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Post by mikkomononen on Sept 26, 2018 4:22:00 GMT -5
My brand new Erika 70 came with out of whack riving knife. It's 0.25mm to the right of the blade when the riving knife is down, and 1mm (!!!) off when the riving knife is in up position. In lower position the knife often pushes the workpiece enough to the side that I get saw marks, and in high position the workpiece just will not get past the knife. Here's link to image showing the situation when the riving knife is up. www.dropbox.com/s/tx2avgflvnsajut/IMG_1399.JPG?dl=0I have talked to Mafell (on phone, over email) and they said that the riving knife is stamped steel and may not be 100% accurate, and I should just bend the knife to make it straight. I have not been successful bending the knife (not enough leverage, it bounces back), and it looks straight as far as I can see and check. I even sent the saw back to the seller too, and they said that in their tests it did not cause any problems. Go figure. I'm pretty damn fed up with the situation. Does anyone know how to adjust the knife? There are two screws which allow me to move the knife's distance to the blade, but nothing to align with the blade. I'd be super happy on any help to open the red under table the blade cover so that I could peek inside too.
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Post by erik on Sept 26, 2018 20:22:19 GMT -5
Hey, I had a similar issue when my 70 showed up and as suggested, it was a quick fix. Clamped onto the knife at its tallest position and bent it into place.
Are you comfortable working with metal? If the above does not work, you could take the knife off the saw and heat the metal to make it more pliable.
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Post by holmz on Sept 26, 2018 20:34:51 GMT -5
My 85 was the same...
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Post by mikkomononen on Sept 26, 2018 22:27:01 GMT -5
Hey, I had a similar issue when my 70 showed up and as suggested, it was a quick fix. Clamped onto the knife at its tallest position and bent it into place. Are you comfortable working with metal? If the above does not work, you could take the knife off the saw and heat the metal to make it more pliable. Good to know that bending can fix it. Did you bend the knife in place, or did you remove it? How do you remove the knife? Mine dies not come off all the way when I loosen the two adjustment bolts, and it looked like there were nuts on the other side in hard to reach position.
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Post by holmz on Sept 26, 2018 22:32:17 GMT -5
Or you raise it up and then put a block of wood behind it very close and whack it with a rubber mallet down low and keep checking to see if the thing has moved to where you want it. ... Most likely by gradually moving the limiting block to the right a bit at a time after every couple of whack-n-check cycles... Or if it is bent the other way from mine, then the whack'in and limiting-block ends up changing sides. A clamp may also a way to do it, and encourage it to bend over a bit with a clamp and the check-clamp-check cycles.
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Post by Knight Woodworks on Sept 27, 2018 6:52:32 GMT -5
Mine arrived bent as well, I adjusted it with vise grips. It comes out of adjustment from time to time.
No advise about taking the assembly apart. There is a diagram in the owners manual.
John
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Post by mikkomononen on Sept 27, 2018 12:46:02 GMT -5
Weird that such a simple part is such a common problem in such an expensive machine.
I noticed that actually the 1mm deflection came from the blade guard hose. I twisted a little when I installed it to make it go around the table and apparently the riving knife is more bendy when in up position. Argh! Explains why the seller was not able to repro this problem.
I'll try the clamp method to adjust the small deflection on the riving knife. Thanks for all the replies!
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Post by jonathan on Sept 27, 2018 13:17:17 GMT -5
the riving knife is also my main complaint about the Erika. I have an 85 and mine is also out of alignment. I have taken the blade shroud and dust channel apart to get a good look at everything inside there. You can find some pictures in this thread at the bottom of this page: mafell-users-forum.freeforums.net/thread/548/erika-85-ec-dust-collection?page=6The riving knife is held in place with a flimsy stamped metal piece. I have no idea why Mafell thought this is a good solution... I would want such an integral part of the saw to be rock solid. It has caused for some dangerous situations with the wood getting stuck on the riving knife and almost causing kickbacks. It's unacceptable to be honest.
