Table Saw "Blade Raising Mechanism" Jamed

Take a propane torch to it. Guard areas around it from the heat if
necessary. You can just heat the threaded rod and it will expand
and stretch the nut a little. In any case, it burns off gummed
up lubricants in there and makes a little room.

There are other methods, of course, but when sprays aren’t doing
the job and the parts are too fragile to bang with a hammer,
heat can work.

Carl, some saws have a manual locking mechanism to keep the blade from moving due to vibration. Don’t know about your saw, but mine has one for the tilt position. I hope this is helpful, as I may be totally misreading your post and could be off on another planet. :-)

-- Randy, Tupelo, MS ~ A man who honors his wife will have children who honor their father.

Loren and Randy Sharp,

From your recommendations it’s ovious that I have not explained my problem clearly enough for you to understand what I am talking about. There is a shaft approximately 5/8 inch in diameter that the blade arbor housing/casting rotates around as the blade is raised or lowered. The referenced housing is jamed on the 5/8 inch shaft and won’t alow the blade to move up or down. The same housing/casting has the “rack” machined in it for the blade raising worm to ride in to raise or lower the blade. I’m sure the problem is due to lack of lubrication and is probably due to a buildup of rust/corrosion. I have tried heat from a propane torch and an acetylene torch to no avail. I guess I’ll have to try to get it hotter. It’s a fair sized casting and hard to get heated up.
Thanks for your suggestions.

-- Carl in SC

Don’t heat it. That risks destroying heat treated components.

I think PB blaster is just teflon. Try Sea Foam Deep Creep. Best penetrant I’ve tried yet save for plant extract wintergreen oil you can get at a pharmacy (not the synthetic stuff).

It’s jammed and won’t go in either direction? It might not be jammed at the threaded shaft but in the trunnion.
Look for a piece of wood lodged in the way or something like that. I recall my 30 year old Crapsman contractor saw would get a chunk of wood stuck in it once in a while.

What you haven’t said is whether this is a saw that was in storage or regular use.
When was the last time it moved freely? If it was recent then it ain’t rust or goo from built up varnished out lubricants. So it’d be a mechanical blockage and probably something stupid like a bit of wood lodged in somewhere

Also there are limit collars on the threaded shafts. They adjust with a set screw. Are they in the proper positions?

-- When the moderator chooses sides, his site sucks.

The saw is in use practically every day and the blade is lowered every night and raised the next day. Thanks for your input. The saw is jamed in the trunion which is held to the fixed casting by 2 washers and a “c” clip.

-- Carl in SC

I may be time to do some disassembly.
I’m quite certain that there is something jammed. Other possibilities include cracked castings (sometimes they just break sitting there), a snapped bolt, a C Clip slipped out of place and jammed, a nut that fell away and is jammed somewhere.

-- When the moderator chooses sides, his site sucks.

Have you tried the time honored tradition of hitting it with a hammer? I’m not joking.

PB Blaster is useless. Kroil will work if that’s the problem.

-- It must be jelly baby, cause jam don't shake like that...

The saw is dissemblied except for removing the trunion from the casting it is “jamed” on. This is the problem. In addition to being jamed I cannot remove it to “clean” the shaft it is jamed onto. And yes I have tried the time honored tradition of hitting it with a hammer. I guess the next approach is to try to use some type of gear puller to pull it off.

-- Carl in SC

I wouldn’t hit cast iron. It’s got a lousy modulus of elasticity.
If it’s not coming off then I bet you haven’t discovered all the fasteners.
That’s my habitual problem that one or two last fasteners I missed. I can put in a lot of tugging and yanking before I bite the bullet and start looking for more bolts

-- When the moderator chooses sides, his site sucks.

No more fasteners. It is held on by a washer and “c” snap clip which have been removed. Thanks for sticking with me guys!! By the way is Kroil available anywhere other than ordering on the Internet?

-- Carl in SC

Is there any adjustment on the rack and pinion mechanism for the rise and fall? My saw has jammed on a couple of occasions, the culprit has always been the gears managing somehow to get too tight into each other.

-- Do or do not, there is no try

The pinion shaft has been removed as the saw was disassembled. The casting which the blade arbor is mounted on is “frozen” and will only rotate when hit with a dead blow hammer.

-- Carl in SC

Kroil should be available in auto parts type stores.
It’s made in Nashville, so maybe we think it’s more available than it really is here in Tennessee.

-- Michael :-{| Diapers and politicians both need to be changed often; and for the same reason.

crank49, thanks for the tip on Kroil. I had called one of the local auto parts stores and they did not stock it.

-- Carl in SC

he pinion shaft has been removed as the saw was disassembled. The casting which the blade arbor is mounted on is “frozen” and will only rotate when hit with a dead blow hammer.

It’s out of the saw and on a bench and it’s still jammed?
Can you take a couple of pix of this please?
I’d like eyes on.

-- When the moderator chooses sides, his site sucks.