Throat plate tabs

The table top is a cast aluminum. Was the tab broken on the throat plate or on the table saw top? Any pictures?

-- paxorion

Hi Paxorion,

No, not of my saw and the Dewalt repair center currently has it. But, it’s the throat tab on the table saw top itself, like in this picture:

When standing in front of the saw, it’s the back left tab that broke.

That is a very odd place for the table to break. Those tabs are used to support the leveling screws and should not be load bearing. I’d personally push for the service manager to explain how it can be “wear and tear”. Can you also shed some light on what caused the tabs to break?

-- paxorion

Not wear and tear. I’ve never seen this issue on any saw nor have I heard of such a thing from any other woodworkers.

Either the saw is defective or you (or someone else) somehow subjected it to heavy weight or a sharp impact.

-- See my work at http://altaredesign.com

That ain’t “normal” wear and tear.. if that were the case, then the whole table top would need to be replaced every so often, which is NOT acceptable, or anything close to normal. They may however have determined that the damage was caused by abuse, but that’s a hard sell. How did you manage to break it anyway? If it just broke on it’s own, then I agree with Paxorion, bump it up the food chain. It’s still under warranty, so they should make it right. If you slammed something into it, then you will probably need to suck it up and pony up the bucks to get a new table top if you want it fixed.

Cheers,
Brad

-- Brad in FL - In Dog I trust... everything else is questionable

I’m not sure what caused the tab to break. The only thing I can think of is I regularly rip dense 8/4 stock (Jatoba, hard Maple, Hickory) for cutting boards and when I first got started I was just using the stock Dewalt 40T blade it came with. Very occasionally there would be a lot of vibration during the cut (felt like the saw was rattling). As I got better and got a proper ripping blade that went away. I do have the plate raised a bit higher in the back – the throat plate opening is beveled and I noticed that unless the back of the plate is a fraction higher than the top (a suggestion in the saw manual) at the back some pieces tend to catch. As a result, the paint on the back of the throat plate is wearing off and I can see bare metal. Not sure if that makes a difference or not.

But I’m very careful when working in side the throat plate area when changing blades, etc, so I know I haven’t dropped anything on or in there like the manager suggested. Never dropped the saw either as it’s bolted to a mobile base I made so it just rolls around in my garage.

As it stands, after a bit of discussion, I was able to get them to take the saw anyway (I dropped it off at a pickup location, actual repair center is in a different city) to have an actual tech look at it and give me a more definitive answer. The manager said he’d get back to me by the end of this week, so fingers crossed.

Thanks for the replies!

Hello nerdbot, flipping through the forum section looking for my last forum post I noticed your Throat plate tabs thread. Hopefully DeWalt will be able to repair your saw. But if not, looking at what you have I may have a solution to your dilemma. My shop TS (table saw) is of the vintage variety, a 1964 Boice Crane. When I got it, the “throat plate” (ZCI, zero clearance insert) had been hogged out by the previous owner for a dado setup. I like a ZCI for obvious safety reasons, and on a homemade TS that I built I made several ZCIs so I could change them has I changed the angle setting on the saw. When I got the olderTS with the hogged out ZCI I decided to make myself some plywood ZCIs for the saw. The metal one that came with the old saw is fairly heavy, (must weigh 4-5 lbs) and the weight alone holds it in place. I went ahead and made several plywood ZCIs and drilled each at the drill press to keep the hole locations uniform. I then made my on clips to secure the plywood ZCIs. You can see pictures of them here http://lumberjocks.com/devann/blog/22030

1. To aline the clips I placed the plywood ZCI in place,
2. Marked the approximate hole location on the table top
3. Remove plywood ZCI, Install the clips, Shoot a blast of spray paint to mark clip location should they fall inside TS .
4. Replace pylwood ZCI and carefully drill holes in clips using self tapping drywall screws.

Hope this will give you some ideas if you have to fix it yourself.

-- Darrell, making more sawdust than I know what to do with

Hey Devann, I’ll keep your post in mind if it does come down to me having to fix it myself. Thanks for the info!