rant: removing blade from new saw

[Silvan]

I was finally ready to swap out the stock blade for my trusty Freud and put my saw to real use.

One thing I miss about my new contractor's saw is that I no longer have an arbor with flats on it like the old Skil 3400 had. I got a Blade-Loc flummy from Lee Valley because I was dubious about the manual's suggested procedure of using scraps of wood for blade changes.

So I followed the instructions on the thing. Lower blade, crank up to engage, keep the feet away from the nut. Got out the wrench that came with the saw. Bent it all to hell. Scratched my head a bit... Rightie tightie, leftie loosie. Looked at my Skil. Both are left tilt, both have the arbor oriented the same way. Verified that the threads are indeed normal right hand thread, and that I was indeed turning it the right way.

So I got a Crescent wrench (yeah, I know, but I don't have a real wrench this size) and proceeded to round off a couple of the corners on the nut. I took another crack at it, and this time I pushed hard enough to shred the hell out of the new Blade-Loc.

So I got out the old wrench that came with the Skil. I put some penetrating oil on the nut and let it stew a bit. I decided to go for the wood option after all. It quickly became obvious that all I was going to do was very slowly cut through my wood by turning the wrench.

After that, I tried a piece of 1/8" steel rod hooked under a tooth. I bent it. Repeatedly. (Need to buy my son a new rod before we launch any more rockets...)

Then I cut off a chunk of 3/16" thick 1" wide steel bar stock and wedged that under a tooth. I put the wrench back on, strained until I was red in the face, and still nothing!

I finally ended up putting a piece of oak dowel through the hole on the other end of the wrench, and pulling on it with both arms. I had to use so much force I was afraid the cast iron top on the table would buckle, and then, finally, the damn thing finally broke loose.

It looks like the nut was stuck on with cosmoline.

OK, problem solved. This will likely never happen again. I need to buy a new arbor nut eventually (different thread pitch from the Skil). In the meantime, I mostly just wanted to rant and bitch for awhile. What a PITA! Why do they do that? WTF were they thinking???

[Mike in Mystic]

That's unbelievable. What kind of saw is it? My Unisaw didn't have anything remotely like that when I received it. There wasn't a blade on it in the first place, actually.

Mike

[John Crea]

What brand saw again?? Have never seen a table saw come with the blade installed.

John

[Charlie Self]

John Crea responds:

Right now, my Ridgid TS3650 has the original blade in place. Over the years, I found that about 60-70% of contractor's and benchtop saws (100%) came with blades installed. At least this blade appears half decent, but it's a thin kerf so will shortly go.

Charlie Self "Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable." Mark Twain

[Doug Winterburn]

I was looking the TS3650 over and it appears to have a shroud under the blade for dust collection with what looks to be a 2.5" shop vac connection. Just wondering how effective the dust collection is?

[mttt]

I'm a Blad-Loc user too, but am still wondering if they improved on the "jam-a-hunk-o-wood" approach enough to warrant the 12 bux I spent. These days, it's whatever I find first (the Blade-Loc or a hunk-o-wood) that gets used.

Bummer about Craftsman welding the nut on. But probably just one of those minor bumps in the road.

[Paul Kierstead]

Hmm....I just use a very heavy cloth over the blade and grab it. Works really well and when tightening lets you get a good feel for it. Plus really easy to rotate the blade. And no chance of damage.

Of course in the situation of the original post this would not have worked.

[Charlie Self]

Doug Winterburn asks:

Don't know yet. I'm still putting this thing together. All it needs now is to finish install the mobile bit, the fence and the motor. Probably a couple hours work, but it has to be spread over the weekend...and it needs to be done by Monday, because temps will drop from the current 70+ back down around 31.

Charlie Self "Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable." Mark Twain

[jo4hn]

Silvan wrote: [snip]

OK. Now for next time:

1) You apparently are missing the essential tool to attack this problem. To whit, the proverbial bigger hammer. This device is also useful in the solution of a host of problems, big and small.

2) Bad words are essential. Now four letter words are OK but for a problem like this you need to start with a 12 letter special and move on from there. :-) and mahalo, jo4hn

[Eric Ryder]

Worthy rant indeed!

[Henry Bibb]

My PC 557 was like that. I thought I'd *never* get that darn blade off! I figure they used some kind of power driver to put it on, and somebody either upped the air pressure, or the lawyers told 'em they had to put it on for all time...

[Silvan]

Nooooooooooooo!!!

All this time dicking around with my saw to get it perrrrrrfect, and I won't get to cut and glue anything.

(It was time well-spent though. This thing may be a Crapsman, but it's a well-adjusted Crapsman. It ain't no Unisaur, but it will be a whole new world for me compared to that POS Skil.)

This has a dust collection thingie on it too. I haven't gotten around to rearranging my shop vac dust collection network to accomodate all the shifting I had to do in order to make room for this behemoth, so I haven't tried it yet.

I'm betting it will be moderately effective, but will probably still let a lot of finer dust escape. Probably work better with a real DC too, but that's not going to happen for years. My shop runneth over.

