A SawStop Story

[Mike Henderson]

This is a bit long but I thought it might help other SawStop users.

I've owned my PCS SawStop for over 5 years and during that time, I never had a problem. Recently, however, I was making a rip fence adjustment a bit too fast and the blade had not quite finished moving when I touched it with a metal rule. The brake fired. Just a "thunk" and the blade did not retract.

So I kick myself and go buy another brake. I install it and I'm back in business. No problem.

However, yesterday, I'm ripping some walnut and the saw stops - just like I had hit the paddle. But I hadn't hit the paddle. And when I recycle the saw (turn off, turn on) I'm getting lights saying the brake is not adjusted properly (solid red, slow blink green). I adjust and adjust but always get the same lights.

So I go to my supplier and they lend me a brake which install in my saw. Same problem.

Today I call SawStop and after much head scratching and trying different things, he has me adjust the riving knife to be a bit further from the blade. Success!

It seems that the brake has software in it and they have changed the software over time. The new brake apparently had software that was a bit more sensitive to the position of the riving knife. Either that, or the process of moving the riving knife block did something.

Anyway, I'm back in business. The guy at SawStop was very polite and competent. He just kept working with me, trying different things, until we got a success.

Now, I just have to see if it continues to work properly over the next few days, weeks and months. I'm optimistic it will.

Mike

[Since I was into the guts of the saw, I took the opportunity to lubricate everything. It's amazing how much better the mechanism works with a bit of lubrication.]

[Steve Peterson]

I saw a thread recently about someone complaining that a 10" blade was not really 10" and didn't fit his SawStop without extra adjustment. Some blades may be a true 10" and others might be 250mm. All are labeled as 10" in the US. You obviously have a new blade, so maybe it is a slightly different size than your previous blade.

Also, I wouldn't worry about your cartridge firing without retracting the blade. SawStop uses the inertia of the spinning blade for the retract mechanism. The inertia of a rotating object is proportional to the square of the speed, so if the blade had slowed to 10%, it would only have 1% as much inertia. If it doesn't have enough inertia to retract, then if probably can't do much damage if you have a real blade contact.

Steve

[Jim Dwight]

If the previous blade had been sharpened, that may have reduced it's diameter a little. A splitter adjusted to the sharpened blade might be a bit close to a new blade.

[Mike Henderson]

I saw a thread recently about someone complaining that a 10" blade was not really 10" and didn't fit his SawStop without extra adjustment. Some blades may be a true 10" and others might be 250mm. All are labeled as 10" in the US. You obviously have a new blade, so maybe it is a slightly different size than your previous blade.

Also, I wouldn't worry about your cartridge firing without retracting the blade. SawStop uses the inertia of the spinning blade for the retract mechanism. The inertia of a rotating object is proportional to the square of the speed, so if the blade had slowed to 10%, it would only have 1% as much inertia. If it doesn't have enough inertia to retract, then if probably can't do much damage if you have a real blade contact.

Steve
No, I didn't have to get a new blade. The blade was going so slow that it hardly made a mark on the brake. Absolutely no damage to the blade. I still have the same blade in the saw. So the blade was definitely not the cause of the problem. Everything was exactly the same except for a new brake.

I was not worried about the blade not retracting. I understand why it didn't - because the saw blade was barely moving.

Mike

[Mike Henderson]

If the previous blade had been sharpened, that may have reduced it's diameter a little. A splitter adjusted to the sharpened blade might be a bit close to a new blade.
Yep, thought of that but the blade had not been sharpened. It was an Infinity blade that I have been using for several months, and after replacing the brake, I used the same blade.

Besides that, I tried adjusting the spacing of the brake to the blade many times, trying many different spacing, from very close (less than specification) to more than the specification. Always got the same lights.

Changing the position of the riving knife seems to have fixed the problem but only time will tell.

Mike

[Peter Aeschliman]

I had a brake fire while the blade was hardly moving once. It happened because I was an idiot and had my workpiece (a large piece of plywood) touching the blade when I started it up. I was so focused on balancing the workpiece while starting the saw that I didn't pay attention to whether it was clear of the blade.

The blade stalled when I started the saw, and I shut the saw down ASAP. I cursed at myself and figured all was okay. But the next time I started the saw, the brake fired before the blade even started turning (or if it was turning, I couldn't tell).

It was a total PITA to remove the blade from the fired brake when it wasn't buried in the aluminum block! The spring was still under tension, so I couldn't get the brake off of the saw very easily. Did you have a hard time with that too?

[Mike Henderson]

I had a brake fire while the blade was hardly moving once. It happened because I was an idiot and had my workpiece (a large piece of plywood) touching the blade when I started it up. I was so focused on balancing the workpiece while starting the saw that I didn't pay attention to whether it was clear of the blade.

