Removing arbor washer

Do not run your saw without the washer!

-- Rick Gustafson - Lost Creek Ranch - Colorado County, Texas

Look in your instruction manual, most likely it says remove the washer that is placed before the nut. You cannot run a dado stack with the arbor washer because as you said the nut does not go on the arbor fully. It is common practice in industry as well as at home to run a stack without the washer.

-- A hammer dangling from a wall will bang and sound like work when the wind blows the right way.

Some guys don’t have a problem with running a stacked dado without the washer. Check the manual for your saw and see what the manufacturer says.

-- Gerry -- "I don't plan to ever really grow up ... I'm just going to learn how to act in public!"

There is a part that talks about installing a dado and it says:
remove the inner blade washer and both the small and large spacers.

and another part that says:
the outer blade washer MAY be used provided the arbor shaft extends slightly beyond the arbor nut.

It does say when changing back to reinstall the outer blade washer, failure to do so can result in injury and damage. Never mentions any of the rest of the spacers and inner blade washer again.

All I need to remove would be the out blade washer. The saw is a Ridgid 3650 if anyone is interested in that.

I remove the outer washer almost daily but I wouldnt touch any of the inner items.

-- A hammer dangling from a wall will bang and sound like work when the wind blows the right way.

All saws I have ever owned you remove the washer. I do have a small plastic washer I use with my dado blade made to prevent from chewing up the dado blade.

-- http://artisticwoodstudio.com Custom furniture

On my Unisaw I remove the washer when cutting 3/4” dadoes, but use it for smaller ones.

-- Gerry, http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/index.html http://www.jointcam.com

Just remove the outer washer as stated. The arbor threads are counter clockwise so there is no danger of it coming loose.

-- Julian, Park Forest, IL

No problem removing the washer. Just count on it falling in the sawdust when you do causing a 15 minute delay while you dig for it :)

-- "The way to make a small fortune in woodworking- start with a large one"