[Duane Bledsoe]

Noticed my table saw blade mechanism was harder than normal to lower today, like I was cranking through resistance. Looked underneath it and saw a lot of sawdust buildup on the mechanisms. I’m thinking this is what I felt, the gears cranking through excess caked on dust. So I’m going to clean all this off and see if it helps. My question is what do I lubricate the gears with? Do I use anything at all? It seems this will just make dust stick to it even more.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

Ok I’m sold. Where do I get it? Lowe’s have it?

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

Looks like I can get it on Walmart’s website for che

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

I’ve always thought of WD-40 as a solvent instead of a lubricant. I don’t even own any. Used to use it to clean rust from tops but found out that the wet PB Blaster is even better for that so I don’t have a use anymore for WD-40, although I once heard it was an awesome ingredient in catfish bait. Never tried it.

As for my table saw I’m going to get a dry lubricant. Definitely. Probably get some paste wax for my bandsaw table and table saw top too. My table saw top has a coating on it and I think it’s aluminum underneath that but I have noticed that wood doesn’t slide on it as smoothly as I think it should. It’s a Ridgid R4513 model. But wouldn’t the wax leave a residue on wood that would need sanded off to finish? Not all of my projects get sanded. If the wood doesn’t need it I don’t bother.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

The word tools came out as tops in my above post. I cleaned rust from tools with WD-40. Not anymore though.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

Well, I spent 5 hours cleaning my shop today and I’m still not done. Part of that was spent on my table saw. I spent a solid hour removing caked on sawdust from the blade raising gears and threaded shaft. I wish I’d taken a pic when I started. You couldn’t even see the shaft threads. I don’t know how the blade could even go up and down. Also there are two guide slots, one on each side of the motor, that a T shaped part slides in as the blade travels up and down. The parts and the tracks both were not only caked with sawdust but there is a sticky residue all over it. I believe this is part of the resistance I feel.

I brushed and vacuumed until almost all of that was gone. Tomorrow I’m going to use mean green cleaner on it and take it back to factory new clean condition. Then I’ll get some dry lube and coat everything well.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

I figured that was the residue from wood cutting. I have ran treated lumber through this saw at times.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

Yes I’m gonna have to do that. I was just now out in the shop spraying and wiping some more, and thought the metal was looking pretty clean until I swiped my fingers across the black painted part. It left a visible streak and black residue on my finger. Tomorrow I will thoroughly clean the saw. Will carb/choke cleaner work or is it too strong? It might take the paint off. The can says it cleans all UNPAINTED parts. I’m probably just gonna have to get a can of brake parts cleaner.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

Forgot the pics.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

Gotcha on the brake parts cleaner. I figured the carb cleaner would damage any non metal parts anyway, which I just discovered hat there is a plastic bushing under one of the gears. Shown in the pic, the green arrow points to its location. Why do I wish this was a brass bushing? Maybe metal would provide too much resistance whereas plastic allows for smooth rotation of the threaded shaft. Do you see any problem with swapping this out to metal? Even a stack of washers? I just feel that plastic will wear out and I’ll be needing to replace it anyway. While it’s apart and the bushing is still good I can use it as a size reference.

Also, the blue arrow indicates the metal “tab” that was bent out of the rather thick sheet metal yoke that the motor assembly rides against. This was not square to the rest of the set up and had that plastic bushing riding on just one edge as the shaft rotated. I took the liberty to square this up so the bushing sits flat. I reassembled things and did a dry run and it actually seems that the motor moves up and down easier now.

Lastly, the red arrow points to the gear on the crank shaft of the motor lift. This gear is attached with a screw tray passes through the shaft and back into the gear on the other side. Sadly, the gear wobbles as the shaft is turned. This explains the shimmy from side to side I’ve watched my blade do as I raised and lowered it over the last theee years. Has never caused any serious problem to me or my projects, but depending on where you stop the blade height it is out of square to the table ever so slightly. 1/32” maybe. It’s been a looooong time since I’ve even checked it. I just recall during setup that no matter what I did the shimmy was still there and the blade passed in and out of square as I raised and lowered it. It’s alwas bugged me, and the way this is made there is no tweak for it. I loosened the screw and skewed the gear in the direction it needed to go in as I retightened it. This seemed to slightly lessen the wobble I could observe as I turned the wheel but I know once things are back together and the gear is under load to lift the motor it may not stay. I’m also aware I’m knit picking a $500 saw ($400 now, it has come down since I bought it, grrrrrrrrr) to specs of greater than 1/32 accuracy, but hey I shoot for the stars even if all I have is a slingshot. When I start refining things you can bet even my slingshots will end up being made from surgical steel with tactical rubber grips, a super elastic polymer band with a ratchet lock to hold it at half draw, and a suede leather cup to shoot high polished chrome steelies from. It’s liable to even have a laser sight mounted between the forks, and a pop off cap to store extra ammo in the handle. That’s how I roll. 😁

