I love my Sawstop contractor saw BUT...

[Richard Shaefer]

the vertical lead screw for the blade height adjustment constantly jams with sawdust. Seems like every other week or so I'm on my back under the saw with a machinst's pick and wire tooth brush clearing out the lead screw threads. Anyone else have this problem? It's my only irritation in an otherwise great saw.

[Charles Goodnight]

yea, drives me crazy. Sadly I don't have a better solution than you do.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Have you contacted them? IMO they have the ultimate customer service, they may have a solution. Yes, that would drive me crazy too. I don't have the CS, but I do have the ICS, and they have always answered my questions.

[Neil Bosdet]

I would contact them too. I agree with Kyle, their customer service is exceptional.

[Richard Shaefer]

I contacted SS customer service and they are aware of the problem but have not come up with a solution to it.
Looks like I'll have to think of something, myself.
No worries on that front.
I'm an engineer, so I can pretty much screw-up anything by adding more features to it.

[Neil Bosdet]

I have the Industrial SS so I can't see your exact issue but would the following idea work? Find an accordian plastic tube just larger than the lead screw. Remove the screw, push this on, put the screw back on. The plastic tube will expand and contract with the movement of the unit on the thread and sawdust can't make contact anymore. Will this work?

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[Richard Shaefer]

pretty much exactly what I was thinking. Mcmaster-Carr has a few bellows that look promising for this purpose.

[Shawn Pixley]

I have the SS Contractor (a bit tricked out) and have experienced the same thing. I have mastered reaching up under there every 4-5 weeks and sweep out the sawdust in the small ledge before it cakes hard. I lube with the teflon spray to resist adherence to the threads. No big deal but a minor annoyance. I plan to enclose the bottom and enhance the dust collection. I am hopeful that this will help.

I got the Contractor a year or two before the PCS was available. Sigh....

[Richard Shaefer]

yeah, I know how you feel. I brush out the threads about as often as I brush my dog's teeth. It's nice reminder to clean the saw out when the dog has bad breath, too. ;)

I got my Contractor before the PCS came out too, but you wouldn't know it to look at it.
the side and outfeed tables have the original saw buried deeper into the total assembly than the Voyager 7 probe was buried into the V'Ger space cloud.

[John Coloccia]

Funny. I've had mine two or three years now and have never had this problem. I run mostly solid wood through it. Are you running sheet goods? I'll also mention that I upgraded to a SharkGuard soon after getting the saw, and recently upgraded to the SS dust collection guard, so maybe that's helping too. The whole area under my insert stays pretty clean!

[Van Huskey]

Could you mount a air nozzle directed where you need it with a short hose and a quick connect. Then once in a while hit it with a pop of air, dunno if it will work but if it does it beats climbing under.

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

Have same saw, but after installing above saw DC and modifying under the table DC I don't have a problem with screw.

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[Phil Thien]

I don't have a SS but I do have an easy fix that doesn't require any modifications of the saw. Requires only a simple item you can purchase at a Walgreens.

I will post a video of the one dollar fix tomorrow.

[John TenEyck]

I also think the plastic bellows would solve the problem. But instead of taking things apart to slip it over the shaft, why not slit it length wise so that you can just clip it over the shaft? There also are some spiral plastic "tubes" used to contain electrical wires in panels. You would install it by just winding it around the shaft. Anyway, something along these lines should work.

I'm surprised how many people appear to have a SawStop. Sounds like a very fine machine, in addition to the safety benefit.

[Chip Lindley]

Have same saw, but after installing above saw DC and modifying under the table DC I don't have a problem with screw.

But, it's a Contractor's Saw--meant to be hauled around to work sites (theoretically). How many work sites have a DC hookup? No compressed air either.

Sometimes, simpler is better. But, simpler could infringe on existing Patents. Most decent TSs use an arched gear rack and worm to raise the blade. Teeth of those are designed with deep gullets between the gear teeth, to allow some sawdust in the mesh and still function. My trusty old Rockwell Model 10 CS was this way. My much-maligned Craftsman/Emerson TS of '70s vintage had a threaded rod/nut. It jammed with sawdust often, and took too many cranks to elevate the blade. Grr! No further comment!

The elevation shaft of SawStop's CS drives two bevel gears to turn a vertical threaded rod and nut to raise the blade. Quite an intricate mechanism to be exposed to all the sawdust you can produce. One would think a premium saw would have all that enclosed within a gearbox, protected from intrusive STUFF!

Two small wire-bristle brushes could be fitted inside the SS's chassis to rake the threaded rod teeth as it enters the casting. One on top, one on bottom. That's not too over-engineered is it?

[Mike Zilis]

I've also never experienced this problem. However, I'm in the habit of taking the table insert out, turning on the dust collector and aiming my air hose into the guts of the saw to blow out anything in there.

Mike

[Alan Lightstone]

Funny. I've had mine two or three years now and have never had this problem. I run mostly solid wood through it. Are you running sheet goods? I'll also mention that I upgraded to a SharkGuard soon after getting the saw, and recently upgraded to the SS dust collection guard, so maybe that's helping too. The whole area under my insert stays pretty clean!

What do you use for dust collection with that setup, John?

[Richard Shaefer]

Funny. I've had mine two or three years now and have never had this problem. I run mostly solid wood through it. Are you running sheet goods? I'll also mention that I upgraded to a SharkGuard soon after getting the saw, and recently upgraded to the SS dust collection guard, so maybe that's helping too. The whole area under my insert stays pretty clean!

I'm an equal opportunity wood butcher; I cut a lot of sheet and solid wood. I also have a bad habit of using my saw as a cheater edge jointer by chasing down the board sides with the saw blade. that makes buckets of dust that gets everywhere, including all over the lead screw.

[John Coloccia]

It's a Clearvue. It's 6", dropping to 4 right at the dust shroud. From the top, it's 6", dropping to 4", then dropping to whatever the dust port is....2 1/4" maybe. Before that it was 6" to 4" right to the SharkGuard. Taking the Clearvue down to 2 1/4" is not ideal, and I used to use a shop vac for this, but I've found that the SS guard does such a good job of collecting the dust that all I really need to do is just move it out of the way.

I don't know what it does with the original SS blade guard. Within 10 minutes of use I determined that the original guard is a piece of junk and tossed it. #1, it's WAY too flimsy. If you're going to have a tight fit around the blade, you need a rigid guard. #2, there was this little bump in front. Unless you passed just the right size piece of wood through, your piece would hit the bump and push the guard backwards instead of just lifting it up. Often, it would flex enough to run into the blade! I'm not sure if they ever fixed that on the standard guard. When I first bought it, I actually thought it was defective and had them send me a new guard (which also had the same problem). The dust collection guard, on the other hand, has performed flawlessly. As part of the upgrade you also replace the standard insert with the tool free insert. That's quite a nice upgrade as well.