table saw vibrations while spinning down
tmoble
| Posted in Power Tools and Machinery on
Hi, my first post here.
I bought a Ridgid table saw a couple years ago. It’s the big one with cast tables and extensions. TS-3650 I think. Anyway, it has a nasty habit of going into a vibration mode while spinning down after shut-off. I have extensive experience with v-belts in automotive applications and really don’t see anything wrong with this one. alignment is OK, tension is tight, etc. It’s bad enough to have caused the sides of the teeth to make a little hog-out in the zero clearance insert.
Any bright ideas?
Replies
"Any bright ideas?" My old Jet saw improved considerably in this respect when I slapped a link-belt on it. You can find them for less than $6.99/ft. but don't ask me where, it's been awhile.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
FG: The Ridgids I saw have a funny belt. I don't think one can make that substitution.Cadiddlehopper
If the insert's slot is being cut, it sounds like the arbor bearing is going away. Remove the belt, raise the blade and see if you can wiggle the blade, possibly feeling or hearing a sound associated with the movement. There should be no play in the arbor. Does it do this with all of your blades?
Another possibility is that the arbor washer isn't totally flat and the blade is wobbling. If you have (or can get) a dial indicator, manually turn the blade and see how much side to side movement there is. If you see any, loosen the arbor nut just enough to allow the blade to turn but not move away from the hub (the bearing side of the arbor) and rotate the blade, holding the shaft stationary. If the deviation is still there, you may have a warped blade. If the wobble goes away, this shows that the blade is true. Now, rotate the arbor washer on the bearing side 1/4 turn and rotate the blade after tightening the nut. Is there a change? Repeat until the wobble goes away and once you find the truest setting, mark the washer, blade, shaft and nut with a Sharpie or something permanent. If you want to test the washer another way, remove the washer and place it on your saw table, then lay the blade on top with the holes aligned. If you measure the height from the table top to the bottom surface of the blade at various points, you may see a difference and if the blade is true, it indicates that the washer needs to be flattened or replaced. A machine shop can flatten it on a surface grinder. They can also check the blade for trueness more accurately.
I would try loosing the belt somewhat after you check your arbor bearings. Check your arbor pulley and make sure it is not loose. Also, if a link belt will work install one. It should be installed tight at first because it stretches because of all the links. After breakin it should be somewhat loose, egg shaped when running.
Life is what happens to you when you're making other plans .
Edited 12/21/2006 9:02 am ET by JerryPacMan
My RIDGID does the same thing. Doesn't affect the quality of the cut, so I really don't care about it too much.
TF
You may be hitting a harmonic frequency as your saw coasts down. Without changing anything else, put on a different blade and see if the vibration goes away - or occurs at a different time during the coastdown.
Other possibilities may be belt tension, type of belt, and/or an out of balance pulley.
Dave, Too funny. We were writing the same answer at the same time.Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Bruce -
Isn't there an old saying about great minds running in similar gutters - or something like that??
If there isn't, there should be!! - lol
P.S. I'm betting that you're an engineer, too.
Edited 12/21/2006 11:31 am by Dave45
Dave, Licensed Stationary Steam Engineer. I worked 30 years in a Municipal Power house. Water tender, Firemans helper, Fireman & Shift engineer(turboelectric generator operator & Shift supervisor) Many years of trouble shooting and many semi annual maintenance outages. Fired old 3 drum B&W 400PSI underfeed Sterlings to a B&W 1250 PSI, 250,000 lb. steam/hr. @ 850 degrees temp. Pulverized coal unit. 4000KW, 4500KW, 12.5MW & 21MW turboelectric generators. So I've had my share of mechanical problems, and countless situations where a quick fix of any type to keep the plant operating and on line was necessary. Finally wised up and retired, rotating shifts was a drag.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Edited 12/21/2006 7:23 pm ET by BruceS
Bruce, My hot water heater has been making a funny sound. Could you come over and take a look? Rich
Sure, $2.00 per mile plus Per Diem ;-)
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Edited 12/21/2006 9:50 pm ET by BruceS
Does the problem still exist when you change blades ? Some of the thin kerf blades are prone to set up harmonics on the coast-down and do start vibrating. Also some of the cheaper blades when heated up during a cut will warp a little. Also some of the cheaper blades arn't stress relieved and will warp when heated during the cutting process.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
My Ridgid did the same thing. When I switched to a regular kerf blade, no more vibration in rundown. Tom
The LinkBelt avaliable through Lee Valley will solve the problem. I have the same thing happen with my saw right from factory, and the LinkBelt fixed it.
My understanding is that the link-type belt will not work with the RIDGID 3560 table saw. The RIDGID uses an "automotive" style belt, as opposed to a "v" belt.TFToolfanatic (a.k.a. The man formerly known as "Toolfreak")
That may be so, I'm not aware of that saw. Do you mean the flat serpertine belt?
Wow, great response. You guys are good.I'll try the washer positioning tricks Sunday. I can't remember if it has the serpentine type belt or not.I'm sort of picky about how my machines work and I'm willing to try a few things. If it has a flat belt I could just change the pulleys to go to a link belt.I put a red Freud thin kerf blade 80 tooth blade on it the day I got it so I don't even know what it was like with the stock blade.Again, thanks for all your responses.
Go to http://www.in-lineindustries.com they speciallize in TS drives. For $50 you can purchase balanced pulleys and a link belt that should make that vibration go away.
I have a simular but less dramatic issues with an old Craftman Saw and plan to change the drive on it as well.
If you have a serpentine belt I would not change it to a link belt. While I love link belts and have them everywhere I can use them serpentine belts are better. The are excellent for power transmission and since they are thin they do not have the vibration problem the thick and inflexible v belts have. My new Hammer K3 saw/shaper uses flat ribbed belts. Most European woodworking machines use flat ribbed belts.
Life is what happens to you when you're making other plans .
Send an e-mail to John White at FWW. He reviewed this saw and might have some suggestions.
TFToolfanatic (a.k.a. The man formerly known as "Toolfreak")
I had to change my pulleys on my General to put on the Link Belt, but it is no big deal. But if the serpentine belt is better, than maybe needs to look for a different solution, I would be very surprised that it would be a bad bering, if there is no other indication. If the machine is not dead level and stable, it will move during slow down, as the centrifugal forces slow down, and get out of sequence.
Edited 12/22/2006 11:51 am by ptu
You can't use a link belt on the Ridgid 3650 or 3612 unless you change the pulleys. Those saws use a serpentine-type belt with ridges that fit into grooves in the pulleys. I used to have a 3612, and that type of belt works very, very well. Since you already checked the pulley and belt alignment, you should look for some other cause of the vibration, maybe a bad bearing. Somebody already suggested how to check for that.
It's a ribbed, automotive style belt that runs on machined pulleys. Very good quality.
Keep in mind, he's not complaining of vibration while the saw is running. It's when he turns off the power and the blade slows down that he's getting vibration. Quality of cut is not affected at all.
TFToolfanatic (a.k.a. The man formerly known as "Toolfreak")
my rigid does this as well. i tightened the belt and it helped quite a bit.
Put a blade stiffener on the saw, less vibration and better cuts.
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