I rotate the saw blade with the end of my plywood push stick when the blade is not moving.
I rotate the saw blade with the end of my plywood push stick when the blade is not moving.
I was also warned about this. This is the worst kind of brake fire because the blade doesn't really dig into the brake and the unrelieved spring pressure makes it very difficult to get the blade and brake out. The good news about a slow speed brake fire is that your blade might be recoverable. I've had a total of three brake fires in the 6 or 7 years Ive had my saw. All were my stupid mistake. In one case, I was able to have the blade fixed and that one was when the saw was spinning down.
The manual is pretty good, better than any others I can think of. But I don't love the fact that I feel the need to keep it handy. There are better ways to give the status of the saw than blinking lights. So I keep it handy to be able to understand what the saw is trying to tell me. But at least I don't have to go to the internet to find out what it is saying.
My PCS came with a decal with all the light codes on the side of the switch box.
Cliff
The problem with the world is that intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.
Charles Bukowski
I fired the safety brake for the first time yesterday in five years of ownership.
This was a Dado brake cartridge.
I'd installed it and adjusted the yellow screw that sets the gap, plugged the saw back in and watched it go through it's start up self test sequence. I had already cut a Dado in another piece of wood, so I had that laid over the blade, as I wanted the exact same depth, so I raised the blade up past the depth of the previously cut Dado and was sliding the piece backwards and forwards feeling for when the blade disengaged the wood. This naturally was turning the blade while it was set too high.
I got ready to make the new cut, reached down and powered the saw on with the paddle switch and boom, well it was more like a click, the blade didn't rotate and the red light was flashing. I immediately powered the paddle switch off and when I realized the blade was locked, unplugged the saw.
I printed out the instructions from the manual on how to remove the blade and brake and when those didn't help I want to the Sawstop online tech support.They were helpful and sent me a couple of videos on the process, but it appears these were for a different model of saw. There is a locking mechanism that should engage when the blade is lowered all the way down, my saw (a PCS175) doesn't appear to have this feature. Also, since I swapped out the 110v motor for the 3HP 240v upgrade, my arbor doesn't appear to go quite as low as it did before and I think this is something to do with the replacement strut that also gets installs in the conversion.
So what caused this? ME! I normally use a WWII Combo blade, which I had sharpened. This appeared to make the blade slightly smaller in diameter. So when I put the WWII blade in, I have to adjust the yellow screw all the way to minimize the blade to brake gap. When I use my Rip blade, or in this case, my Freud Box Dado blade, I have to back the gap screw all the way out. I don't this I adjusted this correctly this time. Although the Dado blade could turn, the gap was too small and the SawStop rep told me that it the blade tip touched the plastic decal, it would trip.
So lesson learned, but with a new Dado brake installed, after a two hour round trip to Woodcraft, I was a little concerned about tripping the new brake cartridge, so I completed all my Dado cuts in the brake override mode. After I had finished them, I got brave and them turned the saw on in normal mode and all was fine.
The red arrow shows the only slight indent on the brake surface and this may have been made worse by me wrestling the blade and cartridge out.