TS3650 assembly review

[imported_gan]

Hello all,

Just bought the saw. Couple of things noticed,

The threads of nuts/bolts are SAE but they need metric wrenches. The manual refers to 1/2" wrench when 12mm is needed. (have not seen this before)

I used locktite on most fasteners because of vibration. Assembly book doesn't point this out.

The blade adjustment wheels seem sloppy. Not sure about this saw...

My Ridgid cordless tools have been supurb!

BTW, Home Depot will accept Lowes 10% off cards.

[imported_coldnature]

The instructions are vague in parts and could certainly use a re-write.

I assume that the four bolts that attach the Herculift system to the legs are supposed to be left loose? It indicates to leave them loose during assembly of the system, but then tells you to tighten all bolts on the upper assembly, then the lower assembly. It doesn't look like the system will work properly if you do tightnen them. I left them loose and it works fine...

[Rafael]

I just finished assembling the ridgid bandsaw. The nuts and bolts in this setup are for the most part the screwiest things I've seen. Some of them are in between 15/32 and 12mm, neither wrench nor socket are a good fit. The threads do appear to be SAE, some nuts are metric, some are SAE, and some are neither. I did not have this problem with the TS3612.
To me, the simplest design feature should be consistency, all the items should be either SAE or metric.

[imported_coldnature]

Being a bit of a perfectionist, I plan this winter to disassemble the saw again and replace the crazy bolts with proper ones and apply loctite to the threads.