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

Forgot the pic again!

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

This is a Ridgid R4513 table saw. I suspect the gear has been wobbling since new because I’ve always seen the blade do the shimmy as it went up and down. Since day one. It’s very very slight, almost imperceptible but I caught it and now I think I know why.

On the tab, yes, I was also wondering if resistance to movement didn’t bend it but I would think that plastic bushing would show signs of wear if that had happened. Everything looks new underneath as I clean it. The only wear I’ve seen was on the washer under the lock nut at the bottom of the shaft. I’m going to replace that. As for the bushing, when the saw is upright this bushing will be under pressure with it being at the bottom and it will or should see wear as the gears turn to lift the motor. So far I see none. It’s not even scratched that I can tell. If something has to wear I’d rather it be the bushing than the gear so if I go to brass, is it possible I’m creating an issue I don’t have now? I registered my saw when I bought it so I have the lifetime service agreement.
Hate to void that. I’m posting a pic of the bushing.

Also at the bottom of the threaded shaft there is an area with no threads. The locknut and washer were loose fitting here as well. They weren’t flat down to the surface at all by about the distance of this non threaded gap. I wonder why that is there? There was nothing missing. I’m going to have to pull up an exploded diagram of parts to see what all is supposed to be there. Also I’m thinking they must have been in contact at one time or there would be no wear on that washer. The fit was far too loose. They backed off during use is what I believe.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

Found exploded diagram. All parts are there. There is only the lock nut and washer below that tab and above it are the bushing and gear. I don’t know why that non threaded area is there because it is far wider than the thin washer. Personally I think Ridgid should have made this tab heavier and inserted a bearing here. Think how much smoother that would have made raising and lowering the blade!

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

Oh I forgot, before anyone thinks that non threaded part is for where the shaft passes through the tab, it isn’t. The shaft it stepped to have a specific spot that seats in the hole in the tab. Like a built in bushing. The non threaded area is below this. I think I’m going to look for a bigger washer to fit here to keep the lock nut on the threads. Otherwise it will thread on down (up) into the area of no threads and it’s already thin itself.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

How about this? Dad had a can of it at his house and said he never could tell the difference in it vs the brake cleaner.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

Weeeeeell.............it’s too late. I know I asked but I got giddy and went ahead and used it. It worked really well though. Wiped that stuff right off. Literally no effort and the rag came out pretty nasty! I removed one gear and detail cleaned it but could not get the other off because it required the shaft to be slid out and it would not come out even with all hinderances removed. It actually has a taper past a certain point. Would not come out backwards. Also removed the threaded shaft from the motor lift and thoroughly cleaned it.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

I get that but in this case it seems to have worked. Before it looked clean but still wasn’t. After cleaning with the stuff I used it now has no residue at all on it.

In any case I don’t think it will matter. I won’t have 100% true cuts from this saw anyway. I noticed just now another thing that induces blade wobble as it’s raised and lowered. I noticed when I removed the threaded shaft from the motor lift to clean it that it had significant slop in the way it fit and threaded in. I wondered then if it would affect things but figured it was just how it is made (still think this). I figured the guides would hold the motor straight, not this shaft. After reassembling and running it up and down a few times I can see the shaft itself wobbles as the motor is lifted and lowered. The guides don’t hold it straight either. I can use my hand to actually wobble the motor itself while in place and not cranking at all. You might say wear has done this and it may have very well made it worse from the beginning but it has always had this wobble that I could see as I raised and lowered the blade, and I saw no metal shavings at all as I was cleaning it. The guides don’t even look worn, not even the thin sheet metal inserts they have. I think it’s simply engineered this loose, although the threaded rod is a steel shaft passing through an aluminum hole so there is the inevitable metal wear just from that. But the rest is steel to steel.