The blade stalled when I started the saw, and I shut the saw down ASAP. I cursed at myself and figured all was okay. But the next time I started the saw, the brake fired before the blade even started turning (or if it was turning, I couldn't tell).

It was a total PITA to remove the blade from the fired brake when it wasn't buried in the aluminum block! The spring was still under tension, so I couldn't get the brake off of the saw very easily. Did you have a hard time with that too?
Yes, I did. I used a piece of wood to push down on the brake pawl while I worked the blade off the arbor. The pawl has a strong spring pushing it against the blade so it took a lot of pressure to get it to let go of the blade. As you said, it was a PITA but I was able to get the blade off without damaging it.

Mike

[Keith Hankins]

I had a kinda similar system challenge although it was not while running. I had to adjust the blade/brake position have a 20T Forrest WWII ripping blade. It's only used for large stock 12/4" and over. I was making a cut and when I stopped the blade to make a fence movement or adjustment, and would not restart and threw an error code. I replaced the cartridge with a spare and same issue.

At first I thought it was a blade brake spacing issue. But after talking to SS support, come to find out, it was the gullet gap between teeth. If the blade stopped with the gullet between two teeth in just the right spot over the break it would give a false positive on the blade/brake distance sensor that's built into the brake and throw an error code and not run.

They suggested to rotate the blade just a bit, then retry the start and sure enough that fixed it. I don't rip that big a stock too often and I've used that blade a bit since and it's never happened again.

I leave the 40T WWII in for 80% of my cuts so once the space is properly set you don't touch it.

I know I've not reset it for a very long time now.


Great information and thanks for sharing. It's one of those great little pieces of information you can tuck away and hope you don't need, but is nice to have when you need it.

[Dennis Heskett]

Thanks for posting this. It is good to know about the riving knife if it ever happens. I deployed my brake once by hitting it with something I had sawed prior with no issues, trophy columns. Apparently they don't make them the same way every time! I was using a Forrest blade and they were able to repair it back to new. Their blades are pricey but given how many times you can sharpen one, it will probably outlast me.

Regards, Dennis


This is a bit long but I thought it might help other SawStop users.

I've owned my PCS SawStop for over 5 years and during that time, I never had a problem. Recently, however, I was making a rip fence adjustment a bit too fast and the blade had not quite finished moving when I touched it with a metal rule. The brake fired. Just a "thunk" and the blade did not retract.

So I kick myself and go buy another brake. I install it and I'm back in business. No problem.

However, yesterday, I'm ripping some walnut and the saw stops - just like I had hit the paddle. But I hadn't hit the paddle. And when I recycle the say (turn off, turn on) I'm getting lights saying the brake is not adjusted properly (solid red, slow blink green). I adjust and adjust but always get the same lights.

So I go to my supplier and they lend me a brake which install in my saw. Same problem.

Today I call SawStop and after much head scratching and trying different things, he has me adjust the riving knife to be a bit further from the blade. Success!

It seems that the brake has software in it and they have changed the software over time. The new brake apparently had software that was a bit more sensitive to the position of the riving knife. Either that, or the process of moving the riving knife block did something.

Anyway, I'm back in business. The guy at SawStop was very polite and competent. He just kept working with me, trying different things, until we got a success.

Now, I just have to see if it continues to work properly over the next few days, weeks and months. I'm optimistic it will.

Mike

[Since I was into the guts of the saw, I took the opportunity to lubricate everything. It's amazing how much better the mechanism works with a bit of lubrication.]

[Mike Henderson]

I had a kinda similar system challenge although it was not while running. I had to adjust the blade/brake position have a 20T Forrest WWII ripping blade. It's only used for large stock 12/4" and over. I was making a cut and when I stopped the blade to make a fence movement or adjustment, and would not restart and threw an error code. I replaced the cartridge with a spare and same issue.

At first I thought it was a blade brake spacing issue. But after talking to SS support, come to find out, it was the gullet gap between teeth. If the blade stopped with the gullet between two teeth in just the right spot over the break it would give a false positive on the blade/brake distance sensor that's built into the brake and throw an error code and not run.

They suggested to rotate the blade just a bit, then retry the start and sure enough that fixed it. I don't rip that big a stock too often and I've used that blade a bit since and it's never happened again.

I leave the 40T WWII in for 80% of my cuts so once the space is properly set you don't touch it.

I know I've not reset it for a very long time now.


Great information and thanks for sharing. It's one of those great little pieces of information you can tuck away and hope you don't need, but is nice to have when you need it.
That's very interesting. I can see how that could happen and how it could drive you crazy trying to figure out what the problem was. Thanks for posting that.

Mike