Sawstop Noise

[Mark Grotenhuis]

I've discovered that when I lower the blade on my Sawstop (cabinet version) it makes a groaning sound all the way down. It doesn't make any noise when raising it... just when lowering. I know there is some sort of gas assisted control to help with raising and lowering the blade. Is the noise normal?

[NICK BARBOZA]

Mine makes the noise too. it took about 4 months for it to form. Ive just learned to live with it... Ive seen a thread on this before i bought my SS, but most people said the same thing... they just try to ignore it.

Nick

[Kevin Groenke]

Here is the previous discussion of this in which Steve Gass contributed.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=82806

I've tried to no avail to make it go away, it seems an inherent design "flaw". It's not hurting anything so try to ignore it.

-kg

[Mark Grotenhuis]

Mine has made the noise from day one, even before I started cutting with it, which leads me to believe that sawdust gumming up the gears has nothing to do with it. I will try to grease that elevation pin like Steve said to do. Thanks for the link.

[Bill White]

After all that investment, and it f^@ts????
Sorry............Couldn't resist.
Bill

[Mark Grotenhuis]

Ahh Ha! I've fixed it. It was the vertical threaded bolt in the front of the saw. In the pic below its the black bolt behind the yellow table height adjustment bolt. Put some grease on it, no more groaning. I removed the plastic dust collection piece sitting on top of the table for the photo.

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn105/Hozerhuis/1-2.jpg

Just for fun I figure I'd do a shot of my whole setup, with my newly completed out-feed table.

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn105/Hozerhuis/0-2.jpg

[Kevin Groenke]

Mark, the groaning may be gone because the harmonic vibration of the elevation screw is being dampened by the grease. Is is a fine solution UNLESS the grease attracts chips/sawdust which subsequently impedes elevation adjustment. All advise I've ever seen has been to avoid grease in areas exposed to sawdust. Though there is a deflector there, it by no means prevents debris for getting to those mechanisms.

I'm interested to hear how the solution pans out over time.

-kg

Nice looking set-up. Does the bank of drawers support the extension table or are there legs over there?

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

I didn't notice where anyone called Sawstop. Did you? I'm sure that if they have a fix, they will share it with you, but more important that they need to know about an anomily.

Bruce

[Mark Grotenhuis]

Mark, the groaning may be gone because the harmonic vibration of the elevation screw is being dampened by the grease. Is is a fine solution UNLESS the grease attracts chips/sawdust which subsequently impedes elevation adjustment. All advise I've ever seen has been to avoid grease in areas exposed to sawdust. Though there is a deflector there, it by no means prevents debris for getting to those mechanisms.

I'm interested to hear how the solution pans out over time.

-kg

Nice looking set-up. Does the bank of drawers support the extension table or are there legs over there?

I agree with you completely, however if the grease gets too clogged with sawdust and impedes movement, I'll clean it and start over. I don't see it being a big problem though as it already had grease on the bolt and it wasn't covered in gunk. The drawers are mobile and do not connect to the saw. I wanted to be able to roll them out of the way so I could open the door on the saw when needed. I have double locking castors from woodcraft that prevent the drawer unit from moving around when locked. I did not install the leg that came with the extension table... I figure if I can sit on the end of the extension table without it falling over (or even moving) it doesn't need the leg for extra support.

[Dan Lee]

I finally got rid of all the noise mine was making after installing the 3rd set of replacement miter gears. They must have been going thru some changes with these gears since out of the 4 sets there were 2 or 3 different types of 'teeth' on the gears.
SS customer service offered to send a service tech out which I may have taken them up on if the last gears had fixed it.