Sawstop customer service, good experience.

[David Wambolt]

On Saturday I started to assemble my recently purchased 5hp Sawstop cabinet saw with 52" extension and their fence. I ran into a snag though during assembly. My fence rails along with the fence slide tube were bent. I'm not sure if it was done in transit, at the reseller, or at the time of manufacturer. All I know is, it was impossible to level the extension table to the cast iron table on the saw because the rails were bent downwards towards the end of the extension table. With everything tweaked, the best I could do was a 3/8" gap on the front and a 1/8" gap on the rear. The rails are made of 1/4" angle iron steel, so trying to bend them back into position wasn't going to happen without ruining the finish.

I emailed Sawstop on Sunday evening and by 10am on Monday I have a complete set of fence rails ordered and will ship out today. They promptly replied and made it a point to take care of the problem, without hesitation. They said it was the first time they had seen this particular problem.

Anyhow, I was impressed with their response. The saw is expensive, but at least the company stands behind it. Some of the best CS I've seen in a while. I was expecting having to send pictures and exact measurements, but they just sent me the parts to get the saw up and running.

Thank you, Sawstop!

[Don Bullock]

Congratulations on your new saw!!!

Glad to hear they responded so quickly. That's good to know.

[Calvin Crutchfield]

Interesting. I am away for the day, but emailed them last night and hope to resolve my issue in the morning.

I can get a green light, but the when turned on, the saw spins for a second and stops. Once the blade spins down, I get a green light again, but can't get it to run.

I was in the middle of cutting a few zero-clearance plates on some of my favorite blades. At this point I'm hoping it is something I am doing wrong.

[John Bush]

Hi Calvin,
Try adjusting the height of the brake assembly closer to the blade. I had the same problem after changing blades. I called SS and they sent out a new switch but their suggestion of the adjustment solved the problem and there was no equipment failure. One of those operator things. Good luck, John.

[Calvin Crutchfield]

Thanks John,

That was my very first though I raised and lowered the brake to make sure it was within the correct limits. I got it as close to the blade as I could, backed it off 1/8" and even a little more. If it were a brake issue, it would start at all. in my case I get the green light and the blade gets power for a split second and shuts off only to spin down again and return to a green light.

I will be on the horn to SS in the morning, im probably doing something wrong.

[John Bush]

Hi Calvin,
Keep us informed on the diagnosis from SS . JCB

[Gary Benson]

I had a similar experience with my 5HP model. It was quickly diagnosed as a bad starting capacitor in the motor. They sent it over night and problem solved. Great guys to deal with via email or phone.:D

[Ben Grunow]

IF you turn the key and hold it for a second prior to turning the saw on the brake function is disengaged and the saw should work. If not then you have a mechanical problem.

IIRC, the brake cartridge wants to be closer to the blade rather than farther. The manual gives clearance. I had the same problem when changing blades for the first time. The SS blade is really small.

Ben

[Calvin Crutchfield]

First off, apologies to David, I didn't mean to hi-jack your thread.

After talking with SS service yersterday morning, we (He) determined there was some weirdness abound and some things they had not encountered...

Long story short, since all the computing, testing etc.. is accomplished through the cartidge you must have a good one to start. Since it appears I may have had a bad one, he overnighted me a cartrdige and all appears well.

Even with the bad cartidge, bypass mode still worked so thats good to know.

[Alain Tellier]

That is good news!

Praising good/excellent service is as equally important as ranting when it is lowsy and bad. It shows appreciation and gives the rest of us new places to shop :)

Thanks for posting your experience.

[David Wambolt]

Well it's Wednesday and I received my replacement rails and fence assemblies. The new ones are perfect. It took two business days after they replied to get here.

Anyhow, as some of you may have read in another post, I'm attaching an Exaktor EX26XS sliding table to my Sawstop cabinet saw. In order to that, you must cut the rails. I was going to leave the left wing on so I didn't have to modify anything, but seeing as I now have two sets of rails and the slide fence assembly I decided to mark them prior to removal so that I could cut the bad ones on my Ellis 1600 band saw. I believe using my 20 ton press, I can straighten the rails enough to make it usable. That will allow me to keep the new and striaght rails in the attic should I remove the sliding table in the future or decide to part with the saw. So with that said I cut all three pieces on my band saw and tomorrow I will use the press to tweak the rails. The rails are only tweaked at the far right, past 40" out on the extension table. So I'm not sacraficing much in terms of precision because I normally won't be ripping out that far anyhow. I'm confident with a straight edge and a bit of time I can work the 1/4" steel back into shape.

I'll clean them up bit tomorrow with my grinder and a flap disc and then paint the cut ends with black automotive touchup paint.

My Exaktor was to be delivered today, but I only received one package of three from Amazon. So I have some rails for the Exaktor and the table, brackets and legs are MIA. I'm not sure what's up with that but I'll let Amazon sort it out.