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.