On Sun, 03 Jul 2005 21:36:09 GMT, The Critic
wrote:

I have a NEW general international table saw, and I'm finding it exceeding
difficult to change the blade.

My arbor (not a General) has a large round collar with small round holes
drilled into it radially. Although you could lot these with a straight
rod as a tommy bar, it's very awkward (and chews up the holes). Much
better was to forge a well-fitting C spanner, which locks more easily
and doesn't wobble.

I will echo Andy's comments. After years (yes it has been that long I
have to admit sheepishly) of struggling with not being able to remove
the blade, I finally got a spanner wrench that spans the round collar
and is able to keep it from moving while I use the long handle nut
wrench to loosen the nut. You can buy the right spanner wrench from
McMasterCarr after measuring the diameter carefully and buying the next
bigger available size, in case you size does not exactly match. Here
is a link to the McMaster page
http://www.mcmaster.com/nav/enter.as...3&pagenum=2589
I got the A style wrench. The best $ 13.69 investment I made for my
saw. Solved the years of misery. Highly recommended.

I have used a number of table saws from cabinet saws used in a commercial
shop to benchtop saw used on jobsites and I have never had a problem
removing the blade with anything more than a block of wood and a wrench.
Only exception was a benchtop that had flats for two wrenches that someone
decided they had to lean on it. Don't understand these stuck blades.

"Vijay" wrote in message
ups.com...
I will echo Andy's comments. After years (yes it has been that long I
have to admit sheepishly) of struggling with not being able to remove
the blade, I finally got a spanner wrench that spans the round collar
and is able to keep it from moving while I use the long handle nut
wrench to loosen the nut. You can buy the right spanner wrench from
McMasterCarr after measuring the diameter carefully and buying the next
bigger available size, in case you size does not exactly match. Here
is a link to the McMaster page
http://www.mcmaster.com/nav/enter.as...3&pagenum=2589
I got the A style wrench. The best $ 13.69 investment I made for my
saw. Solved the years of misery. Highly recommended.

I too have used a number of table saws both commercial and otherwise.

Except for this one I too have never run into troubles with removing
the nut.

But once in a while you will run across a hard nut to crack (sorry
about the pun)--this was the one for me! I tried jamming a piece of
lumber on the teeth, the teeth were too fine and started cutting the
wood. I tried putting a steel rod through the gullet and supporting
the steel rod on the saw table surface and tried removing the nut--it
bent the steel rod! And all the while the nut and arbor was drenched
in WD 40, Liquid wrench you name it.

Finally the only solution that worked was to use the aforementioned
spanner that I got from Mcmaster Carr and was able to prevent the
collar from turning. So CW count yourself lucky that you never run
across such a jammed nut!

Vijay wrote:
....
... count yourself lucky that you never run across such a jammed nut!

Only time I've ever seen such a case was a student thought to save some
effort and ran the nut only finger-tight then turned the saw on to let
it self-tighten--did a wonderful job of it...

(Took two days to get it, but finally the culprit 'fessed up...)