Surprised by so many bad experiences with the circular saw
(especially Ruth’s harrowing incident), I went down to the studio and
conducted a little experiment. I think part of the reason I’ve never
had a problem with this tool is the simple fact that I’m left-handed.
This means that for me, the teeth of the saw cut from under and up,
rather than over and down. I tried the saw in either hand to make
cuts in the corner of a block of soft pine: with the left hand, it
cut neatly and was easy to control; with the right, it was difficult
to control and took off across the surface of the wood in a pretty
alarming way. (The issue of “handedness and the flex-shaft” came up a
couple years ago in a discussion about polishing with the flex-shaft;
it turned out that being a lefty was quite an advantage in that as
well, as polishing compound was less likely to be flung into the
user’s face.)
In either case, a possible safety solution might be to keep the
handpiece stationary (I often use the plastic handpiece holder that
Rio sells), orienting it on the user’s left side, and use both hands
to control the workpiece, keeping fingers out of harm’s way. It
should go without saying that I run the saw at a very low speed and
ALWAYS wear safety glasses AND a face shield in case of blade
breakage, just as you would when using a cutoff disc.
I don’t want to get myself in trouble here, and I certainly don’t
want anyone to get hurt. I’m a big safety geek, never without the
proper PPE, and I wouldn’t want to advocate an unsafe technique. I
don’t think it would be safe to cut rings on a steel mandrel this
way - I never tried to, mostly because I expected that the steel
would damage the saw blade. I did point out in my previous e-mail
that wooden dowels would not be suitable for very small or precise
rings, but they’re great for making large quantities of larger rings,
especially ones that will be reshaped later - my favorite application
has been in making rings for loop-in-loop chains. I’m not trying to
say that this technique is better or even comparable to the Jump
Ringer system; it’s just something that has worked for me.
Keep all ten,
Jessee Smith
www.silverspotstudio.com
Cincinnati, Ohio