Joab
I'll think of something.
HomeDepot Canada had a good online price on the EA7300P and so I ordered one. It arrived promptly and for the most part I'm incredibly pleased with it -- starts quickly and loads of torque.
One thing I noticed that I disliked fairly quickly after unboxing was that if you roll the saw on it's side with any force -- like you do when you're rolling the saw over to do a felling cut -- you can feel the AV bottoming out metal on metal. It took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on, but it's the AV spring limiter on the handle bottoming out on the cylinder. It doesn´t really do it when you've running it on it's side (like you would when you're felling), but for an instant when you roll it over it from upright to it's side, it can bottom out.
This is probably a benign problem -- the cylinder fins will get scored a bit until they wear enough at that spot and then the issue will fix itself, but I still cringe at the feeling of metal on metal. So I researched in the forums what others had to say about this and I saw that some others have reported noticing the same thing. As suggested by one commentor, I took the limiter off and filed it back a bit. I took only a millimeter or two off because I didn't want to render it useless for it's intended purpose which, I think, is keeping your AV and intake boot in one piece if you get you saw pinched and get too enthusiastic trying to pull it out. The filing helped, but really it only made it happen less often -- it didn´t eliminate the issue.
I wasn´t satisfied with my fix yet, so I took the AV spring off the cylinder to see how it fits together, and while doing this it occurred to me that you might be able to stick a rubber washer inside the AV spring to act like a rubber suspension stop. (Like you have on a pickup truck to keep the axle from bottoming out hard on the frame.) I checked the clearances and found a flat facet washer that fit inside, and put it back together. And that solved the issue altogether -- the limiter is still there to do it's job, and there's enough clearance that the AV spring still had room to move, but it bottoms out on the rubber washer and not on the cylinder if you roll the saw over too hard.
In particular, a 1/4L flat faucet washer (19/32" OD, 1/8" thick) seems to be a good fit -- fits the available space tight enough to not re-orient itself and get jammed, but loose enough to not inhibit the regular movement of the spring. (1/4R works almost as well, 1/4S is acceptable. I guess they call these things ´flat bibb´ washers in some circles. )
I don´t know if all saws in the series have the same issue or just some, but I thought I´d pass along the tip. This is a really easy DIY fix -- you need a T27 torx bit and the washer and 5 minutes. ( Because of the order I did this in, I don´t know for certain that you don´t also need to file the edge of the spring limiter a bit too.)
I didn´t get any pictures of the process, but here are a few so you can see what I'm talking about -- One shows the bit of scoring of the cylinder fins from the metal-on-metal contact, one shows the kind of washer I used, and if you look closely at the third you can see the rubber washer inside the AV spring.
One thing I noticed that I disliked fairly quickly after unboxing was that if you roll the saw on it's side with any force -- like you do when you're rolling the saw over to do a felling cut -- you can feel the AV bottoming out metal on metal. It took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on, but it's the AV spring limiter on the handle bottoming out on the cylinder. It doesn´t really do it when you've running it on it's side (like you would when you're felling), but for an instant when you roll it over it from upright to it's side, it can bottom out.
This is probably a benign problem -- the cylinder fins will get scored a bit until they wear enough at that spot and then the issue will fix itself, but I still cringe at the feeling of metal on metal. So I researched in the forums what others had to say about this and I saw that some others have reported noticing the same thing. As suggested by one commentor, I took the limiter off and filed it back a bit. I took only a millimeter or two off because I didn't want to render it useless for it's intended purpose which, I think, is keeping your AV and intake boot in one piece if you get you saw pinched and get too enthusiastic trying to pull it out. The filing helped, but really it only made it happen less often -- it didn´t eliminate the issue.
I wasn´t satisfied with my fix yet, so I took the AV spring off the cylinder to see how it fits together, and while doing this it occurred to me that you might be able to stick a rubber washer inside the AV spring to act like a rubber suspension stop. (Like you have on a pickup truck to keep the axle from bottoming out hard on the frame.) I checked the clearances and found a flat facet washer that fit inside, and put it back together. And that solved the issue altogether -- the limiter is still there to do it's job, and there's enough clearance that the AV spring still had room to move, but it bottoms out on the rubber washer and not on the cylinder if you roll the saw over too hard.
In particular, a 1/4L flat faucet washer (19/32" OD, 1/8" thick) seems to be a good fit -- fits the available space tight enough to not re-orient itself and get jammed, but loose enough to not inhibit the regular movement of the spring. (1/4R works almost as well, 1/4S is acceptable. I guess they call these things ´flat bibb´ washers in some circles. )
I don´t know if all saws in the series have the same issue or just some, but I thought I´d pass along the tip. This is a really easy DIY fix -- you need a T27 torx bit and the washer and 5 minutes. ( Because of the order I did this in, I don´t know for certain that you don´t also need to file the edge of the spring limiter a bit too.)
I didn´t get any pictures of the process, but here are a few so you can see what I'm talking about -- One shows the bit of scoring of the cylinder fins from the metal-on-metal contact, one shows the kind of washer I used, and if you look closely at the third you can see the rubber washer inside the AV spring.
