DW705 explosion

[Todd the wood junkie]

I was doing a 45/45 compound cut when out of nowhere the saw mangled the piece I was working on and stopped with a grind. After I looked at the damage to the piece (and doing a finger count), I also noticed the saw blade had bent the rear blade guard, broken the vacuum attachment, and ripped into the aluminum side frame of the saw itself. The force had to have been tremendous. I put on a fresh blade and noticed that it wobbled. I fear the shaft is also bent.

I took the saw today to the dewalt dealer and it is still under their 3 yr warrenty so I think I am covered.

Has this ever happend to anyone? There were no nails in the wood (common ash), and didn't think I was doing anything out of the ordinary in the cut. I have only had a CMS for a year and a half, and don't consider myself an expert in it's usage so any advice is welcome.

[tom]

[Todd the wood junkie]

The workpiece was approx a 1" x 2" x 24" leg to a stand. I held the piece on the right side of the saw and came in from the left with the blade. The cutoff was less than a half inch.

[RicodJour]

My guess is that the cutoff got swept up into the guard and blade housing. I've had that happen with small pieces but it never mangled the saw, just made a godawful racket.

R

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Only advice I have is to keep clean underwear handy. Glad you can still count to ten.

[dpb]

That would be my supposition as well--I'm thinking the vacuum system was perhaps the culprit here. Possibly it had sufficient suction to hold the small offcut piece up and carried it into the blade path? I've never used the rear suction port, only a hood on the back of the table so can't really judge for sure, but I'd worried about such events being possible...

[Leon]

whew... Like others have stated, if the waste piece is not where it should be after the cut, it probably flew up and did the damage. The smaller the waste the more likely it will move around after the cut is complete. When the waste piece is situated between the blade and fence, the acute angle side of the set up, a kick back type situation is more likely.

[Lee Michaels]

It sounds like a perfect situation for a clamp. And if that is not possible, stand clear of the potential projectile. He should be grateful that this little peice just damaged his saw. It could have been much worse.

[Clint]

It's pretty hard to clamp a piece that's only a half-inch long, especially with a compound cut... Trying to rig up some sort of zero clearance back and side base for the saw might be productive, though. But I probably wouldn't have thought about it till reading this thread.

Just my $0.02.

Clint

[RicodJour]

IThere really should be some sort of mechanism to block entry into the blade housing. I get pieces up there more than I would prefer. No injury or damage so far (fingers firmly crossed).

R

[Swingman]

Nothing keeps those small pieces from flying around like making a partial cut with the SCSM, then finishing up the cut with a handsaw ... the Japanese saws work real well for this.

[Phisherman]

When a cutoff is small it can be thrown anywhere and faster than a blink of an eye. I suspect the cutoff jammed the blade--yes this has happened to me. Another reason to be certain your stock is firmly in place, your hands are a safe distance from the blade, safety glasses are worn, and the operator is in sound mind with safety first. Glad you were not hurt!

[Joe Gorman]

I saw a tip in one of the WWing mags a while back that had you push a thumbtack through one end of a rubber band into the scrap to be. Make sure the point of the tack will not be hit by the blade. Tack the other end of the rubber band about 1 1/2 times it's length from the scrap to the fence. this keeps it from bouncing back into the blade. Haven't tried it though. Joe

[Doug Miller]

One small correction: instead of safety glasses, a face shield.

There are other things on your face besides your eyes that need protection.

[RonB]

Those little pieces that disappear, let alone do this kind of damage, are the best case imaginable for wearing safety glasses!

Ronb

[Mike Richardson]

Has happened to me - and on my list is a zero clearance sacrificial fence for my SCMS to stop this very thing, little bit gets twisted on withdrawal of blang and "kaching.........."

Regards Mike

[John Grossbohlin]

I'd go along with that too. I had a similar thing happen on my Delta CMS. It destroyed the blade guard and jammed the saw up. In my case I traced the problem to blade with positive rake on the teeth. With negative and zero rake blades I've never had a problem.

John