Crafteman 10″ TS tuning problem

TexBill | Posted in Power Tools and Machinery on May 29, 2006 03:34am

Bought a 10″ Craftsman TS, (cast iron table), last year and can’t get the blade/arbor completely square with the table slots. Appears that the arbor carriage bolt holes were placed just far enough out of spec that even with all of them loosened the adjustment range stops just short enough of “square” with the table slots so that I can’t completely eliminate tail drag on the blade’s runout. The saw is otherwise completely satisfactory, but this is an irritating issue that Sears seems uninterested in resolving. Any suggestions…?

Replies

AB | May 29, 2006 04:03pm | #1
I've got a very old craftsman, early fifties table saw. So I hope to help, though I'am not sure of the differences in design. My first attempt at alignment failed. I then tried loosening the front and rear bolts and instead of first moving the back of the table to swing the slot parallel. I moved the front in the opposite direction that I wanted to move the back. This resulted in my having to move the back a shorter distance. I cinched up the front center bolt snug, but not tight and then tapped the back over to parallel. Next tighten the centers then the sides. If that does'nt work you will have to elongate the slot. I'am betting you will get it right without doing so. good luck Tex.
forestgirl | May 29, 2006 07:04pm | #2
Contractor saw alignment problems can be caused by the connecting bars (between the trunnions) being out-of-square -- for whatever reason that unit goes from a rectangle to a parallelogram. That may be what Bill was addressing with his technique. Whatever you do, resist any impulse to "adjust" the bolt holes for the trunnion bolts. Chances are, that's not needed.

I went through this with a used (very used) Jet saw. Wasn't clever enough to fix it myself, but there are a few people here who have had success.

forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
pcooper | May 29, 2006 08:40pm | #3
I have a craftsman contractor saw also, and had the same problem. Mine is about 20 years old now. I finally took my saw apart and slotted the adjustment area on the assembly that holds the blade and blade pulley, making it go far enough to be square. It didn't take a lot, but that adjustment should have been there from the start. My opinion is if I ever had to buy another saw, I'd likely fork over the money on the front end for a cabinet saw and then enjoy the financial stress every time I use it later on. I will have to say that it looks like my craftsman will be around a lot longer so I have plenty of time to save for the other one.
Knotscott | May 30, 2006 05:27am | #4
It'd be helpful to know the model #. The hybrids with cabinet mounted trunnions were out last year, and use a completely different (easy) method of alignment than a contractor saw.

Edited 5/30/2006 10:16 am ET by Scotty_