Kurt’s Workshop

It seems as though something has to go horribly wrong with something in order for me to get motivated to write. Today that happened, perhaps because of the cold, perhaps due to negligence on my part, perhaps because Dewalt seems hell bent on letting me down. My DW734 planer has decided to no longer do its ver simple job…slice wood…very fast. Instead it has decided to simple hack and moan and resist. So instead of finishing a simple gift for our soon to be house sitter, I am instead tearing the machine down to its sawdusty guts. When you consider the temperature and the amount of polished metal involved, its not a fun thing to do. We shall see if my efforts pay off when I get back from buying some fresh knives.

To be fair, my planer is probably the second or third most used thing in my shop, and it takes a heck of a lot of abuse. Not only does it handle the finer boards, but on occasion it get used for constrution, and handles all kinds of knotty CG lumber (dare I admit the plywood I once sent through) and whatever else I have sitting around.

Basically Rockler has just accused me of not knowing how to clamp things down. Here’s what they have to say on the issue:

“Wow, it doesn’t seem that one would have a need to tighten down on a hold down clamp enough to pull the particle board apart that way. As that’s where the breaking is though is does appear as though the epoxy did do the job in adhering to the particle board. It doesn’t sound like a replacement would solve anything as we won’t be able to supply the table made out of a different material, and I would expect the same result with a new table if that much pressure needs to be applied to the clamp. You might try a different epoxy, being sure to get both the bottom and the sides of the track, but if the material itself is breaking apart I can’t guarantee that will work.”

So Rockler…what shall we do? Here’s was my reply:

“It sounds a little like you’re blaming me for over tightening a clamp, which is not the case. Perhaps the product is simply not made to high enough standards. I would like Rockler to pay my return shipping, as well as refund my money for the product. I see from the comments on the product details page that this is a known issue, so it doesn’t really surprise me.”

I think this is a reasonable answer, so let’s see what they say. I doubt they will want to pay for the shipping, but we shall see. It really is a well documented issue with their product, so I think they should have to deal with it. The table made for Woodcraft has it’s t-slots through bolted to the table. I think this would be the obvious way to make a table made out of MDF.

So I have to retract my glowing recomendation of Rockler’s Drill Press table. I like the surface, I like the size, but I cannot deal with a table that does not have properly operating t-track. Even after securing the tracks with some two part epoxy, they pulled out under minimal pressure. Yes I roughed up the underside of the aluminum, so don’t bother yelling at me for that. I guess it comes down to one thing: don’t trust particle board type products with glue. End of story.

I think Rockler really needs to deal with this known problem. I am currently waiting for their reply to my request for a solution/refund. They were the ones who sent me the glue, so I figure that has to be like strike one. We’ll see how the rest of the count goes down.

Had a small problem with the Rockler drill press table yesterday. There are a number of small screws which hold down the t-track, unfortunately they are really not adequate. When clamping from above pulls on the track it lifts from its slot, and just like that you’re without a proper hold down. On the plus side, an email to Rockler was returned very quickly, and a tube of epoxy is currently on its way here. This should fix the problem once and for all. I’m not sure what they were thinking when they drove these tiny screws into what it essentially particle board covered in a shell, but at least they’re going to take care of the customer.

Lately I have been having some trouble with my table saw, so although I hate to start things off somewhat negatively, I’m going to do it anyway. Currently, I own the Ridgid TS3650 10″ contractor’s saw. I say currently because unless things start going a little better I’m going to be upgrading sooner rather than later. It has been my plan to upgrade to a full cabinet saw later on this summer.

In case anyone cares to give me any advice on this matter, I am looking into several different saws. At the top of my list are the SawStop (the big one, not the contractor) several models of Grizzly, Rikon, Powermatic (with retracting casters of course) and the Steel City model with granite top. That’s a long list I know, but then again who would have thought there would be so many fine choices to be had. In any case, I’m not ready to get one of those just quite yet.

Melissa and I have been talking a lot lately about new custom cabinets, so of course I decided it would be a good idea to start experimenting with cabinets for around the shop, just to get a better feel for their construction. My saw had different ideas. I mounted a Freud SBOX8 set to 3/8′ on the saw. Yes I am aware that this is a box joint set, but it should work great for other things too. Anyway, after a few test cuts I found a serious problem with either A. the set or B. the saw. Think of a set of stairs, that’s what the bottoms of my dado’s looked like. That’s just fine for good cabinetry work right?After checking the saw for square, parallel, plumb and every other fancy geometry term I could think of, I moved on to the blade itself.

Naturally I assumed the problem to be in the blades, after all I had been using the saw for a long time (also with freud products) and had never had any problems. I contacted Freud customer service (which turns out to be very efficient, but not particularly personable) and they promptly informed me that it was not their fault. Of course, how silly of me.

At this juncture it would have been smart to take some pictures of both the saw and the blades, but I didn’t and therefore there won’t be any cool photos of the problem, but stick with me here and I promise something juicy. After satisfying myself that it was not the blades fault I turned to culprit B, the saw. A quick internet search led me to the answer, and believe me, I so wanted it to be the $60 blade.

It turns out that Ridgid saws sold somewhere around 2004 had a defective (although not in the company’s eyes) arbor which was not machined to accept some, although I bet it’s more like all, dado sets. Here’s the company’s reply to my inquiry:

“Kurtis:

The TS3650 right out of the box is designed to accept both stack and adjustable type dado blades with the following specs:

Maximum diameter: 8″
Maximum width of cut: 13/16″
Rated for the saws RPM range.

It has been brought to our attention by a few customers, some of which have posted on the Forum, that a difficutly with some dado blade sets not mounting properly has been experienced. Unfortunately, various manufacturers of such accessories do not always all follow the same manufacturing specifications or tolerances and some dado blade sets may or may not fit the arbor on the TS3650 the same. As the manufacturer, we have offered a differently machined arbor, free, to customers to have their nearest authorized service dealer install, if they experince such a difficulty. If you purchase the saw and you experience such a difficulty with a dado blade set, the options available would be to try a different manufacturers dado blade set, or contact Ridgid technical services at 1-866-539-1710 to request a free replacement arbor to have installed.

Consumer Response
One World Technologies, Inc.” 

Interesting no? They don’t exactly claim responsibility. More on this little adventure to come.