My friend who has a sawstop PCS said he had to repair his saw. He said a part (capacitor maybe?) failed because he often left the master switch in the on position at the end of the day. In spite of my good intentions, it seems I do this at least half the time.
Is this a problem? In my case no problems have occurred with the saw yet. With my track record should I consider an automatic shut off timer?
Thanks for any insight.
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I had to replace the start capacitor in my PCS and I had the same question. I was informed that leaving the master power on all the time is just fine. I can't remember if it was from tech support or from the manual. I will try to find the documentation so that can be backed up from an official source.
I have left it on occasionally with no appaeent ill effect (yet?). Lately I kill the room lights after sweeping up and look around for colored lights before turning them back on to head upstairs.
Hmmm. Who told him that? I don’t see how that could relate to a capacitor.
I’ve never turned mine off other then changing a blade or cartridge. I’ll have to check the manual on this.
I too have found the master switch glowing when I walk into the shop in the morning, having forgotten to turn it off the day before. No ill effects.
I always turn mine off after every use then turn off the breaker for that circuit when I leave the shop. I'm starting to question the overall benefit of all the electronics to make it safer when I have had so many triggered brakes with no apparent cause. Getting expensive and now I can't use my Sawstop at all because it trips the brake within 60 seconds of turning the saw on before any wood is even on the table. I guess the safest saw is the one that won't run. Haha. I think something has shifted because I have difficulty getting a fresh cartridge mounted and it has become a nightmare to remove a tripped brake and blade. I went through 3 blades and brakes in 2 days and the last one was cutting nothing but air when it tripped in less than 60 seconds. Sawstop's response has been you can send us the spent cartridges and we can read the electronic signature to determine what triggered it, but you pay the shipping. That also was their answer to my inquiry about replacing my 3 cartridges. If it's difficult to even install a new cartridge and requires a pry bar to remove the damaged brake and blade, logic says there is a mechanical issue where something has moved or broken. I find it difficult to understand how an electronic signature can identify the location of the cause. However, I'm not an electronics whiz. I'm just a guy with an expensive nonfunctional saw who is shopping for a more risky, simple, working cabinet saw. I'll get my report on the 3 triggered cartridges and try to fix my Sawstop myself, but I'm going to continue shopping because I'm tired of buying blades and cartridges when I need to be cutting wood.
No doubt something is wrong that you've had this many triggers back to back.
Over the years I've triggered my Sawstop twice and both times it was difficult to remove the blade and cartridge. It makes perfect sense that the force of the impact, and the blade being embedded in a block of aluminum, and the spring inside the cartridge would wedge the cartridge and blade in place.
I am bad about forgetting to turn it off, but I intend to turn it off at the end of the work. My reason is that the system goes through the power up diagnostics when turned on. I want to do that before starting work the next day.
From a safety standpoint and to guard against electrical surges reeking havoc on sophisticated electrical components I turn my SawStop (and other power machines) off and unplug at the end of the day.
However I agree with RobertEJr I don't see how leaving the SawStop master switch on would have any effect on the starter capacitor.
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