Bent throat plate

[gwyneth]

If there's a good thing about all this, it's that it took place within 30 days of purchasing both saw and blade.

For all of Amazon's quirks, replacing a defective product within 30 days is really simple...one form produced a new blade sent by overnight shipping and a label to print out for returning the bad one, at their expense. Couldn't possibly be easier unless they 'flew a man out', as Rolls Royce supposedly once did, with the new blade.

Now to figure out what to say to Sears. My tentative working theory, taking into account everybody's answers, is that when the bad tooth met the hard little chunk of oak, it was just like crunching on a piece of pecan shell with a bad human tooth--pieces of both fly all over the place. Good tooth, shell, no problem; bad tooth, no shell, no problem; when the two encounter each other, problem.

The end of the oak probably split into two pieces, one flying forward to wedge apart the gap in the throat plate so it could fit through.

Unfortunately, I can't see that being a Sears warranty issue.

[JimD]

Is it possible that you just didn't get that corner of the throat plate under the screw? I've done that and it leaves the throat plate sticking up roughly the amount you describe. You might not have noticed it at first - on a large piece of wood it could appear to work normally.

Jim

[gwyneth]

Anything is possible, but the throat plate had been tightened down; had been on too little time to get loose; the wood wasn't big; and what I noticed was the throat blade impeding the motion of the SMT, after cross-cutting five or six pieces successfully.

The Freud narrow kerf blade, with the factory throat plate, really did have a pretty large gap--as the other throat bender put in his post of a couple of years ago, "should have been using a ZCTP".

So the oak cut-off--which should have been about 2" wide, 1" thick, 1" deep (the distance between blade and right edge)--would have split to two angled chunks about 1" wide, one propelled forward. Unsplit, too big to affect throat plate; split and fed back, too big for easy entrance, too small to fall through--a perfect wedge.

A great learning experience, and not just in making throat plates later. Important lessons:

• feedback CAN happen on cross-cuts, although rare
• blade teeth CAN have subtle flaws
• wearing eye protection is NEVER a bad idea

[steve-norrell]

Gwyneth;

Did you ever resolve the 'brushing' sound?

Regards, Steve

[gwyneth]

No. Today I'm going to vacuum motor compartment, set saw upright, vacuum more, try the 'turn without blade' test.

If I don't hear the brushing, I'll install the new blade and turn it manually. If I do hear it then, I'll know it's touching something.

If I hear the sound without the blade, then I guess I'll approach Sears on warranty issues, though I'm not sure what would be legitimate and what wouldn't.

Thanks to everyone who's been helping!