battery secateurs

[dan_b]

Dear Lord that's a bad tale. Hope you're not in too much pain?
That device sounds inherently unsafe.

[Fintray]

Bugger! Hope it heals well.

I bought a similar unit but it's a pole version so the cutting part is well away from any vulnerable bits.

[John_S]

I hope all goes well with your healing.

The secateurs look to be an old model - they are different from that shown on the Milwaukee website now.

Double safety can be a nuisance and sorry that you have learnt that the hard way.

Let this be a wake up call to others to retire old tools.

John

[nowty]

Really sorry to hear, I very nearly bought something similar a few years back, but I had visions of something like that happening too easily, so I stuck to the manual ones or a saw.

I nearly had an accident with a battery jigsaw a few years back. It has a safety catch which I religiously use but one time as I was using it, I accidently dropped it. It cut out straight away but as I tried to catch it I accidently pulled the trigger again and it started up and still falling towards my thigh. It just missed and I took a few chucks out of a wooden bench instead but was a close call.

[Jinx]

I use these regularly, they are a fantastic tool but they scare the hell out of me, truly, far more than my 70cc chainsaw or the 9” grinder that most people consider terrifying.

The only ‘safe’ version I have seen is the genuine Makita, it comes with a sensing glove but it’s around £1000 so people just buy the knock-offs with no real safety features.

Wish you all the best in recovery and adapting. Thankyou for sharing, might just save someone else.

[Oliver90owner]

Oops, nasty. Hope it heals well.

If a current item on sale, a word or three with Trading Standards needs to be made. If sold by a UK supplier, they should be insured against incidents like this. Worth seeing a solicitor?

I hated electric chainsaws - even though they had a safety button. At least with a petrol saw, one knew, with absolute certainty, it could never start on its own when set down and completely silent!

[AE-NMidlands]

Oops, nasty. Hope it heals well.

If a current item on sale, a word or three with Trading Standards needs to be made. If sold by a UK supplier, they should be insured against incidents like this. Worth seeing a solicitor?

I hated electric chainsaws - even though they had a safety button. At least with a petrol saw, one knew, with absolute certainty, it could never start on its own when set down and completely silent!

Thanks Knighty for the salutory tale, a lesson for me... best wishes.
That's a good point O90owner. I have recently bought a smallish battery chainsaw and have been very pleased with it so far, but I shall be doubly careful with it now.

(I bought Felco secateurs as a treat for SWMBO - No 9, really good left-handers - and then No 8 for myself and was so pleased with them that I bought the boys a pair each...
Visiting one I found them in his utility room and thought they were remarkably clean: I touched the blade to see if they had been used and got a really deep cut like a razor cut! Served me right, but when using mine now I always think about where my other hand and fingers are when I am cutting something resistant!)

Was it in The Godfather that someone was tortured by having their fingers cut off with secateurs bit by bit? I can't bring myself to go looking for it to watch it again, but I have a horrible feeling they were nice red-handled Felco ones...
A

[Thebeeman]

We have the Stihl version of these and they are just as dangerous, no second safety device. We also have the cordless Stihl hedge trimmer but that does have the second switch in the handle that requires a palm to be resting on it to function, it also has a switch in the loop handle to ensure the other hand is safe. The design of the hand grip on both machines is the same so they could have incorporated the safety switch in both.