day know how to use a saw, some and ripped it about 4’ and don’t. looked at it and it opened up Never cut a board nearly 2” at the end where I backwards, as the picture started, pitch tension. shows. This is usually in heart sawn Never do anything with a wood (center of the tree). circular saw in a way that you Pitch tension is created by do not have control. Always kiln drying the wood to fast. If

you are cutting a crowned The only way you are going to board, start your cut on the learn to cut lumber, correctly crowned side. The pitch has and safely, is to cut some activated on the crowned lumber, a lot of lumber. side, and the kerf will open as Take it slow and easy when you cut. The pitch will close you start using a circular saw; your kerf on the sagged side. follow this article down to the If you are cutting sheetstock last letter. and you stop the cut in the But remember the one most middle of the sheet, always important thing; back the saw up a half inch, Never pull a running saw out have both hands on the saw of a cut. before restarting the cut or Be careful, making one small it could kick back at you. mistake with a circular saw If your saw slows down and could be the last thing you goes to binding, stop the ever do in your life. motor and pry the blade out If some of you are wondering of the cut. Try to cut it from about my qualifications as to the other side or throw the writing this article, I have been board away. using saws for over 50 years OSHA.gov reports hundreds and have not ever been cut or of thousands of saw injuries even scratched by one. I every year. Look up “circular learned to cut lumber with a saw injuries” on the internet Mayes circular saw in 1956 and look at the pictures, they and it did not have a blade are horrifying. guard. If all people using saws would I strongly advise you to go to follow these circular saw my website and study the procedures, to the letter, procedures for using a miter injuries using a circular saw saw, a table saw and while you would come to a halt. are there, learn the ladder Now you have a choice, you procedures. are either going to listen to I wish you could, but you won’t me about these procedures find these procedures in your or you are not. Common saw’s safety manual. sense, your choice. It is not my If you have any questions job to keep you safe, it is about using a saw/ladder feel your job. I have given you the free to email me from the tools to operate a saw website. Bob safely, it is your job to apply these procedures and use Bob Johnston, carpenter them. Ask your wife, mother, http://carpenterbooks.com father or your kids which you 10/12/2006 should do.