I’m just about to get delivery of a Sawstop ICS. My old saw had an arbor of 1″, the Sawstops have an arbor of 5/8″ . I have a number of old blades which cost quite a bit of money. Forrest WWII, Freud and a custom grind blade.
Does anyone use bushing (reducing collars) with their SawStop? Can anyone see any issues. I’ve contacted Sawstop but no luck, I don’t want to throw away $500 in saw blades.
Cheers
Taff, New Zealand
Replies
Freud makes saw a blade bushing for this.
Im pretty sure Forrest has them as well.
I know I can get them (here in NZ) and I'm sure some are better well made than others, its just SawStop doesn't recommend them and I was wondering if anyone uses them with a Sawstop and if there have been any issues.
Email below from SawStop......
We do not recommend using busing extenders on SawStop saws. That is what we recommend and are saying.
We are sorry for any inconvenience this might cause.
Best Regards,
SawStop
Technical Service
----Original Message----
[EXTERNAL SENDER]
Hi,
I do have blades that are 10" in diameter but they have a 1" hole. Are you saying that I should throw away $500 worth of blades instead of using a reducing bushing from 1" to 5/8".
Cheers
Ian
On 18 June 2020 at 9:08 am, Technical Service wrote:
Ian,
Unfortunately we do not recommend using a bushing reducer.
We do however recommend to use blades that are actually 10" or 8" in diameter with a 5/8-Inch Arbor hole.
Best Regards,
SawStop
Technical Service
With the caveat that I am not a user of SawStop and don't use bushings...
There is no logical reason why a bushing would be a problem with the SawStop.
The mechanism of action does not depend on the arbor after all.
That having been said, there is potential for reduction of braking effect if the blade were able to jump off the arbor, so any bushing should have a flange.
A bit dangerous to give advise for this type of thing both w/o a Sawstop and not being a user of bushings, but you got lucky.
Turns out Sawstop has a logical reason to advise against bushings:
The sawstop arbor flange and the outer washer both have a 3/64 depressed area making the bearing surface the outer rings of both. A bushing the thickess of the saw plate could work its way out into that depression and the blade would spin off center, at the very least activating the brake and possibly doing other damage to the saw or the user.
The suggested bushing with a flange might work if the flange fit inside the depression w/o keeping the arbor flange/washer combination from seating when the nut is snugged down.
See photo below.
Oh, by the way... the photo is of a 3HP PCS. I can't say for certain that the flange & Nut are the same on the ICS.
Hi _MJ_, thanks for the info on the arbor flange I will check it out when the saw arrives, From memory my old saw also had a similar depression in the flange and I never had any issues.
The depression you show is 3/64 which is 1.19mm, bushings I believe are generally 2mm thick, the chances of the bushing coming off completely and fitting inside the depression is remote.
The other option I can always do is to take the arbor flange to a precision engineer (luckily I know one) and he could make me a new arbor flange with a much smaller depression.
My 2 most expensive blades are a Forrest WWII flat grind with a 1" hole which I got shipped from them to NZ, not cheap and the other is a custom grind 8degree blade, again wasn't cheap. Don't really want to throw them away.
Thanks to all for your input.
Cheers
Taff
The danger is in bushings the same thickness as the sawplate I suppose. My last saw had flat arbor washers and I needed to use stabilizer discs to improve the cut quality. A bushing designed for that arrangement could go very wrong on the sawstop.
Too bad Sawstop didn't share their reasoning.
Another possible reason is that a bushing might not provide good electrical conductivity between the arbor and blade. As Sawstop explains in their FAQs: "You should not use non-conductive blades or blades with non-conductive hubs or teeth (example: diamond blades)."
The sensitivity of the safety mechanism depends on solid contact between the arbor shaft And the blade the bushing “could” create a resistance between the blade and the shaft. If you are buying the SS for the safety mechanism you “might” be compromising the conductivity between the blade and the sensor by introducing the bushing into the system.
You might contact Forrest and ask about a re-bushing possibility. I'm remembering that service is offered.
You could sell your old blades & use the $$ to buy the new blades with the proper arbor.
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