Almost seven years ago, on the eve of my 50th birthday Monisha gifted me a Bosch circular saw. Of course it was my idea and she readily approved of it. I went all the way to the Taher showroom on Prinsep Street and brought it home. But after reading up everything and seeing a few videos I realised this was a little dangerous to handle. Also, I did not have the necessary work place and bench to regularly use it effectively. So after a cursory look at the item I kept it packed.
A few months ago, Partha my anaesthetist friend, suddenly showed me the photographs of a patient who had chopped off his thumb with a similar saw. It is one of the most ghastly photographs I have ever seen. Apparently the gentleman collected the finger and went to the hospital and it was stitched back. I have no idea as to how it is healing.
Of late I have been meaning to use the saw. When I discussed it with Kushu-da he said use the stair case as your work bench. Hold the wood with your leg. This was the most practical ingenuous idea to use it under the constraints of my house.
I wanted to make a small vegetable chopping board for Monisha that would be handy so that she could easily chop some chillies or a lime etc on the dining table itself and not bring the big chopping board from the kitchen. This is a daily requirement for her.
We have some old plywood cut pieces in the house. I thought I would cut a six inch square board out of one them. As it turned out we found a board that is about 2 feet long and six inches wide. I decided to cut six inches off the length to get a 6x6 board.
To cut a longish story short - it went off perfectly. Well almost. I say almost because I should have been more careful towards the end of the cut. The corner got a bit chipped. But I am reasonably happy that it went off smoothly.
Ideally one should clamp the wood with vices on something unmovable and then cut. I was using my left foot as the vice. What I did not know was how the wood would react after the force of the moving saw hit it. It did move under my foot. But I managed.
As I realised the saw has a protective cover kind of thing. It is not a naked saw. Unless one is terribly careless or something slips out there is hardly any chance of an accident. Of course one has to be careful with any moving machinery part.
I did wear a pair of gloves and covered my mouth and nose with the face mask. But I must say, I was not prepared for the sound it made :-)
