Blade coming loose

[mitramom]

In the past couple of days, I have been having a real problems with the bottom blade holder letting go of my blade...and honestly, it's really starting to drive me crazy! I have a DeWalt 788 type 1 and I love it, we are just having a small disagreement of late! Any suggestions?

[behindblueeyes006]

I was having that problem before, I think on some of the blades there is an oily residue so when I use a new blade I just sand the sides of the blade and I haven't had any problems with it slipping out since

[mitramom]

Thanks, I will give that a try

[JackM]

Along with removing the oil residue, you may need to remove the bottom thumb screw and rough up the metal tip with sandpaper. It's a common "problem" with the DeWalt but worth the effort every now and then. Hope this helps you.
Jack

[mitramom]

thanks Jack

[sawdustus]

I have the same problem with my Hawk. When I open a new package of blades, I wet a small piece of cloth with mineral spirits and wipe each end of each blade with it several times. You would be amazed at how much manufacturing oil comes off. I find this easier to do, as well as working better, than sanding the ends, especially on the very fine blades.

george

[B Smith]

I use a piece of emery cloth folded over pinched on and rub until the ends of the blades until the black is about gone. Works for me. Never had to sand the ends of the blade holders.

[mitramom]

Do you think that the type of wood I am cutting could have anything to do with it as well? It has only been happening during the work on the piece I just finished, and I was using hickory for it. I was wondering if maybe because it is such a hard wood, the blade gets too much pull on it??

[Richard Grover]

Another more serious problem of the same sort. I had the same trouble with my Dewalt and I tried all of the suggestions mentioned above but nothing seemed to work. After much experimentation/frustration I found that the threads in the blade holder clamp assembly were stripped. I gave them to a machinist friend of mine who drilled them out and put in steel heali-coils (sp?) no problem since. I talked with another scroller and he had the same problem, but his solution was to just order new blade holder assemblys from Dewalt. The problem is that the blade holder is made of light grade aluminum and can not take the constant pressure of tightening threads. Dewalt is aware of this problem, but they said that at this point it would cost too much to fix the problem. Truely, this is my only complaint about an otherwise great saw.

Hope you get your saw up and running again soon. I know how much we all love to cut.
DG Dewalt 788

[B Smith]

Have had my saw now for 12 years and itis worn out. Cut a ton of stuff with it with no problems other than the holders.I also stripped out the thumb screw a number of times. Original ones lasted for a number of years.When I had to replace them the quality of the replacement ones I got was terrible.Thumb screw was very loose in the holder and stripped out after very little use.More offshore junk with premium prices.Had one of the stripped ones reworked with metal insert also but was not done proper and bent the ends of the blades when tightened in.