Had an issue with the saw last week. No, not anything to do with the safety features. This time as I cranked the blade over to cut a miter the whole arbor assembly “slipped” or “skipped” back on the screw gear. Weird. Bear with me as I try and explain what was going on.
To tilt the blade there is a hand wheel that you turn. It is on the left side if the cabinet. This hand wheel turns a shaft that has a “screw” on the end which, in turn, engages a gear. The gear is attached to the whole arbor/trunnion assembly. When cranked it swings this whole assembly over which is how the blade gets tilted. There is a bracket that holds the shaft in position. This bracket has two elongated bolt holes that are the attachment points. Over time as sawdust/grease built up on the screw and gear it acted as a wedge and slipped this bracket on its elongated holes. When this happened the screw and gear were no longer in proper contact.
Tech support at SawStop were helpful. They seemed aware of the issue and advised us to thoroughly clean the parts, re- lube, and re-assemble. It didn’t occur to me at the time to ask if it was something they would remedy in future saws. From what I can tell they need to eliminate the elongated holes in the bracket to solve the problem. I think the build-up would squeeze itself out instead of causing mis-alignment.
One further measure we took after we re-assembled the unit. We installed an aluminum plate beneath the bracket which extends to the bottom of the saw cabinet. We through bolted the plate to the cabinet which should prevent the bracket from slipping again.
Still a great saw after nearly a year, but I suspect getting all the bugs out of a new system will take time.
-Paul
Replies
"We through bolted the plate to the cabinet which should prevent the bracket from slipping again." I won't pretend to toally understand all the mechanisms involved, but whenever you prevent one part from moving, it's a good idea to see what part might have to "give" if you jamb the thing up again.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
In this case I don't believe it will cause any further damage. It was the build up on the gears that caused the problem of the bracket slipping. If it can't slip I think the hand wheel would just become harder to turn. In talking it out with tech support this was a fix that was agreed would be sound. I wonder if a retrofit of some sort may be in the works if this problem becomes more prevalent.
I will endeavor to keep an eye on the situation.
-Paul
"If it can't slip I think the hand wheel would just become harder to turn." No problem with that, as long as it's noticed and the effort to turn it ceases. Many sad stories told about forcing one of those wheels, and they've got alot of power.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Yeah, I agree. I think we need better up keep on the equipment anyway. This may prompt us into doing so!
-Paul
Just a thought, as I don't know how this system is laid out -- make sure anything you add doesn't interfere with the ability of the blade assembly to swing down if/when the SawStop safety mechanism is triggered.
Don,
The part of the saw where we added the plate remains static and out of the way when the mechanism is fired. The arbor/trunnion assembly is where the brake is located. The part that we had issue with is on the opposite side of the saw attached to the cabinet.
-Paul
I will have to take a look to totally understand the problem you're facing. My question is in regards to your dust collection. Is it adequate, with enough CFM? I know the dust shroud under the blade isn't totally effective (gawd how I wish it was 6" instead of 4" connection), but is this a problem that could be avoided with sufficient DC? Just curious...
The dust collection on the saw is adequate-better than most. It is not perfect a little bit of dust enters the cabinet past the shroud. Nothing compared to the way the old Unisaw was. Over the course of about a year now enough accumulation caused the problem. I think more likely we were just un-familiar with how often this saw would require a clean and re-lube on those moving parts. Combine that with what I consider a flaw in that particular part. Anyway, now we know.
-Paul
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