Alan Turner
01-29-2006, 9:26 AM
I have to report an extremely positive experience with SawStop customer service. Since posts on OEM's are not always positive; those that are are worth sharing.
Yesterday I used the SS to make a small rip cut. I was actually testing the fence which I had just spent an hour fettling to get a flat face. PITA, and I was not in a good mood. So, I completed the rip, and the fence face is a lot flatter and the rip was smooth. Turned off the saw, and was walking to turn of the DC when I heard a "thunk" sort of sound. Not very loud, esp. with the DC on, which is quite loud. Looked over and saw that the blade was below the table, and thought -- Yikes.
Yup, the brake tripped. Well, I had another, so I was not happy, but had work to do and don't like to dwell on things negative. So, got out the book and went to read it a bit as I had not messed with the brake since owning the saw. I had posted a question on the difficulty of switching out to a dado head, and Per, and others, said it was not bad, so I thought I would regard this as a learning experience. By the way, the switching takes about 1 minute and requires no tools.
So, read the book, cleaned the inside of the cabinet, which needed it, and finally got the blade and brake assembly off in one piece. Put on the new cartridge, new blade, and turned it on. Nothing. Green light, turn it on, one second later red light, no movement.
Called SS's president on Sat. at about 2:30 East Coast time, and left a polite voice mail. About 15 minutes later, he called me back at the shop. He said that they have a new toy at the office that converts a voice mail to a .wav file and emails it automatically to his home. Pretty cool. He had checked his email, gotten my VM, and called right away.
Turns out that my switch is probably one of the earlier ones, and if you turn it off too hard, then it lets 240 volts go to the cartridge, which releases it, and hence the thunk. It is designed for 5 volts. And, it also cooked the switch. So, on Monday he will fed ex me a new switch, cartridge, and a second new cartridge since the broken switch may also have cooked the cartridge I just put in. He offered to run it over to FedEx on Sat, for Monday delivery, but I declined as I have other things to do on Monday and will not get shop time.
This was especially frustrating to me as I am now building 10 workbenches for the new studio. The prototype tail vise came in (I will report on this later when I confirm it is dead on) and I needed to build the wooden structure to hold the new hardware since I can't start on the bench tops till I confirm final measurements on the tail vise. I was not a happy camper, but held my cool (yelling is rarely an effective way to communicate), and Steve was equally polite. I am wed to this saw because of the school situation or I think I would have opted for an Oliver 260 or a slider. But SS it is, and I am glad for the good customer service.
One question for the blade gurus. I was running a 40 tooth, full kerf, ABT Leitz. No teeth were broken. But, when I put it on the jointer table, it is not perfectly flat, although another blade of the same type and brand is perfectly flat. Is the blade ruined, or might the arbor washer and flange straighten it out. While off, it is only off a little. Should I relegate this to cutting rough lumber, or just pitch it. I did not discuss with SS the blade issue as I did not know the condition of it at the time I spoke with Steve.
Obligatory pix below, Tyler.
Yesterday I used the SS to make a small rip cut. I was actually testing the fence which I had just spent an hour fettling to get a flat face. PITA, and I was not in a good mood. So, I completed the rip, and the fence face is a lot flatter and the rip was smooth. Turned off the saw, and was walking to turn of the DC when I heard a "thunk" sort of sound. Not very loud, esp. with the DC on, which is quite loud. Looked over and saw that the blade was below the table, and thought -- Yikes.
Yup, the brake tripped. Well, I had another, so I was not happy, but had work to do and don't like to dwell on things negative. So, got out the book and went to read it a bit as I had not messed with the brake since owning the saw. I had posted a question on the difficulty of switching out to a dado head, and Per, and others, said it was not bad, so I thought I would regard this as a learning experience. By the way, the switching takes about 1 minute and requires no tools.
So, read the book, cleaned the inside of the cabinet, which needed it, and finally got the blade and brake assembly off in one piece. Put on the new cartridge, new blade, and turned it on. Nothing. Green light, turn it on, one second later red light, no movement.
Called SS's president on Sat. at about 2:30 East Coast time, and left a polite voice mail. About 15 minutes later, he called me back at the shop. He said that they have a new toy at the office that converts a voice mail to a .wav file and emails it automatically to his home. Pretty cool. He had checked his email, gotten my VM, and called right away.
Turns out that my switch is probably one of the earlier ones, and if you turn it off too hard, then it lets 240 volts go to the cartridge, which releases it, and hence the thunk. It is designed for 5 volts. And, it also cooked the switch. So, on Monday he will fed ex me a new switch, cartridge, and a second new cartridge since the broken switch may also have cooked the cartridge I just put in. He offered to run it over to FedEx on Sat, for Monday delivery, but I declined as I have other things to do on Monday and will not get shop time.
This was especially frustrating to me as I am now building 10 workbenches for the new studio. The prototype tail vise came in (I will report on this later when I confirm it is dead on) and I needed to build the wooden structure to hold the new hardware since I can't start on the bench tops till I confirm final measurements on the tail vise. I was not a happy camper, but held my cool (yelling is rarely an effective way to communicate), and Steve was equally polite. I am wed to this saw because of the school situation or I think I would have opted for an Oliver 260 or a slider. But SS it is, and I am glad for the good customer service.
One question for the blade gurus. I was running a 40 tooth, full kerf, ABT Leitz. No teeth were broken. But, when I put it on the jointer table, it is not perfectly flat, although another blade of the same type and brand is perfectly flat. Is the blade ruined, or might the arbor washer and flange straighten it out. While off, it is only off a little. Should I relegate this to cutting rough lumber, or just pitch it. I did not discuss with SS the blade issue as I did not know the condition of it at the time I spoke with Steve.
Obligatory pix below, Tyler.