Sawstop Bang

[Birdhunter]

Pride severely bruised, but no blood shed. Bruised pride is healthy. Makes me think harder about safety

 

[MrGinCT]

I had just gotten my Saw Stop Professional Cabinet Saw and was setting up my Inca 5000 miter sled and I moved the aluminum fence to the edge (or so I thought) of the sled and then proceeded to cut a piece of maple to check for squareness when I heard a loud BANG.  I looked where the blade should have been and it was gone.

What I had misjudged was how close to the edge of the miter sled I was.  I couldn't have been more than a couple of thousandths of an inch over, but it was enough.  I was able to extract the blade from the soft aluminum cartridge and as I didn't have a back up cartridge, off to Woodcraft I went.  I ordered another Ridge TS 2000 blade just in case the blade was toast when I put it back on with the new cartridge, but it was OK.

When I came upstairs later, my wife asked what the loud bang was and I told her the story of how I just got the $69 Saw Stop experience.

 

[fshanno]

I just had not seen the interference at the very back of the jig when setting up the cut. It was a very expensive mistake.

Was it a steel piece designed to hold a backer board? 

 

[Birdhunter]

The interfering part of the jig was the round rod that the fixture rides on. There is a tiny scratch on the metal. The tips of several saw blade teeth were chipped.

 

[ben_r_]

Just took delivery of and still setting up a new Sawstop PCS 3HP 36", its my first table saw and I bought all Forrest Blades for it. As I was researching everything to buy for it, it hit me, man popping the brake on a  Dado King would be a $90 + $260 = $350 mistake. I thought more about it when I bought the Incra I-Box jig and how close that setup gets to the blades. Realized real quick it's gonna have to be a super careful setup with these tools before any power gets turned on because there is nothing but expensive mistakes to be made here!

 

[Birdhunter]

The cartridge is extremely sensitive. The slightest touch with any conductive material triggers the bang. You want it that way, but the slightest mistake gets expensive.

Make sure the dado is the correct diameter for the Sawstop and you need the dado cartridge.

The Sawstop manual is excellent and covers setting up the proper blade to cartridge clearance. A 5 cent coin works to measure clearance. Put the coin between the brake shoe and the blade. If the blade just barely drags, the clearance is good.

It also covers how to cut into the insert. I ended up with a zero clearance insert and a second insert I use for angled cuts. Of course, I also have the dado insert.

The Woodpecker table saw alignment tool works very well to get the fence set up.

 

[ben_r_]

FWIW I used a Betterley UNA-Gauge to setup my new PCS as well as all my other shop tools. That thing is amazing!