New Sawstop questions

[Jason White]

Adjust your fence so that it's parallel to the miter slot. Also make sure you're riving knife is perfectly aligned with your blade.

bought the 3hp pro model before 2013 ended. material wants to lift when ripping. what is that a sign of?
was hoping for better dust collection. get better collection with my modified 1985 unisaw. any suggestions for improving without overarm collection?

[Jason White]

Make sure you joint the edge of the board that you're running against your fence.

Ripping mostly poplar with a rip blade that works just fine on the unisaw. Fence may be out of alignment? I will check tomorrow.
As for overarm dust collection, I just cant imagine trying to get use to using a blade guard. Seems like it would be in the way so often as to be a pain in the ass.

[fernando guerrero]

first time response, I have the 1.75 pcs with overarm dust collection. Which is awesome. Now cutting the edges only does create dust as its not fully sealed for dust pick up. if ripping small strips close to fence, well it does create turbulance and wants to lift the strip of wood. It happens to me every once in awhile. Now the fence isnt fully dialed in because when installing the rails it has movement. as it also happened to me. the fence is probable the cause of it lifting. make sure you check parallelism. Now if youre local to san fernando CA I can Assist you in setting up the saw as I have tooken it apart before to fully tune the machine, Tech support at SawStop is great and they will provide with every info you need. As I had an issue with my fence one of the pcs. started to delaminate and I called to purchase one, Instead the sent me replacements at no charge to me. Ive had a misfire once, they replaced the cartridge, fixed my blade and sent me another blade of their brand. Good luck and have fun with it.

[Andy Pratt]

Reasons a board will try to lift as you rip it:
- using a crosscut blade to rip solid wood
- reaction wood closing on the rising portion of the blade (outfeed side of blade), if the riving knife is in place this shouldn't be dramatic but remember that the riving knife is sized for narrow kerf blades, so if you are using a standard kerf you could still get a slight lift from it, i haven't ever experienced this personally though
- a low blade height or dull blade will tend to accentuate the effect of the above two but shouldn't cause lifting on their own

- ripping lumber that has not been face jointed on the "down" face and edge jointed on the "fence" edge can make the lumber wobble in the cut, which can cause it to try to lift and/or kick back
- fence not parallel to blade or not planar causing blade to bind in a slightly curved cut
- improper feed technique where you are not keeping the board at least lightly pressed down and at least lightly pressed against the fence, if everything is right it doesn't need much but in my experience it always needs some pushstick guiding

edit: as far as dust collection make sure the hinged dust flap that is next to the blade is closed. This is the door-like plastic component that is parallel to the blade and about 2-4" to the right of it, you can only see it when you have the zero clearance insert out. It nearly always pops open when you are threading on the arbor nut for a new blade, and it is easy to forget to close it, especially if you are new to the saw. After owning mine for years I have finally trained myself to stop forgetting to close it. Dust collection is way better when it is closed. Also make sure your flex hose inside the machine cabinet has not come loose, if it wasn't on tightly it can pop off when you angle the blade. Last check would be for obstructions in your hose (strip of wood that got through zero clearance etc) and proper hose sizing. I have 4" of flex for about 10' and then it transitions into 6" rigid line and I find the dust collection to be exceptional (also have a 4" overarm tube though too).

[Rod Sheridan]

Ripping mostly poplar with a rip blade that works just fine on the unisaw. Fence may be out of alignment? I will check tomorrow.
As for overarm dust collection, I just cant imagine trying to get use to using a blade guard. Seems like it would be in the way so often as to be a pain .

Dan, once you've used the overarm guard for a period of time, you'll find that it isn't intrusive.

The secondary benefit is that you'll get to use the saw longer as you'll inhale less dust.............Regards, Rod

[Myk Rian]

Wear a dust mask.
They're cheap.

[Richard Wagner]

I find this incredible. Complaining about dust collection and then will not use the blade guard.

Why? What is incredulous about that. The blade guard does nothing to improve the quality of the air he breathes.

BTW: I don't use my blade guard either but I do use dust collection.

[Ruhi Arslan]

Seems like it would be in the way so often as to be a pain .

One would hope that it would be in the way to prevent the pain.

[Matt Kestenbaum]

I hate to state the obvious, but I have no idea what your level of experience.

So just a word about technique. with the heel of your left hand planted firmly on the table (well in front of and to the left of the blade) you need to apply pressure both to register one straight edge of the stock to the fence and also to the table. With your right hand and a proper push stick, feed the stock forward and apply downward pressure to keep registered to the table. Hence all the advice on a properly adjusted fence, flat stock face and square edge.

And BTW: I have a 3hp SS PCS and I find it super fast to switch back and forth between plain riving knife and the one with dust-collecting guard attached. Its at least as fast as pulling out a sled or jig the shelf underneath -- just part of setting up the cut. And the dust collection when doing a lot of ripping is amazing, especially on thick stock. Dust shoot isn't right for all cuts…but its great when breaking a big slab of 8/4 into a bunch of leg blanks or dimensioning a bunch of stock for case glue-ups.

[Dan Chouinard]

maybe i will give the dust collecting guard a try matt if it is a quick change as you say. been working with wood since 1982 by the way. use custom push stick that allows good down pressure. it could just be time for a blade sharpening.
thanks for the tip on the dust flap andy. i will have a look in there tomorrow. played hooky and went skiing today

[Dan Chouinard]

Lifting was due to dull blade. Put a freud 3/32 glue line rip blade on. Sweet!

[glenn bradley]

I have the 3HP PCS. I'm not sold on blade shrouds as of yet. Like you, I got better collection on my other cab saw, same DC, same connection, just no shroud. If you do not have enough DC you are not going to keep up with a tablesaw, especially ripping as there is a continuous stream of spoil. Did your Unisaw have a ZCI? A stock throat plate allows a large amount of airflow past the blade that does not occur with a ZCI. I lieu of the overarm you could widen the rear of the slot to focus some airflow there:

ZCI mod.jpg

Even if you do not have the overarm hose assembly you should be using the guard whenever possible. The SS guard is quite well made and only gets in the way on the thinner rips. Guards and crosscutting / sleds do not get along but, I use it whenever possible.

[Mark Andrew]

I found the dust collecting blade guard a bit disappointing, if I'm honest. I think the aperture in the back is just too small. The cabinet collection is very good, which validates my DC setup. In defense of the blade guard, I will say that there is a lot more dust on the table if I don't use it, so it does work. Just not as well as I expected. Perhaps I expected too much.

[joseph f merz]

I also think the overarm dust collection is lame on the saw stop.I use it all the time .I have a 1 1/2hp collector hooked directly to it . That hole in the plastic shield is so small . Sometime I might try hooking a vac directly to it and see the difference .I do love the security of all the features on this saw though .