Replies

1. 
   Dunwright | Oct 15, 2005 02:57am | #1

   Loosen 3 of the four trunion bolts by 1 turn and the fourth by 1/2 turn. Rap the edge of the table with a dead blow mallet to re-align the miter gauge slot parallel to the blade. Tighten and re-check.

   Arlington, Texas (The dash in Dallas-Fort Worth)
   Practice...'till you can do it right the first time.
2. 
   Knotscott | Oct 15, 2005 02:30pm | #2

   Sounds like you need to realign the trunnions to the miter slots. They're may be instructions in the manual, or on Delta's website, and they are several step by step tips on the web.

   It's a bit of a pain b/c the front bolts can be hard to reach, plus you need to tap the trunnion carriage to get it to move, check the alignment via hit and miss (literally), then hope it doesn't move while tightening the bolts. It can seem frustrating, but it is doable. You'll be pivoting the whole carriage around the bolt that's still tight (you can loosen a tad, the others need to be lose enough to move...be careful not to loosen them so much that the trunnions fall from the top). Decide which way the carriage should pivot to be able to align to the slots, then loosen the appropriate bolts. Get a 2x4 or soft mallet and tap the trunnions into position, check alignment, adjust if necessary, retighten, check alignment again to see if it held. Once the blade is aligned to the slots, realign your fence parallel with them too.

   Also, there's a device from In-line Industries called "PALS", that makes alignment go easier and help prevent the alignment from going out. In-lineindustries.com ($20 delivered) You might want to grab these before going to the trouble to align.

3. 
   hammer1 | Oct 15, 2005 04:44pm | #3

   On the back of the saw, above the motor, there is a yoke. Loosen the two bolts that mount the yoke to the table top. You can take a piece of wood and use it as a drift to tap the yoke. This will move the trunnion and align the blade with the miter slot. You, generally, don't have to adjust the front yoke. It is under the saw towards the front. It's a good idea to make sure the bolts on the front yoke are tight also. When you re-tighten the bolts, be careful not to break them off. I think I have a picture. Instead of measuring to saw tips, you can lay a straight edge against the blade and measure from that, the longer reference is easier and more accurate.

   Beat it to fit / Paint it to match

   
4. 
   AlanWS | Oct 15, 2005 06:26pm | #4

   This is an important enough adjustment that you want to make sure you get it right. It is a safety issue, as well as one that improves performance.

   Here is what Delta has on the subject: http://www.deltamachinery.com/index.asp?e=144&p=462
   Don't mess with the tie bars unless you make the miter slots parallel to the blade, and that changes when you tilt the blade. In other words, try the later (easier) parts of the procedure first.

   Either of these books has excellent coverage as well:

   The Tablesaw Book by Kelly Mehler
   Covers all aspects of tablesaw setup and use.

   Care and Repair of Shop Machines by John White
   Covers more machines than Mehler's book, but of course has less on use.

5. 
   BrentS | Oct 15, 2005 07:52pm | #5

   The info you've received is all correct. One thing else you should do is a visual inspection of the trunnions. If the saw was moved with the motor still connected and if there was any hard tilting or banging of the saw, it's poosible one of the trunnions was cracked. I say this because if the saw was properly aligned and the bolts were tight before the move it shouldn't be that far off. Another way to check the trunnions is to measure the distance from the blade, at front and back, at 90^ to the miter slot. Then tilt the blade to 45^ and take another set of measurements. If there is a big difference there is a good chance that one of the trunnions has cracked.

   I hope it's simply a matter of realignment, but I thought I'd give you this info just in case of the worst.

    

   Brent

    

6. 
   forestgirl | Oct 15, 2005 08:17pm | #6

   I'm thinking it's likely the "tie-bars" (parallel rods underneath) have gotten out of whack.  "Don't mess with the tie bars unless you make the miter slots parallel to the blade, and that changes when you tilt the blade. In other words, try the later (easier) parts of the procedure first." (AlanWS) I had the same thing happen when I bought my used Jet saw.  It was so far out of whack that I couldn't get the blade really parallel, and man when I tilted it, it was a nightmare!

   If you've tried the simple stuff and it doesn't help, you'll have to adjust that issue.  If you have no luck doing it on your own (with help from the folks in this thread), you can call Jet or Delta (doesn't matter who) and find out who does their repair locally.  There should be someone who travels around to the different lumber companies and such and repairs their machines.  He (usually) can fix it pretty quickly.

   In the meantime, be extremely careful with the saw.  Tilting the blade for cutting is not recommended. :-(

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
   Another proud member of the  "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) 

   
   

   ---

   Edited 10/15/2005 1:33 pm by forestgirl

1. 
   jakesmom | Oct 15, 2005 09:14pm | #7

   Thanks to all of you!
   I'm going to roust out my husband and have him give me a hand with this.BrentS: I was an "Industrial Technology" student (formerly Industrial Arts) in college in the '70's. Machine Tool Maintenance was a class taught to Seniors - I never made it that far - but I always thought that should have been the second thing taught in a shop class (the first being to keep your hands away from the blades!).I'll post to let you know how it works.Anyone out there from the Northeast? Are you sick of the rain?

1. 
   oldfred | Oct 15, 2005 10:08pm | #8

   Yep,  in the Northeast and sick of the rain.     IA/IT in the 60's and made a career of it.  Couldn't have found a more rewarding profession.  We were never offered a machine tool maintenance course.  Had to learn the hard way.

2. 
   jakesmom | Oct 15, 2005 11:02pm | #9

   Well, we had success. *All* the trunion bolts were loose, some more so than others. I guess I'm one lucky woodworker! It took as long as it's been since my last post to vacuum out the saw, wake my husband, who had to gather 20 lbs of wrenches, sockets and extensions, (it's pouring here, again, and he only wanted to make 2 trips to his outbuilding shop!)do the whole adjustment, test the saw and boot up the computer twice. My miter gage is even back to indicating 90 deg. for a cut that tests square.
   It helped that my husband was doing the hitting while I was checking the alignment. Two sure made the job go faster than one in this case.
   My last post should have named AlanWS, not BrentS. Sorry for the confusion.
   oldfred: FSC Alumnus?
   Kudos to all of you for great information! Especially helpful was the link to Delta, but all the encouragement made me confident I could tackle this.
   Thanks again!

1. 
   oldfred | Oct 15, 2005 11:27pm | #10

   No, GSC  

2. 
   forestgirl | Oct 15, 2005 11:39pm | #11

   WOW!!  Fantastic!

   You have no idea how lucky you are....  Fixing the bars when they're unparallel is a real PITA.  forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the  "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) 

3. 
   Knotscott | Oct 16, 2005 02:15pm | #12

   That's great! Thanks for the followup...it's always nice to know the outcome.