Did something dumb today.

[Resonator]

the most dangerous pilots are under 100 hours or over 500.  to little experience or too much confidence.

Same goes for truck drivers, growing complacent is a danger. Also in the safety meetings they had a chart with probabilities, the more drivers there are, the more statistics go up for a "1 in a 100" or "1 in a 1000" etc. incident.

[metalspinner]

My youngest son is an art major at MIddle Tn State. He is home this weekend. 
He shared that his first trip to the "shop" with one of his classes was scary as hell. Basically, the kids were given "be careful, this stuff is dangerous" speech and then sent out on their own. No real instruction on any given machine. 

Of course, he was recognizing the dangerous situations because of his experience in my shop. 
There are plenty of things I still do for him in the shop...Mostly table saw related. And I have a SawStop!

I need to spend lots of time with both of the boys training them up more intentionally.  Mostly, I would show them specific things as it relates to their given projects. 

[Old Greenhorn]

OK, color me as the 'old guy' here and you can sling your arrows all you want, but I never understood this fear of radial arm saws. In the 70's this was the first production piece of equipment I ran and I probably put 10,000 BF a month through that saw. Although ripping with it was not my favorite thing to do and there would be an occasional kickback, I never had a single injury or even a bruise that I can recall. The first woodworking tool I bought at my first house was an RAS and I got a lot of work done with it. I still have it and I still use it often, but again, ripping is better done on the TS. I do like running rabbets thru it, it's really quick.
 I think the TS is more likely to hurt me than the RAS. Sorry, I just don't get it. I probably never will, it's a privledge of getting old, I can stick with what I like and trust. ;D :D YMMV

[aigheadish]

Sounds like, though I don't have the space for a RAS, I need to look on CL for one.

I went to Lowes today with the intention of buying a Milwaukee cordless circular saw but the only red they carry seems to be new school Craftsman now and I was hoping to be able to swap batteries with my Milwaukee grease gun. So instead I walked out with a kobalt compound miter saw to replace a pretty crappy harbor freight miter saw. I didn't think to look at reviews or anything while I was in the store, so hopefully it's decent but I'm happy with a few other kobalt tools I have. 

[Crusarius]

Home depot is milwaukee.

[sawguy21]

@doc henderson We had a saying in the aircraft industry which you have probably heard. There are old pilots and old pilots but there are no old, bold pilots. The worst period seemed to be 600 to 1100 hours, if they could get through that without breaking something and hurting or killing themselves they would probably be alright.

[Southside]

I have a right angle Milwaukee 18V circular saw, I am not joking when I say it will whoop a corded saw, that thing is amazing.  I guess I am kind of in the same camp as OG.  I completely understand the value of a saw stop, but at the same time I grew up jumping on bulls backs in a pasture without a rope, riding a bike without a helmet, and engaging in BB gun fights - no head shots was always the rule.  Smart?  No, not always, but we survived and learned how to recognize hazards as a result.  

[RAYAR]

I never understood this fear of radial arm saws.

RAS are safe as long as they are properly aligned and set up. You also need to use the anti-kickback pawls for ripping and ripping types of procedures.

[doc henderson]

any tool that can do many machining procedures, is not going be as good and safe at all of them.  A RAS looks like it should be pulled through a cut but the blade then pulls it in.  my dad usually pushed into the cut.  the wood is in between the motor and table, so like a chop saw, it can be violent if it gets in a bind.  It would actually not be a bad solution for slab flattening.  Dads had a drill chuck on it, it was a Craftsman, and I was 3 when he brought it home.

[ladylake]

 RAS need a low hook blade.  Steve

[Don P]

I shot an arrow of a ripping off a RAS right across a doorway barely in front of one of the bosses as he was walking in one day, smooooth  :D. That shop had switched to Whirlwinds for cutoff and I went through a heap of about 30 old Delta RAS's they had worn out to get enough parts to make 2 functional ones for little jobs. Where the Craftsmans have replaceable tracks, the Deltas run in grooves machined in the arm. The groove in the cut zone on those old Deltas was wallowed. If I set it to proper fit at the end of stroke the head was sloppy in the normal cut area. The ones I slapped together were very snug up front to get tolerable in the normal cut area.  Getting the head snug on the rails and tracking well is a biggie, don't let it bounce around on loose or worn tracks. Besides aggressive hook angle, an uncontrolled heavy bite is what usually throws stuff or makes the saw want to run over the work.

