FTS-150 Blade Wobble

[ritch]

I have been lurking on this site for a couple of months now and after reading all the posts about saws, decided on a Felker FTS-150 saw. Purchased from construction complete and received it today. After trueing up the saw, I made a few cuts and trued it some more . I noticed it was always chipping at the beginning of a cut and at the end, the unrestrained piece would "jump" away from the blade. It seems that the blade is wobbling about twice it width. I tried reversing the blade after searching the posts and that helped a little. When I put a square up against the blade and rotate it by hand, it appears that there is less than 1/32 of runout, but I loosened the blade and rotated it to see if the "tight" spot would follow the blade or the saw, and it seemed to follow the saw... I made a partial cut and at the beginning of the cut, the kerf is 1/8" wide, and in the middle of the cut it is down to 1/16". Seems like the blade wobbles until it begins cutting. I am tempted to go to Lowes or HD and get a blade with a smaller diameter to add stiffness and minimize the effect of any runout. Any ideas anyone. Thanks.

PS if it doesn't show up in the profile, my first name is Sam

[Davestone]

I never liked the smaller blade idea myself, but it may work.You didn't say what you were cutting but definitely a new blade will help your woes.

[ritch]

I am cutting 12" travertine tile.

[cx]

Welcome, Sam. If you go back to the UserCP, on the left is Edit Signature. If you enter your first name there it will appear at the end of each post for folks to see.

I suggest you contact Construction Complete. They may tell you to contact Felker. Do that, too. If there is a defect in either the saw or the blade it will be taken care of.

Do tell'em we sent ya, and do tell us the result of your calls. We really are interested in that.

[Davestone]

Travertine should cut like butta.

[ritch]

I followed CX'es advice and called Felker directly. I explained the problem and Bob? in Customer Service offered to send me a new blade. Received it today and put it on and it wobbled worse than the original. I noticed that it would stop wobbling immediately after I turned of the power switch. I took the belt guard off and ran it with no guard, blade, nut or washer and it was perfectly smooth.

On a whim, I re-installed the blade with the convex portion of the arbor washer IN instead of OUT, and the wobble was gone! Hopefully the crude illustration below will help the next newbie that installs the arbor washer backwards.

I have nothing but great things to say about this saw and Felker's customer service!


Blade Arbor Nut
|| Washer
||
|| ___
|| | |
|| | |
|| / |
|| | | ____
|| | || |
|| | || |
|| | ||___|
|| \ |
|| | |
|| |__|
||
||
||