In this weeks inaugural What We’re Working On post, I touched on how we changed our table saw blade. I wanted to come back and give you a quick how to if you are looking to change yours as well.
How to Change a Table Saw Blade
Unplug your saw & remove the key (table saws like other stationary shop equipment come with a safety key, usually bright colored) put the key in your toolbox on the other side of the room. Seriously. You can never be too safe when dealing with table saws.
Remove your saws guard & riving knife (ours undoes with a knob/screw, but you may need wrenches or allen keys dependent on your saw.) After you have removed the guard & knife, remove the throat plate (the metal plate around the blade).
Raise your blade height to the max. You will now be able to see a big nut holding your saw blade in place. Use the large flat wrench that came with your saw to slightly loosen the blade.
If your saw didn’t come with a wrench, or you lost it, or when you unpacked your saw you were like “What is this part? Oh I’m sure its nothing important, I’ll throw it out.” Don’t worry, you can use a regular wrench. Loosening the bolt may take some muscles, and you can use a spare piece of metal laid on the saw deck to stop the blade from turning while you loosen the nut. Once the nut is just slightly loose, stop wrenching and tilt the blade as far as it can go to the left. Now you will have easier access to undo the bolt & locking washer with your hands. Remove bolt & washer and make sure you don’t drop them into the saw.
Your saw blade will now easily slide off.
Place new saw blade on, making sure you have the blade going the correct direction. Saw blade manufacturers make this really easy, as they place a rotation arrow printed right on the blade. Just make sure that arrow is spinning towards the front of the saw.
Replace the washer, hand tighten the nut, and tighten with your special wrench.
Replace the throat plate.
Straighten your blade back to 90 degrees. Reinstall riving knife & guard. Remember where you hid your key, and start cutting!
Now we really need a new miter saw blade… And the planer knives could be changed… Oh and the bench sander could use a new disk. Darn, does the list ever end?
this is truly a great tutorial, I was really newcomers. I needed those articles like this. thank you, you are wonderful.