Anyone got tips on how to clean sawdust out of a table saw?

[rudy de haas]

I have a CX200 cabinet saw (same as Grizzly G0690) with a thin kerf Freud (40 tooth?) blade. When I went to make some 45 degree
cuts this morning it turned out that the mechanism for that is full of sawdust that doesn't want to be disturbed. It turns to about 30 degrees fairly easily, then jams.

Most of the sawdust seems to have come from cutting some 3/4" baltic birch - it looks more like cheese gratings than sawdust.

The mechanism to raise or lower the blade sticks a bit about halfway up, but I've been assuming that's the point at which the motor weight exerts maximum leverage.

So.. anyone have any tips on how to clean it without taking the whole thing apart? (i.e. top off) and/or on how to avoid having this happen again?

[Marty Tippin]

anyone have any tips on how to clean it without taking the whole thing apart? (i.e. top off) and/or on how to avoid having this happen again?

You can't just open the side door and reach in to clean the gears? Or is it not really the same as the G0690?

Sounds to me like the gears were covered in too much of the anti-corrosion coating they apply at the factory and it never got cleaned off. A few minutes with a small wire brush should get you going. Spray on some lithium grease once you get it cleaned up and run it from stop to stop.

[Porter Friedman]

I just did basically this same thing to my cabinet saw after a few projects of baltic birch.. I first went after it and got everything I can out of it with my shop vac. Then, as part of a whole shop clean, I got out the leaf blower and blew out the cabinet from all the openings available. The leaf blower really did the trick and got all the impossible to reach areas.. Be sure to wear a dust mask, and keep your shop door open with an exhaust fan pointing out (I use a box fan).

You can then put some grease or spray lube on the gears which should smooth it out.

[Charles Wiggins]

I have a CX200 cabinet saw (same as Grizzly G0690) with a thin kerf Freud (40 tooth?) blade. When I went to make some 45 degree
cuts this morning it turned out that the mechanism for that is full of sawdust that doesn't want to be disturbed. It turns to about 30 degrees fairly easily, then jams.

Most of the sawdust seems to have come from cutting some 3/4" baltic birch - it looks more like cheese gratings than sawdust.

The mechanism to raise or lower the blade sticks a bit about halfway up, but I've been assuming that's the point at which the motor weight exerts maximum leverage.

So.. anyone have any tips on how to clean it without taking the whole thing apart? (i.e. top off) and/or on how to avoid having this happen again?

UNPLUG IT FIRST!
I'm not familiar with Grizzly saws, but I'd start by seeing what I could reach by opening the motor cover door and taking the throat plate and blade out and using a vacuum and/or blower of some sort, then my hand.

Have you had a vacuum or dust collector hooked to the dust collection port? That's all I know to try and avoid that kind of mess going forward.

Cheers,
Charles

[Tom M King]

I turn the DC on and use one of these, being careful not to aim it up close to bearings: http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200512855_200512855?cm_mmc=Google-pla&utm_source=Google_PLA&utm_medium=Air%20Tools%20%2B%20Compressors%20%3E%2 0Air%20Tools%20%2B%20Accessories&utm_campaign=Grip&utm_content=22835&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=22835&gclid=Cj0KEQiAv5-zBRCAzfWGu-2jo70BEiQAj_F8oB_Ti9-ZY0N7JAw8TbQM6kITLvCiuW34FlnxJDD5GxQaAk2M8P8HAQ

[rudy de haas]

You are probably right about the cleaning - this was the floor demo unit at busybeetools in Calgary and came assembled. I'll get some lithium grease
and add that.

(FYI: Yes, the door opens, but I can't get at the inner side of gears that way. - please see my response to Tom King, below.

[rudy de haas]

Great Idea! Thanks. I have a small compressor and something like your rubber tip monster. Mine is shorter, but It let me get close enough from the top to blow out the dust from between the gear teeth. -and now it's fine.

[rudy de haas]

No leaf blower, and my shop vac wasn't sufficient.

Oh well, Tim King (below) has an answer that worked for me - meanwhile your experience with baltic birch seems to echo mine: so why does it does this?

