Table Saws for the Dummy Woodworker

Look, Larry: two wrenches!

In case you hadn't figured it out, eHow must be the source of some of the most ridiculous, useless and downright idiotic misinformation on the face of the Earth. The site's system is simple: they use software to capture search queries containing the phrases "how do I..." and "what is a..." Freelancers (them again!) categorize those "titles," sometimes hilariously, and then other freelancers "research" the topics and put them in a standardized format. eHow employs "editors" to make certain that the answers fit the format, though said editors aren't necessarily very good at being certain the answers are.... for want of a better word, "right."

A case in point: someone lost his owner's manual or bought a table saw at a garage sale and didn't know how to change blades. S/he googled for the info, eHow captured the query, and Larry Parr "answered" it in "How to Change the Blade on a Craftsman Table Saw."¹ According to Larry's bio, he's a "full-time professional freelance writer." Apparently, he's not a woodworker...

Larry told us to:

1) Unplug your saw. This is an important safety precaution. 

Duh: Perhaps he'd never seen a Craftsman table saw: saws less than about 50 years old all have a removable key in the ON-OFF switch whose removal prevents them from being turned on. But, all right, it's like wearing a belt and suspenders: it never hurts to be overly safe. No points lost for this obvious unfamiliarity with the object of his "expertise."

2) Remove the protective fence that covers the blade. The fence can be removed using your screwdriver

Duh, Larry, that's not a "fence." If it's what we think you were talking about, it's called an "insert." A fence is something different in a table saw. Something entirely different.

4) Lay your screwdriver on the cutting table and then slide it under the teeth of the blade, so the blade is wedged tight and cannot spin.

We'll be darned if we'll jam a screwdriver into the teeth of a carbide blade (which can easily cost $50-$75). That's not to mention that it would have to be a pretty tiny screwdriver to fit between the teeth on your plywood blade. Just in case you didn't know, that's why the arbor (the real name of what you've been calling a "spindle shaft") on a table saw has a section with flat sides, so you can use an open-end wrench to prevent it from turning while you loosen the arbor nut. Hell, the saw came with two wrenches in the first place!  And that's if you don't have a modern saw with a blade lock lever! If you can't find a wrench to fit onto the arbor flats, dumbass, use a scrap of soft wood to prevent the blade from turning, not a steel rod!

5)...Using your 1/2 inch open-ended box wrench...

Dumbass again: a box wrench and an open-end wrench are two different things. Here: maybe this will help. That's not to mention that we're pretty sure the nut is 3/4", not 1/2". Hell, the arbor is probably a half-inch in diameter

So, after someone has puzzled out how removing the rip fence could possibly provide access to the blade (it doesn't) and potentially ruined a perfectly good saw blade by jamming a screwdriver shaft into the throat of a saw tooth, he's done. Here's to Larry Parr, eHow contributor, for confusing everyone and ruining an expensive blade: you're our Dumbass of the Day!

¹ The original was moved to a dead website (Geeks On Home) by Leaf Group and then disappeared, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was    ehow.com/how_4781246_change-blade-craftsman-table-saw.html

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