SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Electrical shock / short

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20140301-9A161-2147446794. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Ryobi BTS21 (10" Table Saw, portable with integral wheeled stand.). Incident: A few years ago, I purchased a Ryobi 10 in. Table Saw, Model BTS21, SN X085002221, from Home Depot, the sole distributor of Ryobi products. As you know, Ryobi is one of the brand names of One World Technologies, Inc., Anderson, SC. This same company has an outstanding recall for what is apparently a similar problem for a similar table saw marketed under the "Ridgid" brand name. The saw has been used only occasionally and intermittently for perhaps a total operation time of less than 25 hours. During the last two uses of a few minutes each, the saw was making a loud grinding noise and it was apparent that the blade was wobbling, as the kerf was over 1/4" wide, rather than the expected 1/8". I installed a new blade, thinking the old blade might be warped, but the new blade made no difference. I checked Home Depot's customer reviews and found a number of complaints about the gears stripping, requiring replacement of core motor components. The primary gear is machined into the end of the motor shaft; the secondary gear is supported by a die-cast aluminum or zinc housing, which also supports a surprisingly very short arbor assembly. If the gears should seize at full 5000 rpm because of damage and internal fragmenting, the arbor assembly holding the 10" blade could explode out of the machine causing severe injury or death to the operator. I contacted both Home Depot and Ryobi-One World Technologies about the problem but was greeted with total unconcern. Home Depot, despite being the sole distributor of Ryobi products, said to contact Ryobi. Ryobi said that the machine is past the