So I’m gonna lube the mechanisms, put it back together and see what it will do, and either live with it or sell it and move on. This saw has not seen enough use in three years to have worn from a true and solid-state to the point it is now. I have owned it just now three years and it goes months at a time without seeing use. By months I mean most of the year at times. Truly it has only been used very lightly. If it had been bought for jobsite use and was used weekly or daily I could understand wear causing this but since it wasn’t then it was this way from the factory.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

Went to Lowe’s after some of the PB Blaster dry lube. They were out of stock. So instead of a $5 large can I ended up with a $4 small bottle of 3-in-1 dry lube. Felt like I got ripped off...........until I tried it.

OH WOW, WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!

What have I been missing!?!?!?

I want this stuff on everything I own that is mobile! My saw blade goes up and down so smoothly now it’s absolutely amazing. I lubed the gears and threaded shaft that raises it and watched it going down the shaft as it followed the threads. I lubed the tracks the guides ride in for raising the motor, and the pivot points that allow it to shift from 0-45 degrees, even the plastic gear teeth on the wheel that moves it. Then I put some of it in the tracks on the extension table. My saw feels brand new again, and the shimmy I described in the blade from before that was there since the saw is new, well that’s now gone or has been reduced to negligible if any is there at all. I attribute that to wobble in the moving parts from friction but since that is greatly reduced now it seems to have resolved the problem. I’m very impressed with this dry lube. I can see extensive cleaning of my shop coming and this being used everywhere possible.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

Some things I don’t understand. I spent probably two hours tweaking and squaring things in my tablesaw today. The blade was already dead on straight to the miter slots and that should have been enough for me. I’ve never had a problem getting useable cuts on it when using the fence, but the fence does not lock square to the miter tracks unless I manually force it to align before locking.

Now I can’t think of a single reason I need to use the fence and the miter tracks together other than with the gauge on a crosscut that I never do (miter saw does this). But I worked and worked to square the fence to the tracks and checked the blade front and back on the same tooth. It was good with the tracks as far as I could “feel” and measure but it was off on the same tooth at the rear of the blade by at least 1/128 to 1/64. Those are guesstimate numbers cause I didn’t measure precisely to see but I know it was less than 1/32. So.....reset to be square with the blade and now it’s off to the tracks again. But the blade measures square to the tracks. How can this be???

I’m using a Swanson square with a metal ruler checked for square against several other squares that are known to be true. But.....if I use the 4” and 2” marks, the fence gauge reads correctly compared to the square. If I use the 1” mark, it’s off a shade. Something is inconsistent somewhere. I’m not going to mess with it anymore because the adjustment screws use a hex head to turn them and both a 5/32 and a 4mm fit it and I can’t tell which for sure is right and BOTH have started to slip inside the hex recess, so.....I’m leaving well enough alone. I have it square enough I can cut wood within a frog hair of accurate (assuming blade runout doesn’t come into play or any other kind of vibration), and all I ever do with it is rip wood and I “might” eventually build a sled for some reason or another, but I dado and groove with a router and miter cut with a miter saw so why am I worrying about it so much?

OCDism I guess.

 

[Duane Bledsoe]

Yes the blade is good. It is dead on to both miter slots. Since my last post I attempted to adjust the fence again (and in the process I got my back pain flared up again, spent too long bent over it). I can adjust it dead on but when I tighten the screws it seems to move about 1/64 or so. That drives me nuts, but if nothing else it is at least out in a way that allows for a little wider exit than entry so right now I could use it and not get kickback from that.

I’ll get the manual and read the procedure plus use the method described above. Never occurred to me to use the square between the fence and blade while it is also in the miter track. I checked them individually. I haven’t looked at the manual yet. I’m bad about just diving in on stuff but there are only 4 screws to loosen from the top so I believe that has to be how it’s done.

As of now everything is clean like new based on my recent cleanup and lube. There’s nothing I can see throwing the blade off, but I will look again to be sure. But as said, I could not ask for better alignment from the blade to the slots. If there’s anything inaccurate there I don’t have the ability to see it or measure it. I don’t own a dial caliper. Just metal rulers, squares, and one 6” digital caliper.