Shopsmith Forums

Back in the olden days you detected the unstable condition by how wide the kerf was and the sound of the blade while cutting. If you measure the kerf width with and without you should see if you are getting an improvement. You should also see an improvement in the quality of cut.

Now yesterday I cut a full depth cut, if I remember that is 3-1/4" using my comb blade that I had installed. The blade is a thin kerf and the cuts look really nice despite the effort it took the saw to make the cut. In the old days with the just steel blades the results would have been way worse and in this depth of cut you just can't use the stabilizers. Again a high quality blade made the difference. The bad news is the blades like this are $100.

If you want the hipe you can read what they say about them at the Infinity site:

http://www.infinitytools.com/Saw-Blade- ... o/STA-500/

Ed

reible wrote:I get my blades from Infinity and they do sell them and so do other blade makers but I have no idea why. Better quality blades are extreemly stable and if you are having problems with that issue then you have something more to worry about, yes your saw is most likely missed up.

Ed

I didn't say I was having a problem
The simple truth is that I sent my headstock out for repair, and as part of the discussion the the repair guy volunteered the fact that he now always uses a dampener/stiffener and finds it really makes a difference. I was just trying to find out if the folks on the SS Forum have similar experience. (And "no"...he wasn't trying to sell me a dampener.)

All of us who use Shopsmith-branded blades with their larger 1.125 bore and correspondingly larger arbor nut are using blade dampeners of a sort, according to Shopsmith:

"Shopsmith 1-1/4" Saw Blade Arbors

"Get one for every blade so you can change from blade-to-blade almost instantly. Our saw blade arbors include large diameter flanges and nuts to help stabilize your blades and minimize wobble and run-out."

http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/specials/7DU809.htm