Anyone ever cross-threaded the arbor of their table saw?

[Dolmetscher007]

I just bought a brand new 3 HP Grizzly table saw. It has less than 3 hours of cut time on it, and something is wrong! 

I took the blade off, and put on this molding cutter head . I used it to make 16 ft of bead molding. Then I took it off, put the blade back on, used the two wrenches to hold the arbor housing still while I tightened the big bolt that holds the blade on. I had the flange washer in place correctly, and facing the correct direction. The Grizzly model has it so that you put the blade directly on the arbor and slide it all the way to the left up against the arbor "flange". Then you slip on a flange washer that is dead flat on one side, which is the side that you have facing the blade, and the other side has a sort of counter-sunk recess that fits the huge nut perfectly. So I hand tightened it, then used the wrenches... no problem.

But when I turned the saw on to make my next cut... something was terribly wrong. The arbor spun inside the blade, and the blade did spin, but when I instantly shut the motor off, the blade kept spinning freely for a long time. It was not "on there good." So it was loosely just spinning around the arbor. I had tightened the nut on with the wrench. It went on with just my fingers for at least 20-30 turns with no cross-threading or any resistance at all. When it got too hard to turn with my fingers, I used the wrenches, and I tightened it as hard as any normal person would. But, after taking it all back apart and starting over several times, the blade now just loosely fits, even once I've tightened the nut as much as it will go. I am getting around this problem for the time being by using the huge 1/4 thick washer that you can see in the above cutter-head picture behind the actual cutter head. It came with the cutter head, and you have to use it when using that cutter head. It allows the threads of the nut to still have plenty of threading to sug the blade up to normal tightness. But... WTF?! This table saw is brand new. 

Anyone else ever have anything like this happen? And what happens now? There is no Grizzly repair man in Charleston SC, What do you do when something goes wrong with a special tool like this? Thanks guys!

[Coop]

If you have another blade, try it, just for the heck of it. I'm betting there's something going on that you're not doing correctly, especially if it worked prior to putting the molding cutter on.

After looking at the molding cutter, did you by chance leave any part on the saw, like the spacer on the shaft?

[Dolmetscher007]

2 minutes ago, Eric. said:

Are you sure you have the nut on in the correct direction?  The flat side should be against the blade...

Hmmmm... That is the one thing that I did not try. I stood over that damn saw for 2 hours taking the blade off and back on 25 times at least. But I never thought that maybe the nut will go on in either direction, and I am putting it on backwards. I am in the office right now, but will try that asap when I get home.

 

[drzaius]

The washer on the table saws I've had is recessed on the side that goes against the blade & the nut goes on the flat side. If put on backwards, it's conceivable (I think of Princess Bride every time I hear that word) that the nut could bottom out on the threads before fully tightening.

[Dolmetscher007]

6 minutes ago, K Cooper said:

If you have another blade, try it, just for the heck of it. I'm betting there's something going on that you're not doing correctly, especially if it worked prior to putting the molding cutter on.

After looking at the molding cutter, did you by chance leave any part on the saw, like the spacer on the shaft?

The cutter head has this little 1/2" or so long piece of steel tube that you put on the arbor first, so the order goes...

1/2" piece of steel tube > Cutter head > 1/4" beefy washer that came with the cutter head > the saw's flange washer > saw's big arbor nut. 

I did not leave any of that on the saw. I also made a zero clearance insert for when I use the cutter head, and when I raised the blade (cutter head) to get the depth right to make the bead molding, it did rise up into the same exact place it did when I made the zero clearance insert several weeks ago. So the cutter head was "in position" correctly. And I was very careful to put it all back into its little case. So I dunno. 

[Dolmetscher007]

3 minutes ago, drzaius said:

The washer on the table saws I've had is recessed on the side that goes against the blade & the nut goes on the flat side. If put on backwards, it's conceivable (I think of Princess Bride every time I hear that word) that the nut could bottom out on the threads before fully tightening.

Wait... so the arbor flange should have the recessed side facing the blade?

Page 29 of the owner's manual does not even address which direction anything should be. So now that you all say it, I do not KNOW for sure which direction anything should be. I assumed that the flat side of the arbor flange would go against the blade so that the most possible contact could be made. But now that you say this, we all hollow out the backs of our chisels so that only the smallest amount of steel is touching the work-pieces because it is easier to have the chisel be.

[Unknown craftsman]

The hollow side should face the blade.Theres plenty of contact and you don't need to bear down heavy to tighten it.Becuse if all your parts are not perfectly flat you might put a warp in the blade.

Aj

[Dolmetscher007]

7 minutes ago, Aj3 said:

The hollow side should face the blade.Theres plenty of contact and you don't need to bear down heavy to tighten it.Becuse if all your parts are not perfectly flat you might put a warp in the blade.

Aj

This is probably it. And I will probably have to hand in my Doh! card

 

[Eric.]

Here...

And for the record...I didn't have enough coffee when I posted this morning and I said exactly the opposite of what I meant to say...

 

 

[Dolmetscher007]

44 minutes ago, Eric. said:

Here...

And for the record...I didn't have enough coffee when I posted this morning and I said exactly the opposite of what I meant to say...

Well I'll be damned. You were right. 100% I tried for... literally, at least an hour to take it apart, change this, change that... and the one thing I did not think was to flip the washer around. If you have the recessed side facing to the right, the nut really almost disappears up into the counter-sink recess. I remember thinking... "What a shit design. The nut almost disappears and you can't get a good grip on it with the wrench." Lo-and-behold the actual issue was the dope with the wrench. 

Thanks man! And sorry for the cut finger. 

[Woodenskye]

2 hours ago, Dolmetscher007 said:

 sorry for the cut finger. 

Oh man your screwed!  Eric bled for this demo, your gonna owe him big time, and Eric will cash in! 

[Eric.]

33 minutes ago, Woodenskye said:

Oh man your screwed!  Eric bled for this demo, your gonna owe him big time, and Eric will cash in! 

I'm out for blood!!!

Nah, I figure we'll call it even for all the shit I've given him about SPF and drum sanders. LOL

[Pondhockey]

I love it when the solution is the cheapest possible, and not the most expensive that we had imagined!!