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Post by mikkomononen on Sept 27, 2018 14:34:52 GMT -5
the riving knife is also my main complaint about the Erika. I have an 85 and mine is also out of alignment. I have taken the blade shroud and dust channel apart to get a good look at everything inside there. You can find some pictures in this thread at the bottom of this page: mafell-users-forum.freeforums.net/thread/548/erika-85-ec-dust-collection?page=6The riving knife is held in place with a flimsy stamped metal piece. I have no idea why Mafell thought this is a good solution... I would want such an integral part of the saw to be rock solid. It has caused for some dangerous situations with the wood getting stuck on the riving knife and almost causing kickbacks. It's unacceptable to be honest. Thanks for the pictures, those explains a lot! So it's not only the knife that can be out of whack, but also the arm. I tried opening the red cover earlier but failed. Looks like you need to take apart some of the duct too. I have to take a look what kind of project that is. Any tips or don't-dos?
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Post by erik on Sept 27, 2018 21:38:57 GMT -5
Hey, I had a similar issue when my 70 showed up and as suggested, it was a quick fix. Clamped onto the knife at its tallest position and bent it into place. Are you comfortable working with metal? If the above does not work, you could take the knife off the saw and heat the metal to make it more pliable. Good to know that bending can fix it. Did you bend the knife in place, or did you remove it? How do you remove the knife? Mine dies not come off all the way when I loosen the two adjustment bolts, and it looked like there were nuts on the other side in hard to reach position. Fortunately, I did not have to remove the kinife, and it helped to have a point of reference to adjust to with the blade in place. I would try my best to adjust in place. I was dumbfounded when I found the knife out of line...I heard these saws where practically made to order.` That said, it’s a great saw once calibrated, truly.
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Post by jonathan on Sept 27, 2018 21:42:49 GMT -5
I think if the stamped metal sheet would be solid piece of say for example milled aluminium it would be a lot stronger and have less flex or maybe no flex at all to it, resulting in a more sturdy riving knife assembly.
Unfortunately I don't own a CNC machine to test the theory.
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Post by jonathan on Sept 27, 2018 21:46:43 GMT -5
As for dissasembly, if my memory serves me well, 1) you have to start by taking off the rear dust port. This allows you to remove the dust channel and fees up the blade shroud cover. 2) disconnect the flexible dust channel cover from the blade shroud cover. 3) take off the blade dust shroud cover 4) to take off the arbor you need a special spreader clamp to take off the tensioning ring that holds it in place. I don't know the english word for it.
all in all, before you embark on dissassembly, it can get a bit fiddly to get it back together. Good luck!
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Post by aas on Sept 28, 2018 1:12:37 GMT -5
4) to take off the arbor you need a special spreader clamp to take off the tensioning ring that holds it in place. I don't know the english word for it. 'Circlip' I think...
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Post by holmz on Sept 28, 2018 4:38:36 GMT -5
I think if the stamped metal sheet would be solid piece of say for example milled aluminium it would be a lot stronger and have less flex or maybe no flex at all to it, resulting in a more sturdy riving knife assembly. Unfortunately I don't own a CNC machine to test the theory. Not really... the "modulus of elasticity" is the technical term for stiffness. All steals have about the same modulus (from the lowly 1010 to MP35)... and aluminium is less stiff, as is I think magnesium. For alloy and magnesium the parts are stiffer because they are thicker an stiffness goes an widthˆ3 (I think)... But the width of the kerf defines the max width of the riving knife. So just grab a hammer, or the vice grips, and then do like I do and put the saving from the CNC into a bottle of scotch... or a donate to the local homeless shelter... and then call it a day.
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Post by aas on Sept 28, 2018 4:59:34 GMT -5
I think Jonathan is talking about the stamped piece that holds the riving knife down below...
I too have issues with the riving knife, I've bent it to be straight when the blade is up, but as the blade descends, i.e. for a non-through cut at 10mm, the riving knife is a couple of mm out. Not sure what causes it to move as the blade goes down.
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