Sawstop brake fired

[alex grams]

Hmm, had my brake fire when I was cutting some maple. It was a clean piece, had cut on it several times already, I was just trimming to length and WHAM, the brake fires.

Not sure what caused it, my brake dgap was set properly. I took it to the miter saw to finish the cut to see if there was anything inside the board that could have activated it, and it was clean.

I am going to send off the brake to sawstop and hopefully figure out the cause.

The blade didn't looked warped, but thankfully being in Houston there are a lot of sharpening shops around, and they will inspect the blade and the welds on the teeth that caught the brake, and replace any teeth that have bad welds and resharpen the blade (not bad for $30-40 for 4 new teeth (if needed) + sharpening to save my Forrest WWII.

I had my brake fire once before several years ago when I didn't have the gap set properly when I changed from normal to Dado, but this blade had been in for a few weeks since I last changed, and the gap was set with a nickel (as habit).

I am more confused than anything. Though i did drive 30 miles (each way) to get a new brake at woodcraft and I got the wrong kind. Apparently there are two types of brakes: Blue 10 pin (older?) and clear 15 pin(newer model?).

Any other common causes for brake firing other than metal/flesh/brake gap clearance?

[David Kumm]

Alex, does SS make you whole for misfires? With them leading the charge to requiring them on all saws it seems like they should. Dave

[John Coloccia]

Alex: I believe there was suspicion some time ago that small bits of metal could get onto the brake causing it to fire (like a staple or something like that). I think the solution was to put a layer or masking or packing tape on the face of the brake. Give SS a call and see what they say. I've never had a problem so I've never bothered but this is my recollection.

Seriously, though, call them before doing anything. I'm just going off my memory, and that's a dangerous thing.

[george wilson]

I have a friend who runs an architectural model shop. Their Saw Stop kept firing from people cutting mirror plexiglass in it. The metal residue apparently caused the mis fires. Waiting for better technology.

[mreza Salav]

Call SS, their customer service is second to none (as good as LV I think). I had a brake fire that was "mostly" my own mistake but wrote to them and told them how they could
have prevented such a mis-fire by adding a label or a sentence in their manual. Apparently the had added that label in new machines but provided me with a new brake and new
blade couriered to my door (in 2 days) free!

[alex grams]

Mreza,
I've talked to them and and sending the brake in. I agree that their CS is great. I had the hydraulic unit on my base leak some oil and they sent an entire new jack no questions asked.

One thing I did learn from the CS rep was that a screw/nail itself doesn't set off the brake, but that the screw/nail shorting between the blade and the brake sets off the brake. Maybe I always had the wrong assumption that the sensor was sensitive enough that the screw/nail would set it off, but typically they don't.

John, In regards to the tape on the brake, they now send their new brakes out pre-taped, but not with masking tape, but the plastic packing tape.

[Gary Venable]

+1 on calling SS customers service. They have been great the few times I have needed help.

-Gary

[David Hostetler]

Not entirely related to SS, but you mentioned sharpening shops in Houston.... Can you list / recommend a few? I lost track of mine when Armand Hardware on Bay Area Blvd shut down in the 90s...

[alex grams]

a few have asked on sharpening. I drop mine off at Woodcraft in SW Houston (Beltway 8 and 59). It runs about $15-25 a blade (depending on amount of teeth and size). The guy picks them up on Wednesday and drops them off the following Wednesday. I have used him several times and am very happy with the quality of work.

[Ben Hatcher]

If you're sending a Forrest blade in for sharpening, why not just send it back to Forrest? They do an AWESOME job sharpening their blades. Dare I say mine came back sharper than new?

[alex grams]

Ben, Woodcraft is ~7 miles from my work, no shipping charges and I also get my Frued blades sharpened at the same time, and at a comparable price (even before shipping costs).

[Daniel Smith]

I had my dado brake fire on start-up last year. Fortunately it was barely moving at the time so there was no damage to the blades. SS had me return the cartridge for examination. IIRC, the explanation was that electronic noise in the circuitry, or something similar, triggered the brake. They replace the fired cartridge as well as the two others I had (all old style) at no cost. As other have mentioned, their customer service was top notch.

I've also found out that staples do not necessarily set off the brake. While good to know, I don't intend to take advantage of knowledge again, especially since half of the staple ended up buried in my forearm.

[alex grams]

Dan, mine fired too on my dado last year, though they said it was the brake clearance with the blade that caused it, though they unfortunately did not replace a cartridge for me.

I am interested in this failure's cause. I had the dust collector running and the wood was clear and clean. I actually have some strong rare earth magnets i pushed around in my dust collector bag to see if i could pick up any ferrous shaving, and i did the same inside the cabinet with the magnet, but came back clean.

[Dave Lehnert]

Any chance you hit the miter gauge or the like?

[alex grams]

I was cross-cutting to length a piece of maple that was 2"x1.75" profile and 30" long on the miter gauge (trimming the end to a certain length) and the brake fired approximatly 1/3 of the way through the cut. The fence was off to the side, the tablesaw surface was clear of tools and such.

Nothing I can think of was near/around the blade other than the wood, which was clear.

[Michael Peet]

I had my dado brake fire on start-up last year. Fortunately it was barely moving at the time so there was no damage to the blades. SS had me return the cartridge for examination. IIRC, the explanation was that electronic noise in the circuitry, or something similar, triggered the brake. They replace the fired cartridge as well as the two others I had (all old style) at no cost. As other have mentioned, their customer service was top notch.

Yep, me too. Thread here: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?155007-Rogue-Sawstop-Brake-Activation

Mike

[Paul Grothouse]

I had this happen to, my saw is almost 5 years old, first time ever about 2 months ago. It ended up being a loose motor cover door. When the door jiggled it tripped the interlock and caused the brake to engage. Sawstop replaced the brake no charge. They were aware of this issue and said in their own testing 1 out of 4 times the brake will active when the interlock is tripped. It's caused by signal noise from the interlock.

Good rule of thumb, check all of the interlocks and make sure they are being deeply depressed when the doors are closed.

[mreza Salav]

As a side note, although the vast majority of brake fires I've read or heard of user error there seem to be some that aren't clearly blamed on the user.
I think the designer/developer realized (correctly) it's far less expensive to have false positives (i.e. misfires) than false negatives (fingers cut).
So they are willing to give away free brakes and blades instead of dealing with situations where the saw was supposed to fire but didn't. I'm fine with that too.

[alex grams]

Maybe i will be lucky enough that the cause wasn't something I did and sawstop will step up and help save me some money. I am fine if the cause was my mistake, I have no problem admitting when I overlook something (forgetting dado brake gap setting). Though my main concern is the cause of the activation. I don't want a repeat performance.