First Kapex bevel cut - did not go well - help!

[Lou in DE]

I have had the Kapex for about 6 months but have never needed to make a bevel cut until today. I was making a box out of 3/4 inch cabinet grade plywood with mitered corners. The board width was about 5 inches. I was holding the board with my left hand and trimming off just enough to get the 45 degree miter - the blade was tilted left. The cut was perfect but the small cut off took off like a bullet across the shop about 20 ft until it hit the opposite wall - fortunately missing my head by a few inches or so. I think that I had set up correctly. Anyone have a suggestion - I'm a little wary to try a second bevel cut  [scared]

 

[NL-mikkla]

Did you lift the blade spinning when this happened?

 

[ryan.burns]

As NL-mikkla asked did you leave the blade spinning when you lifted it?  When cutting really small pieces off of any stock from beveled to 90s if you bring the blade up while spinning its going to catch the cut off quite a bit of the time and throw it. Having a zero clearance helps but its really good practice to let the blade stop before lifting it especially when cutting very small pieces.

 

[Lou in DE]

Letting the blade come to a complete stop has become second nature to me since getting the Kapex - especially since the blade comes to rest so quickly. I thought about this after making my "first" bevel cut and that's probably what happened - maybe I was a little anxious to complete the cut or something and raised the blade prematurely. Thanks for reminding me.

 

[ear3]

This actually happens with some frequency on bevel cuts with small offcuts, particularly if not all the piece is in contact with the base.  I did a project this summer where I had to install lots of lipped/inset panel moulding -- I had to reposition my saw so that all the offcuts were aimed at the wall, because almost every time I made a cut, even with all safety precautions having been taken, the offcut would shoot out from the blade like a missile.  It became a kind of sport seeing how many dents I could make in the opposite wall.