Miter Saw Locks for Dummies

Delta Miter Saw Lockdown Pin

In case you've never noticed, power tools come with a lot of warnings. You know, dire commands like, "Wear hearing protection..." "Wear eye protections..." "Keep fingers away from sharp blades..." To those we here at the Antisocial Network would like to add, "Never take power tool advice from a college student getting a degree in 'creative writing.'" That, however, is exactly what the folks at eHow.com want you to do when you read "How to Lock the Arm on a Delta Miter Saw," a little ditty jotted down by one Missy Farage.

Believe it or not, this is the second trip to the "Delta Miter Saw" well for Farage, who had previously demonstrated her ignorance of "How to Use a Delta Compound Miter Saw" for the fine folks at eHow. Just how unfamiliar Missy is with this particular power tool is apparent from the first paragraph:

"A Delta miter saw is an important tool in any household. If your tool shed is running out of space, you can minimize the saw's size by locking the arm of the miter saw in a downward position."

So what's wrong with that? Well, for one thing, a power miter saw is not the first power tool most people buy (that's a cordless drill). Heck, it's not even the first power saw most people buy (a jigsaw). In other words, it's not "an important tool in any household"! Then there's the business of running out of space in your "tool shed": miter saws lock in a blade-down position more to make them less clumsy to move around than to save space.

Whether it's to expand the verbiage to meet the DMS¹ minimum word count (300 words) or just because that's what she found to reword, Farage goes into way more detail (and work) than necessary. In reality, the manual for the saw simply says to lower the blade to the bottom of its arc and push in the blade lock knob, typically with a picture showing the knob. According to Missy, though, you must

"Turn off your miter saw, and unplug it from the wall." – Oh, joy, another creative writer who doesn't know that the saw isn't running unless you're holding down the trigger! "Empty the dust collection bag..." – Well, sure, if you want to. "Switch on the shop vacuum and carefully vacuum away all sawdust from the saw bed, blade and arm." – Again, probably unnecessary, especially if you've only made a cut or two. "...Hold the arm down. Find the knob at the bottom of the miter saw arm with your other hand. Press the knob inward, towards the center of the miter saw, until it clicks and can't go any farther." – And here's where Missy really went off the rails. The knob isn't "at the bottom of the miter saw arm," it's on one side of the spring-loaded arm, behind the motor assembly. On some Delta saws, it's on the right side, but not always. On "the bottom," though? Heck no!

Yup, 268 words, most of them worthless padding – and the only pertinent instruction is wrong! Well, three cheers for Farage and her third Dumbass of the Day award.

¹ DMS = Demand Media Studios, parent company of eHow, now known as Leaf Group. The name is probably because they had so many demands for the writers...

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