Thread: woodman 12/10 blade question.

These photos might help.
bare arbour.jpgarbour with washer.jpgblade and bush.jpgblade and bush in place.jpgflange showing dish space.jpgblade fitted.jpg

I have this saw and I understand exactlywhat your concern is. Having said that, this is the first time I have realised that it is possible for the washer to make its way along the arbor to the flange nut. I was using a Flai U blade and it was a little loose but it never moved. I am now using a CMT blade and it is a friction fit so no problems there. In my experience of using the saw (2+ years) this has not been an issue.

Hope that helps

Yeah thats good to hear Nummins, the guy at the shop said he had never heard of it being a problem either. I guess there's no reason why it would move out of position, but then......??

I have a washer under the arbor flange. Gives the reducer no where to go.

A simple solution NCArcher, I also thought a light spring would work. I think the bush should be around 3mm to 4mm thick. But your washer idea works as long as the washer is thick enough to keep the bush in the blade bore even if it moves over against the underside of the flange. I'll have a look around for a suitable washer.

Just keep in mind, the bush is only there to locate the blade centrally whilst you tighten the nut, the flanges are what holds the blade once all tight.

The washer I use actually came with the saw. It was on the arbor intended for that use I pressume. I have just never taken it off.

I wondered about that DJ. But is the flange pressure alone enough to hold the blade in place? I can see your point DJ, but I'd feel safer knowing the bush was in the bore just in case. I suppose there is the possibility I might not tighten the flange properly. I'm trying to imagine what would happen.......no I just won't go there, I'll definitely tighten the flange every time.

So, NCArcher, you're saying your saw came with 2 washers, one bush to fit inside the bore and one washer to fit between the bush and the inside of the flange?

Originally Posted by 3 toed sloth

So, NCArcher, you're saying your saw came with 2 washers, one bush to fit inside the bore and one washer to fit between the bush and the inside of the flange?

Yep.

Well I've been trolling through various threads in the forum archives and there seem to be a few different ideas about this issue.

1) only ever use a blade with the same size bore as your arbor. No spacer no problem. I like this idea but my saw can take a 300mm blade and they all seem to have larger bore holes. One of the main reasons I bought this saw was that I could use a 300mm blade for extra depth of cut.

2) Buy a bush which is made to fit the blade and the arbour with a friction fit. (available from carbatec). Many people say they have been using these bushes for years and never had a problem, and because they are a friction fit they wont slide out of the bore along the arbor thread. This also seems like a good idea but here's my experience with the first blade I bought for this saw, the Freud blade mentioned earlier.
When I initially noticed the supplied bush/washer was not a tight fit in the blade hole/bore I rang a saw doctor and he said it should be a tight fit and they would supply a bush but they had to fit it. So I took the freud blade there and they fitted the bush. When I used the blade it vibrated so much I was getting a 5mm kerf on a 3.2mm wide blade. Went back to the saw doctor and they said the blade was a dud. Went back to Major and they were good enough to swap for another blade. Went back to saw doctor who refitted the bush.
Ran the blade, same problem, vibration giving a 5mm kerf. So I knocked the bush out and ran the saw with the supplied bush which was not a tight fit. The blade ran perfectly with a kerf of 3.4mm. I thought my problems were over. The next morning I removed the blade to check something or other and refitted it. Now its gone back to vibrating with the kerf around 4.2mm.
Now before you say what youre thinking I'll add this bit. The saw doc. also bushed the blade which came with the saw. This is a generic 300mm blade which has lots of teeth like a crosscut blade. It runs perfectly in the saw with no vibration at all. I have checked the arbor runout and it is perfect. The fence and mitre slot are aligned with the blade.
The theory is that the blade is tensioned and the bush may have been a bit too tight and it has somehow sprung the blade out of correct tension. So I'm going back to the doc. next week to see if it can be fixed.

3) Extra washers/packers to stop the bush sliding out of the bore.

I am now leaning towards using 10" blades generally as they have 5/8" bore holes. Hopefully we can get the freud 12" blade working and I will keep that for when I need the extra depth cut. Thanks for all the comments so far, It's good to be able to discuss these things when you get a new toy, the missus can only take so much

Sorry for all the rambling.

Peter

Funny this topic should come up recently. Yesterday I had a bush come out of a blade while operating

I've got an old Rexon 12" saw and a collection of less than top quality saw blades. All blades require bushes to fit the 5/8" arbor. I bought a pack of ozito bushes to make the blades fit but they were all pretty loose. I then bought a couple of real bushes from Carbatec that I have fitted to my good blades, but each one was the price of the Ozito pack of 15.

The blade I was using yesterday was an abused contractor (destructor?) blade to rip some salvaged old joists with nails and screws included. I could have hit a screw or the twist in the joist could have jammed the blade; whatever, the blade started vibrating something shocking and I hit the kill switch. After removing the joist I restarted the saw but the vibration was fierce and I though I must have bent the blade. Taking the blade off I found the bush had come out and the blade was running eccentrically and even kissing the steel blade clearance insert. There went at least one more of the contractor blade's teeth.

Because it was a trashy blade and all I had to make the arbor fit were the Ozito bushes I had made do with them even though I needed a combination of two to get the correct fit. The Ozito sizing is so suss that even the bushes within their own brand were loose within each other. After a prolonged bit of consideration I peened the edges of the bushes to make them fit together a bit tighter. I refitted the blade, added another washer as per above to reduce the space available for failure and fired up with no undue vibration.

I continued to rip the rest of the joists I wanted to save from the tip without further incident but I think I'll spring for a few more Carbatec bushes next time I'm in Brisbane.

Thanks Fuzzie, you've typed that post so I guess you've still got at least one finger left anyway. But your experience would seem to suggest that the blade can move even while held tightly between the flange and the arbor, albeit under fairly heavy load.

I consider the table saw a device for rough dimensioning. There is no need to be near the blade. I get extra sensitive near the end of a cut when the push stick gets near the blade guard. I can't even watch people who do fine joinery on a table saw without a guard.

The flange on my saw is pressed metal and I suspect it has been overtightened at some stage deforming it a bit and possibly reducing its clamping set. I've previously thought it might be good to find something like a machined Dewalt blade stabilizer to replace it with, but I haven't spotted a suitably dimensioned one yet.

Yeah, I'm with you there Fuzzie about getting near the blade. If I have to do something without the guard I'd definitely try to hold and guide the timber with something that doesn't bleed.

My outer flange is pressed metal also and I'm no machinery expert by a long shot, but I'm surprised the flange isn't turned from solid steel. Those blade stabilisers look great, but they look like they would limit the depth of cut a bit.