Table Saw Setup Issues

[Ray DuBose]

Well I'm going to sound very lame but here I go.

Back in 2002 I purchased a Delta 36-431 Table Saw. For those interested you can see it here:

http://www.tools-plus.com/delta-36-431.html

I was all gun-ho about doing wood working but had never done any. The Table Saw was my first Purchase. Well several years go by and I use it off and on but never was happy with the cuts it made. It burned a lot of wood . had a lot of kickbacks so recently I figured I would get a dial indicator and make sure this thing was set up o.k. (I know I know, should have been the first thing I did out of the box)

Well I pull the Blade off and test the Flange and it has maybe .001 run out. I test it with the Blade on and it seems like it's +/- .007 or .008 run out. I lay a straight edge across the blade and it see light. The blade is a a thin kerf Freud from one of the intown Big Box stores. I know Freud is higher quality but it's one of their cheaper blades. Seems the run out is a lot for the blade.

The Weird issue is that when I tested my fence which is a biesemeyer at the front I set it to 0 and at the very back it goes back to 0 but all along it it's .002 - .004 off. Does anyone else have issues like that with there fence? Should a Biesemeyer do that? I know it's a thick laminate over Ply on the face but it should be stable. Do they get compressed with kickbacks or anything?

Will try to get another saw blade but the fence has me worried that I may not stop this saw from burning without changing out the fence.

Any Ideas? Not sure if Delta would replace it with it being that old.

Ray

[Chip Lindley]

Hello Ray. We must assume with tools today, that they May or May Not be ready to go right out of the box! With the tolerances you discribe above, your saw setup is not perfect. The stock you push through the saw MUST have a straight edge. If not, any cut will be hit or miss, and the blade will bog down or burn the wood.

There are many other threads here that coverd tablesaw tuning. Some even have links to videos which you may find useful. Tuning a saw is trial and error, and hit or miss, but results will make you a happy user. I suggest you search for those threads and read through. Your problems have been thoroughly covered.

Your Biesemeyer fence faces can be shimmed to flat. The faces are removeable.

Blade warp is possible, but not likely on a brand new blade, unless abused! This is also covered in all those TS setup threads. Good Luck.

[Bob Genovesi]

Ray,

When tuning my saw I use the Table Saw Aligner Jr. it sits snugly in the T-slot without any plat whatsoever. I do not use a blade as a reference, I have a ground steel plate that I use as a reference.

The photos below show the saws arbor aligned with the T-slot with .002 run-out over 10 inches. This is an absolutely outstanding number considering it's a machined cast iron table top.

My saw is a Jet contractors saw and came with Jet's Xactor fence system. For lack of a better term it's a Biesemeyer clone using solid UHMW sheet which is nicer / slippryer in my opinion. When running the dial indicator along its length I found that it picks up about .010 surface variation or profile which is no big deal as it averages out.

To be honest with you, the numbers you've posted are not that bad at all. Keep in mind that this is woodworking and not metal machining and no saw in the world is perfect nor will it stay that way. Periodically, I check too see if anythings moved.

If you're seeing burning the cause it likely to be;



Misalignment between the saw blade and the fence
Slightly tilted blade
Blade dull
Gum or pitch on the blade teeth
Blade slightly bent