Some time back I purchased a Bosch GTS 10 XC 10″ table saw
with Bosch GTA60W folding table
from Ebay for the bargain price of £240.00.
The table saw alone sells for around £550.00 new and the folding stand for around £185.00, so this was an absolute bargain, and the seller even delivered it to me for free.
The UK/European Bosch GTS 10 XC is basically the same saw as the American Bosch 4100, but for a few very minor differences:
The UK blades are 254mm (10″) and have a 30mm hole, whereas the US blades have a 5/8″ hole.
The UK arbor is actually 5/8″ diameter, however the 30mm shoulder on the inner arbour washer is only 1mm wide.
All this means that thanks to the UK/European ‘Nanny State’ rulings, you cannot purchase a dado stack, and even if you could, you cannot fit one to your saw.
User jolly1 on routerforums.com studied the spare parts pictures for both the UK and US saw models and realised that by changing a couple of parts you could have the best of both worlds.
The parts required are as follows, links are for ereplacementparts.com:
- Shaft Part Number: 2610950043 $14.90
- Washer (Outer) Part Number: 2610950045 $7.92
- Washer (Inner)Part Number: 2610950046 $5.96
- Nut Part Number: 2610950047 $3.99
- C-Clip Part Number: 2610997281 $3.99
- C-Clip Part Number 2610997282 $3.99
You may be able to avoid purchasing the two C clips and reuse the ones on the existing arbour.
Shipping to a US address was $8.61 and the parts were purchased on a recent holiday to the USA, although I believe they will also ship to the UK.
In order to change the arbour, you first need to remove the blade, then open the saw from below and remove the blade cover, this will give access to the blade lock which is the next item to be removed.
It is up to you if you want to remove the riving knife assembly, I did and it means that you are carrying less mass around once the arbour and gearing is freed.
Next remove the bearing retainer
Finally remove the 4 screws holding the gear cover in place
The above pictures are actually from re-assembly of my saw, you may notice that one of the screws is silver, this is because some previous owner had rounded off one of the screw heads and I had to drill this head off and replace the screw.
Additionally the boss that should stick out of the gear cover to retain the spring from the blade lock mechanism had also previously sheared off, although it remained on the screw, so did not cause an issue.
There are a couple of circlips holding various parts in place, so you cannot simply pull off the gear, you must remove the top bearing first, remove the top circlip, then pull off the gear, remove the second circlip then remove the final bearing.
Removing the gear is the hardest part as there is not a very large gap in which to fit the feet of a bearing puller.
Here are all of the parts once disassembled including the new arbour next to the old one.
Re-assembly was much easier, first press on the large bearing and attach the larger of the two circlips to hold it in place.
Next place the key from the old arbour into the slot on the new arbour, push the bearing through the gear retainer and press on the gear, retaining it in place with the smaller circlip.
Finally press on the smaller bearing.
You can now re-assemble the saw following the steps above in the reverse order.
Before you go too far, ensure that the new arbour spins freely once re-engaged with the motor.
I had some issues with teeth binding because when I was attempting to remove the gear with my bearing puller, it damaged the edge of some of the teeth.
I took the gear retainer back off again and used a needle file to repair the teeth on the gear before assembling once again and proving to myself that it now turned freely.
You can now choose to make use of blades with 5/8″ (with the new washers) or 30mm (with the original washers) holes. You will however need to make use of the new nut to secure the blades.
If you removed the riving knife assembly, this will need to be adjusted so that it lines up with the blades once again.
If you do decide to make use of a dado stack in your saw, the largest diameter you can use is 8″ such that the blade break mechanism is still able to stop it in a sensible amount of time.
I bought an as new Freud 8″ SD508 Super Dado Blade set whilst on the same holiday as new on Ebay for $100.00, this normally retails for around $200.00.