broken makita-poor customer service
user-6910596
| Posted in Power Tools and Machinery on
Just opened a new 12′ sliding compound saw. the fence busted up into many pieces from a little kickback on a 2×2. Customer service did not care that the saw was brand new and the fence shattered from a teeny weeny peice of wood.
Replies
I'm having a little trouble visualizing how you got kickback on a scms. Was the workpiece up tight against the fence when you started the cut?
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You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
Jack London
I had a stop block clamped to an extended fence so that i could cut multiple 6" pieces.
How did the kickback occur? Was the workpiece solidly up against the fence?
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You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. Jack London
My guess was that you clamped your stop block 6" away from the blade, butted the wood against the stop holding it on the other side to keep your hands safe, and made the cut. The wood was trapped between the blade and the stop block but there was not enough support behind the wood due to the wide "throat", so it got pulled in by the rotating blade, made a loud bang, and either the vibrating saw blade or the stock broke your fence. I did this once when cutting pen blanks on my CMS. Don't ever ever ever do this! I don't know, but I would speculate that "shattered" is an exaggeration.Chris @ http://www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
That was exactly what happened. The piece of wood was trapped between the stop block and the blade. OK, so shattered is a bit extreme--- but the right subfence split down the middle, the left subfence cracked around the screw that holds it and the little stop on the back is gone too. The workpeice was flat against the fence. I do have the clamp down thingy and that probably would have prevented this catastophe. I do have a table saw with a crosscut sled which i was gonna use but the fence on it was too small to cut the 2X2 ( it would have cut the sled in half). Thanks all for your input, you have helped me to learn and deal from this episode. Did not realize i would get response from the original post, i was just hoping someone from Makita would read this and send me soem free replacement parts. rule # 12
"make it easier on the next guy"
-CommanderGraham
Thanks for coming clean, Email me by clicking on my name at the top of this post and I will see if I can get a rep to give you a break on the parts. No promises, but I will see what I can do.
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You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. Jack London
Graham,
I do have a table saw with a crosscut sled which i was gonna use but the fence on it was too small to cut the 2X2 ( it would have cut the sled in half).
Not trying to belabor the issue but am not understanding your statement above? Curious about your crosscut sled.
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Were you cutting on the pull or push? The problem may be technique.
Explane your cutting proceedure. It will help with the kick back answer.
Ford Motor doesn't care if you wreck your truck by driving into a brick wall. But they do care if the engine electronics fail due to bad components.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Edited 7/31/2008 8:48 pm ET by BruceS
A 2x2 isn't "teeny weeny" when it's rocketing away from a spinning saw blade. You're lucky you didn't injure your self.
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A 2x2 isn't "teeny weeny" when it's rocketing away from a spinning saw blade. You're lucky you didn't injure your self."
Amen to that! The worst near injury I had was from ripping a 2x4 and it pinched and threw it back caught on a lip of the saw hit me broadside dang near broke a rib. If it had comeback strait it would have impailed me! The part that pi**ed me off the most was I knew better and was working tired. In the 20 years since, I've not had another episode similiar, but your right a 2x2 is not teenie. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
I'd love to know if most/every one of us has had a kickback with a miter saw. It really gets your attention, doesn't it?! Mine was truly a tiny piece of wood, probably 1 cu. in. at best, but oddly shaped. Cracked the guard on my old Delta saw. I've been verrrrry careful since then.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Dear FG.,I get a kick back or a piece launched, at least once a year and it is an exciting event. The bulk of the time it is a small cut off that falls back into the blade and takes off like a foul ball. We have even taken to announcing that "There's one for the crowd!". Now I work with these things daily so the opportunity is greater for me, and let's face it, I'm not exactly Mr. Safety. That being said, the technique described by the poster is a recipe for disaster as was found out. I have taken pieces of my saw out with much smaller chunks and I can totally believe that shattering a fence is a possibility, although I have never seen it done. What's really exciting is having a piece of red oak flooring explode in the miter-saw, THAT"S good for one's prayer life, or how about having a piece get bound and lifted up into the guard such as a rip? Oh, you don't rip with your miter saw? What a bland life some folks must lead........One last parting shot. Don't set up your miter saw in front of a window.Best,John
"Customer service did not care that the saw was brand new and the fence shattered from a teeny weeny peice of wood. "
Whose customer service are you referring to? Makita? Retail store? Online store?
makita
OK. Could you expand a bit more on what Makita CS told you?
makita said that there warranty does not cover abuse. and that the kickback was the result of abuse. Agreed that was unsafe cutting technique and wont do it again. I thought that the fence should be able to withstand the force of a 6 inch 2x2 no matter how fast it was traveling.
It would have, had the 2X2 been tight against the fence when you made the cut.
I agree with Makita's assesment in this case.
Talk to the store where you bought it, explain that you made a mistake and ask them if they can give you a break on the replacement part. Not every store has a relationship with their rep that will allow them to do this so don't think badly of them if they say no.
You got away easy for that kind of mistake, it could have been much more expensive.
Glad you did'nt get hurt!
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You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. Jack London
Would you agree, Don, that if possible you want the stock needs to be against both sides of the fence, i.e., doesn't end in that black hole between the two halves. If I have to cut off just an inch or so, and the stock sets up with the end in that open area, then I make the cut but keep the saw blade down until it stops spinning, then lift it up.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
That would certainly be best and letting the blade come to a stop has the added benefit of a cleaner cut too. Another good method for small pieces is to use an auxilliary table and fence which in effect becomes a zero clearance insert and supports the work across its entire width.
A piece getting kicked by the blade through the black hole is scary enough but it seems that to shatter a fence the work could not have been against the fence.
I'm a big believer in hold downs on small work too and was meaning to ask if your new saw came with Makitas excellent clamps.
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You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. Jack London
Don,
It almost seems to me like the wrong tool was used for the job at hand.
I'm envisioning a TS with a zero clearance insert, a registration block against the fence to set the length away from the blade and using a crosscut sled or mitre bar to push the piece through the blade.
No pinching of the workpiece, no black hole and much less chance of kickback.
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
That would be another good option, but if he has no table saw it can still be done safely on the SCMS with an aux. table and fence.
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You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. Jack London
"I'm a big believer in hold downs on small work too and was meaning to ask if your new saw came with Makitas excellent clamps." It has one of those excellent clamps. I've gotten in the habit of using the clamp on the Bosch 12" pretty consitently, especially when the accuracy of the cut is important.
A few years ago, I had this bizarre project where I was making miniature frames for an artist, out of 1/4" quarter-round. One of the methods I tested (before settling on a bandsaw jig) for cutting hundreds of these darned things was nesting the quarter-round in a channel routed into the edge of a 2x4, up against a moveable stop. Basic idea was sound, but it was just too clumsy and slow to work.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
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