[Charles Lent]

You will be better off if you avoid the lithium grease. The sawdust sticks to or in it and you will have a caked gooey mess in no time.
I use Johnson's Paste Wax, applied to the gears and sliding ways of my Delta Unisaw with an old tooth brush. The surface of the wax gets a dry crust on it that resists sticking to saw dust. For the bearings and the through panel points I use a very few drops of teflon based high quality machine oil. I cut Baltic Birch all the time with my Unisaw and don't have problems, but my Unisaw is lubricated like I have described.
I also coat the cast iron table tops of all my tools with Johnson's Paste Wax about once per month, or any time that the wood doesn't seem to slide well across it. Right now I'm using my DeWalt scroll saw heavily, and the first thing that I do every day is to wax the table of it.

Avoid using anything containing silicone. If silicone gets in your shop and onto your wood, finishing the wood will be a nightmare.
You will have fish eyes in the finish everywhere, and getting it off the wood once it's there will be nearly impossible. Silicone, or anything containing it, is banned from my wood shop.

Charley

[Robert Engel]

I've never cleaned mine in 15+ years of use.
It squeaks a little when raising the blade.

[Tom Ewell]

I do Tom's method almost every blade change, DC on with blow gun to get the stuff inside moving and sucked out of the DC port.
Gotta squeak too, when lowering the blade, not gears, thinks it's in the crank shaft going to the worm gear, squirt some GDL into the shaft housing it goes away for a bit.
Other than that it's smooth.

[Alan Lightstone]

I turn the DC on and use one of these, being careful not to aim it up close to bearings: http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200512855_200512855?cm_mmc=Google-pla&utm_source=Google_PLA&utm_medium=Air%20Tools%20%2B%20Compressors%20%3E%2 0Air%20Tools%20%2B%20Accessories&utm_campaign=Grip&utm_content=22835&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=22835&gclid=Cj0KEQiAv5-zBRCAzfWGu-2jo70BEiQAj_F8oB_Ti9-ZY0N7JAw8TbQM6kITLvCiuW34FlnxJDD5GxQaAk2M8P8HAQ
+1 with a much shorter version. The combination of DC and compressed air gets most of the sawdust.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?74276-table-saw-lube

I am a fan of the Dupont Blaster Dry Lubricant, which is an emulsion of Teflon and wax. Comes in a spray can. I bought mine at Lowes or Home Depot I think. I know for sure that Lowes has it.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_236635-56167-16-TDL___?productId=1066849

[Mike Wilkins]

Had a similar problem with my slider which would not allow the blade to rise and fall. Open the motor cover, grab a brass brush, place a small nozzle on the shop vac and go to town. I have made this an annual maintenance item to keep this from happening again. Regular maintenance should be a task, especially on a table saw. A vacuum system on a table saw will not get all the dust and chips generated, so you have to do a routine clean up.

[Phillip Gregory]

I have the equivalent of the G0691 (Shop Fox W1820) and thus it should be the same as your saw. The saw like all of Grizzly's tools came essentially marinated in copious amounts of grease, oil, and Cosmoline. Not a speck of rust on it, and mine had a manufacturing date code of about 2 1/2 years prior to be actually buying it, and it was not a floor demo unit. (It very likely sat in a warehouse for 2 1/2 years before I brought it home.) The trick is to use denatured alcohol or paint thinner to get ALL of the oil, grease, and Cosmoline off. Use Johnson's paste wax on the cast iron and white lithium grease in the spray can (not black lithium grease in a tube like you'd use to lube up a tractor) on other moving parts.

If you don't get all of the grease off, it WILL cake up with sawdust. I used an old toothbrush, half of an old T-shirt, and about a pint of paint thinner to get the sawdust-solidified grease out of the trunnion mechanism of my saw. Once I did that, I sprayed the gears with white lithium grease and I haven't had any issues with it binding up. Oh, and I also have a 3 hp dust collector to collect the dust- that keeps things much cleaner as well. A cabinet saw isn't like a thickness planer or a jointer which will plug up with sawdust and shavings and quit working in less than a minute if not connected to a dust collector, but it will gradually become filled with dust which will gum up the works after a while.

[rudy de haas]

Thanks.

It's fine right now, but I will have to find the time etc to take it apart and clean it out as you suggest because the problem will just recur until I do.