(SWMBO says it's OK for me to build a new building out in the middle of the yard, up to about 25x25 or so, depending on how zoning and such goes. When we can afford it, which won't be for a loooong time yet. Still, she didn't bat an eye when I mentioned a $20,000 price tag. Now if only I can actually build one for that. And come up with the money...)

[Silvan]

I traded my bigger hammer for a computer. I didn't think I'd need a

16-pound sledge for much.

There were young children across the street. They opened a gymastics school directly across the way from my shop. Whee.

(Guess what my kids want to do?)

[Silvan]

LMAO! Yeah, that's the understatement of the year, unless maybe I used heavy gauge chain mail for the cloth. :)

[Silvan]

I'm hoping it won't re-weld itself. Those were some mighty big foot-pounds on that thing.

To my amazement and satisfaction, I checked the heel after all that (see all my posts about fighting with that adjustment) and it was still as close to dead on perfect as anyone but the most ridiculously anal could want. That gives me hope that it will remain aligned for a long time.

[Michael Baglio]

I'm thinking you should be able to. With a lot of help from my friends and therefore no expenses for "labor", I put up my 12X16 for $4,015. [Hey Novak, you reading this? Thanks again for the "you can do it" post about a year ago. It inspired me. ;> ] Some materials, like commercial flourescent fixtures, were free from a friend who is the maintenance supervisor for the "company-that doesn't-make-anything-you-own-they-just-make-it-better". They were on their way to the landfill so we rescued them.

But other things I spent extra on, like T1-11 interior walls instead of drywall. I also spent extra on things you don't see, like electricity. Four circuits of 110 at 42", and a run of 220 at a foot off the floor. Outlets on every stud. Power everywhere, infinite options. Could have saved money there, what I have is a bit of overkill. Floor is 2X construction on piers. 3/4" t&g ply, which is still expensive as hell, but covered with free-to-me recycled beadboard paneling. (Yes, beadboard is supposed to be for walls and ceilings, but when it's free and you can have a thicker floor and a "hardwood floor" look for the price of a gallon of poly, it's the cat's jammies.) Also could have saved some money by pitching the roof less steeply, and therefore needing less lengthy rafters. Set it at

10 over 12, (which was a bitch to shingle), but it gave me the ability to cross-tie it at 10-1/2 feet off the floor. Swinging an 8' tubafor end-over-end without worrying about smacking anything is nice. I saved a few hundred by making the windows out of half-lapped 1X stock and some more on-it's-way-to-the-landfill "Acrylite" (sp?) lexan/plastic/whatever-it-is stuff instead of glass. It's got an R value of about Zero, but it was free and indestructable, so that's what I used.

I'm rambling, Sylvan, but the point is you can do this. Mine could have come in cheaper than the 4K if I'd been trying to cut costs. I don't know what your housing market and personal situation is, but maybe a 5-year loan would be an option. Alice and I are planning on moving in the next few years, and if this shop doesn't add 10 grand to the value of the house, I'll be suprised.

Which, in the final scheme of things will mean that the all tools I've just put into it are going to end up being free.

Good luck, Michael

[Charlie Self]

Shouldn't cost that much if you do the work yourself, especially at that size. Some suggestions (my wife and I built my 25 x 48 shop ourselves, 99%): use rough cut lumber for siding and subfloor. I used poplar from a local mill. Cost about 25 cents a bf, IIRC. I used support beams (built up, box beams, plywood over 2x4s) for 16' spans, instead of trusses and put the truss money in a wood floor...3/4" t&g plywood. Make sure the ceiling is 10'! I stopped at 9' and it was a mistake. 200 amp service entry panel: this is where the big bucks tend to go, as the panel is only around $100, but the load of breakers needed quadruples that in a rush; electric furnace, overhead (my single vent cost me $20, fabricated at a local HVAC place) was free from the same HVAC place that fabricated the vent (they pull these units when installing heat pumps, and the furnaces are often back-up jobs that got little use).

Essential stuff in and cost was about $11,000 or $12,000.

Of course, now I'm a decrepit old fart from doing all that work.

Charlie Self "Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable." Mark Twain

[Mike Marlow]

Just finished tuning my Craftsman last night Silvan. I don't let nobody talk bad about my Craftsman. Nobody. And... it's well adjusted now too. I think I quit before you did - I got my to .001 and called that good to go. Seems I recall you went all the way to immeasurable. Mine is an old Model

100 and it's cut up a lot of wood that has turned into some pretty nice cabinetry, and my only concern now is whether or not I can adjust to not having to compensate for less than square cross cuts. Today - the new fence system gets installed and I start building the outfeed and extension table.

[jo4hn]

Lessee. Seems like you can remove the gym school and solve grunt problems utilizing item 2) loudly. j4

[Joe Helmick]

Anything that's stuck like this will yield to Goof-Off. It's STRONG stuff. I've found nothing better for penetrating and removing gunk.