ATT. Sawstop owners

[Per Swenson]

Hello All,

Public service announcement for SS owners.

If and when you replace your zero clearance insert,

REMOVE THE RIVING KNIFE

Failure to do so when cutting your new kerf, even though the slot

for the knife is precut, will cause misery.

No where in the instruction manual is this noted as the original

zero clearence plate is precut at the factory..

I know, I know, common sense right?

Not when you delegate the chore to some one else.

Being the responsible redneck I am, I will spring for the new

WW2.

Per

[Frank Snyder]

Thanks for the PSA, Per. I think this also applies to PM2000 and other riving knife saws as well. I'm glad no one got hurt.

I migrated from my WW2 over to Freud's Fusion blade...its much better at ripping IMO if you're on the market for a new blade. Very clean cutting and no burning.

[Jim Becker]

I'm am thinking that Per had a "D'oh!" moment!

But thanks for posting this advice...more and more folks have saws with riving knives and hopefully the trend will continue. What you describe is not a SawStop exclusive hint!

[Per Swenson]

Ah Jim,

Yes it is.

Exclusive.

The hole for the riving knife is precut in the factory plate.

But if you run it up through with the knife on....

The sawstop will fire.

Actually its a quiet POP.

At least that's what Bob sez, 'cause I wasn't there.

Catch me drift?

Per

[Jim Becker]

Ok, that is certainly a unique "feature" of the SS (I completely missed the expensive significance, despite your reference to the blade), but I think that other saw owners with riving knives are going to have a surprise if they try and raise the blade with the knife installed and no pre-cut slot for it to live in! It just will not have the same, um...shorts-changing effect...hopefully.

[Mike Heidrick]

Call sawstop and tell them what happened - may send you a free brake. The blade will be on you most likely but a brake will save $69.

[Glen Blanchard]

I don't know that I follow exactly what happened. A new ZCI was placed in the SS and when the blade was raised from under the table, the riving knife made contact with the blade causing the brake to activate? Is that correct? I have not opened up the box containing my spare ZCI. What's the difference between my unopened spare ZCI and the one the came with the saw? My spare has not been pre-cut for the blade? I still don't "get" what happened here.

[Per Swenson]

Ok Glen,

If you look at your riving knife and the way it curves over the

back top quarter of the blade, then look at the pre made hole

in the ZC, you will notice the hole (of course) is not actually fully

cut where the blade comes through the table. Allows for different blades.

So what happens is as you raise the blade, the knife bends againts the ZC,

the knife contacts the sawblade. Whamo! Pretty obvious in retrospect.

But in the manic throws of production, deadlines, and short tantrums

when work is behind, These little expensive things can be overlooked.

Once.


Per

[John Kairys]

Per,

Thank you for the heads up. I'm still working with my original insert, but without your post I'm sure that I could (or, more likely, would) have done the same thing when the time comes to make a new insert. Gotta love the little details...

John

[Mike Heidrick]

Ok Glen,

So what happens is as you raise the blade, the knife bends againts the ZC,

the knife contacts the sawblade.

That had to have been hard to do. It is not like the knife bends very easily. The person had to have torqued it pretty good. First time they were ever on a tablesaw?

[Glen Blanchard]

That had to have been hard to do. It is not like the knife bends very easily. The person had to have torqued it pretty good. First time they were ever on a tablesaw?

That's what I was thinking. That riving knife seems pretty stout. Thanks for the heads-up!

[Mike Heidrick]

Definately though, OP, thanks for the heads up. Good safety knowledge and cost savings advice for us Sawstop crowd.

[Per Swenson]

That had to have been hard to do. It is not like the knife bends very easily. The person had to have torqued it pretty good. First time they were ever on a tablesaw?


Nope.

My Father who was a gunners mate on the Maine in Havanna harbor,

rode with Teddy and might have chased Pancho Villa if not working

on the rebuild of San Fran after the 06 quake, has been running a table

saw since they were pedal powered.

So even if a man with 3/4s of a century of high end shop work can

screw up, its more then likely us mere mortals are just as capable.

Per

[Mark Singer]

Per,
Good tip! It doesn't like metal:rolleyes:

[Walt Caza]

Thanks for the warning Per,
Sounds like just the kind of thing that might happen to anyone.
As they say, 'there, but for the grace of God, go I'.

All lessons cost...
appreciate the post,
Walt

ps can anyone confirm something I read a while back, that SS is
swapping fired brake cartridges without charge ?
(sounds fishy, but they do analyse data from spent cartridge)
:)

[Per Swenson]

I bumped this for the weekday readers.

P.

[Glen Blanchard]

ps can anyone confirm something I read a while back, that SS is
swapping fired brake cartridges without charge ?
(sounds fishy, but they do analyse data from spent cartridge)
:)

IIRC, they will analyze the braking episode, but will only replace if a misfire occured.

[Kevin Groenke]

Been there done that. We do a fair amount of plunge cutting, raising a spinning blade through stock to make "blind" openings in sheet stock. Surprisingly, the riving knife has only deflected into the blade once. The knife is held quite tight, you really have to crank/push hard to get blade/knife contact. It seems we figure out what's going on before applying that much force, I know I've done it.

BTW, we had 2 triggers in a few days a couple months back. With SS's feedback we determined that one MAY have been caused by carbon in black paperboard which was in a composite architectural model. (we could find no other explanation, I probed the model in question with a meter and found no conductive materials.

The second trigger was finger-blade contact. A student "flicked" an offcut (and apparently the blade) pretty much at the split second the blade stopped spinning down. The SS was still monitoring the data stream and popped. The blade was not imbeded in the brake and the brake did not have the typical "crumple-zone" deformation, another indication that the blade was spinning little if at all. There was no apparent damage to the blade and we're using it with no apparant change in performance.

It would be nice to say that our investment has paid off with this incident but I doubt much damage would have been done in this case. I'm still much more comfortable with ~600 students using the machines and wouldn't consider a tablesaw that doesn't stop.

SS replaced both brake cartridges.