I've got Dad's Craftsman that came home about the same time Doc. I think I know someone that has been bitten by every one of the saws mentioned except the sawstop. Machines are not safe. I think the only reason I don't have one is pretty humorous and sure helps me understand some current mindsets. After the inventor came up with the saw he then went to lawmakers and tried to have them require it on all tablesaws. Good idea or not, and it is a great saw, that rubbed me wrong. I wonder at what point I'll pull my head out of   :.

[firefighter ontheside]

I grew up using a RAS and dad never said, "this thing is inherently dangerous".  As @ladylake said, you should have low hook angle on it to help prevent the rotation of the saw pulling the saw toward you too fast.  I think that's the main risk with the saw.  If the blade binds, then the saw gets pulled toward you.  If your fingers are in the wrong place, they get run over.  I never used the saw to rip though.

[Southside]

Now if you want to talk about a tool that will keep your hand eye dexterity keen and quick, there is always the good old swing saw.   :D

[SwampDonkey]

I did that many years ago and never forgot the lesson.

An old friend of mine (and Grandfather's as he was a fishing/hunting buddy), lost 3 finger tips, in 3 incidents. :-\

[Crossroads]

I don't have anything to add today. I just wanted to celebrate about 3 weeks without doing anything dumb enough to share 😁

[Old Greenhorn]

I'd have to be locked in a closet for 6 months to get 3 whole weeks without doing something dumb, and for sure, those weeks would no be in a row :D. Good on ya!

[firefighter ontheside]

This morning my little 10 lb dog wouldn't come when I called the dogs back inside.  With the little dog it can be a little scary since a coyote or bobcat or other scary beasts could carry him off.  I figured that hadn't happened since the big dog didn't bark.  I went out in the yard calling him and he came out from under a bush and appeared to be eating something and had something hanging from his mouth.  I grabbed him and pulled something from his mouth.  What do you do with that something...well you smell it of course.  I almost threw up in the yard.  Then I had to give the dog a bath.  My advice for today is to assume it's poop and don't smell it.

[K-Guy]

My dogs favorite outside treat seems to be frogs and we have good supply of them for him. I quit saying anything about it because then the wife would expect me to do something about it.  ???  ;D

[Crossroads]

Lol, oh that's nasty! When we moved to Idaho, our property was pretty wild with a high population of critters. Out little rat dog would take off down the dirt road barking like he owned the place. I told my wife that if he keeps that up, he's gonna be coyote poop and I started calling him coyote poop. Well, we're going on our 4th winter and coyote poop is still running up and down the driveway barking like the boss. 

[sawguy21]

My little furbag eats poop if I don't watch her carefully. She is getting better, probably tired of me yelling at her, but needs frequent reinforcement.

[Don P]

My wife asked the vet one time if the dogs pick up anything from deer poop because they are sure big fans. "No, I call them raisins of the woods  :D"

[thecfarm]

Put a new chain on the chainsaw. I released the brake, or thought I did. Did it twice just to make sure. It came off hard, which I thought was odd. Took the wrench to get it off.  Put the bar and chain back on and went to put the side plate on and would not go on. On the 450e husky the handle stays on the saw and the metal brake stays on the side plate. After trying to get it to line up so I could release the brake for the third time, : I got it after 3-4 trys. There everything is back on and I head out to cut some trees down. I start to cut the notch and nothing. And I mean nothing. I shut the saw off and headed for the tractor to put the chain on the correct way.  :  Never even looked at it, I knew what was wrong. Yes, I have put them on backwards a few times, but never tried to cut a tree that way.

[GAB]

Put a new chain on the chainsaw. I released the brake, or thought I did. Did it twice just to make sure. It came off hard, which I thought was odd. Took the wrench to get it off.  Put the bar and chain back on and went to put the side plate on and would not go on. On the 450e husky the handle stays on the saw and the metal brake stays on the side plate. After trying to get it to line up so I could release the brake for the third time, : I got it after 3-4 trys. There everything is back on and I head out to cut some trees down. I start to cut the notch and nothing. And I mean nothing. I shut the saw off and headed for the tractor to put the chain on the correct way.  :  Never even looked at it, I knew what was wrong. Yes, I have put them on backwards a few times, but never tried to cut a tree that way.

Wishing you a quick recovery from your bruised ego episode.
GAB

[JJ]

Just follow the instructions  :P

[aigheadish]

So far it's only taken me twice to learn the "chains on backwards" lesson.

JJ, those instructions are great!