O.k.–I’ve seen enough posts where people talk about how much good work can be done on tools of marginal quality if they are properly tuned. Table saws, namely.
I have a low end Craftsman and, in spite of myself, I have to admit that it does a passably good job as is. I have a Freud combo blade. And seeing as there is absolutely no chance I’ll upgrade, and seeing as some people would have me believe that there’s really no need to upgrade, I ask this:
What should I do to true the saw? Is there a tutorial on such things? How do I know the blade is parallel to the mitre slots? What if it’s not? I can see, sometimes, that the blade deflects. Can that be avoided? How can I be sure the fence is square? It seems to have a lot of play in it, so I measure and remeasure and measure again every time I set it. All this makes my wife wonder, “How can it take you so long to get anything done?”
Etc. Etc. . . Etc.
Thank you.
Replies
There are books out there specifically for tuning up machinery, so if you want diagrams, look for one of those. Sears should have something available if you go in with your model #.
If you have access to a dial indicator, you can check the measurements more accurately but if not, a good machinist's rule that goes to 1/64" will work fine. Mark one tooth and use that as the reference, making sure the blade is true. Start by measuring from the marked tooth to the miter slot at the front of the throat just as the tooth is at the table top, then rotate the blade and measure at the rear of the throat slot just at table top height. If they're the same, great. If not, you'll need to make some adjustments, depending on how far off it is. You'll need to do this when the blade is square to the top and also at 45 degrees. If you NEVER cut bevels, you can make the call about measuring it at 45. If you do cut them, measure it.
There are some bolts under the top that hold the whole mechanism in place. The parts that are held in place are called trunnions. If you loosen 3 of the 4 bolts (not too much, it introduces too much play in the mechanism) and back the last bolt off by about 3/4 turn, you'll be able to rotate the top so it lines up the way it should. I used a dead-blow hammer (a rubber mallet works, but it bounces, unlike a dead-blow) to tap the top into position. Once it's where you want it to be, snug the bolt that was the tightest. Remeasure. Snug the opposite corner and the rest, remeasuring after each one. You may need a little tweaking along the way. Tighten the bolts and check it again. Remember, you're going for accuracy here and once it's right, it should make a noticeable difference, assuming it was out of adjustment in the first place. The fence may have a couple of bolts on the top if it's an original one. Look for whatever would cause it to either be square or make it go off square. You can use the dial indicator for this, too. If you set it totally parallel to the blade, you may have a slight tendency to pinch the wood at the back of the blade when you push it through. You can go about 1/64" wide at the back of the blade to decrease this.
As far as the blade deflection, go to Sears and get a blade stiffener. Theirs comes in a set of two and it's best to use both on a thin-kerf blade. If the blade is already full-kerf or particularly stiff, you can usually use one with good results. Other companies sell them, but as long as it's flat and true, you'll get the results you want. I assume you have wavey edges when you rip or make long crosscuts.
Make sure your blade is always sharp. If you call around, you should be able to find someone who'll do it for under $25. Once you find someone who sharpens blades the right way, stick with them.
Thanks, I'll check it out. I've been a little hesitant to get into the machinery end of woodworking.
You can probably mess with the stock Craftsman rip fence and get it to do ok, but you'll be better off in the long run if you get one of their upgraded rip fences. I went to their XR2424 about eight years ago and it made a quantum leap in performance. Their miter gauge is best used as a paper weight. - lol
A couple of other things that really help are to replace the stock pulleys with machined pulleys and get one of those linked belts. If you have much vibration, these changes should eliminate most of it.
Hi,Same boat as you with the Craftsman saw. Here's how I put lipstick on The Pig.I dismantled all the arbor/trunnion works as far as I could, and ran it down to a machine shop. They "flange faced" the arbor as it sat in its mount. This cost about $70, and it took a few tries on the phone to find a machine shop that would attempt it. Btw, a new arbor and bearings from Sneers would have cost....about $70.My Forrest II blade (measured near the carbide tips) used to waver +/- .007 from an arbitrary zero when rotated 360*, now it's +/- .002 or so. I cannot expect, nor do I demand, that I achieve .000I didn't go with new pulleys, but I did get a linked belt, and futzed with lining up the motor pulley to the arbor pulley. The Pig is nearly capable of almost precise blade/miter slot alignment, occasionally.Before I bought some lovely LN planes, I had a 9 x 48 sheet of 1/2 thick glass, threw down a layer of sand paper, and ground/jointed edges for glue-ups. (Yes, it works. Yes, a race horse sweats less after a summertime steeple chase than I did after 5 minutes of this meshuggena work.) I used it to lap the aluminum fence; no measurements, but straighter than before, and eliminated the high/low spots.Moral of the story? It was my own time to waste, so I did. The Pig still a pig, it's just wearing FMR lipstick. A higher quality saw is actually the right answer, since a better fence usually comes with it. When I feel like buying one, I'll be much happier. Meanwhile...damm pig.Cheers,Seth
Possibly the best way to answer all your questions is with a book. Kelly Mehler's "Tablesaw book" and John White's "Care and repair of shop machines" would be two good candidates.
To answer generally, you first adjust the trunnions to make the blade parallel to the miter slots, checking for parallel with a piece of wood clamped to the miter gauge with a brass screw in the end of it. Adjust the screw to meet a tooth at the front of the blade, then check how it meets that same tooth (or spot on the blade) turned to the rear. Make sure your miter gauge has no slop and/or is pulled to one side during the check.
Once the blade is parallel to the slot, adjust the fence to be parallel to the slot, and tighten it to get rid of slop (if possible). Check that it remains parallel throughout its range. While a good blade is important to a clean cut, an aligned blade probably makes even more difference.
If your fence and miter gauge are no good and you can't fix or replace them, there are still a few things to help. First, get the blade aligned, then make a crosscut sled to use instead of the miter gauge.
If you have many rip cuts of a particular size, you may find a fixed fence helpful. Mount it farther over than your regular fence range, and it can become a permanent part of your setup, allowing rips wider than with your fence. But you can use it for other sized rips as well by placing a strip of plywood against the fixed fence as a spacer, and directing your work along the plywood. Add a lip at the bottom edge of the spacer to catch the front of the saw and hold it in place. You can make several of these bench hook fence spacers for specific width cuts. These are really not a good general replacement for a fence, but for repeated cuts, or if your fence has too little range, or goes out of parallel beyond a certain rip width, they can help out.
Get a book on the subject...
http://www.cambiumbooks.com
Here are a couple of links for you to read to see if you want to do it. http://www.newwoodworker.com/algntruns.html http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?threadid=3526
I tackled my own saw after having an unfortunate accident in hauling it. Unfortunately the saw is was too bunged up to get it aligned as closely as I want it - so it is a trip to Jet repair for me. However, the adjustments ain't rocket science if you haven't bent anything.
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