How critical is it to have the TS blade truly vertical?

[Simon Leung]

I have a craftsman TS that refuses to be set at true vertical. I use a digital bevel/angle gauge but I couldn't get the blade to come to 0.00. The best that I could do was get it to 0.50. In trying to get to 0.00 I managed to break the bevel handwheel and the vertical adjustment becomes binding. I know the digital angle gauge has a accuracy of +/- 0.2 so I can be off by 0.3 the best or 0.7 the worst. My question is, how important is it to set the blade at true vertical for general woodworking? Before I got the digital angle gauge I just used a square and I probably never noticed the blade was off by 0.5 degree or more:).

[Kyle Iwamoto]

That would depend on how square you want your work... :)

There should be an adjustment stop somewhere in your saw that will allow your 0.00 adjustment. Check your manual.

[john bateman]

Perhaps you could find the owners manual for your saw and read the part about how to adjust the 90 and 45 degree stops.

[Chris Friesen]

Is there a stop that can be adjusted to let you come to true vertical?

If it's not true vertical, then your crosscuts won't be square and your joints won't be as tight as they could be. Only you can decide if this is an issue.

For a better test than the angle gauge, raise the blade up all the way, crosscut something just shorter than the blade height, and check the resulting cut with a try square. Make sure your test piece is straight on the bottom and the side facing the miter gauge.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, I'm not saying that this is the problem in your case, however

- a tilt type angle gauge measures in the same manner as a plumb bob, it uses gravity to find vertical.

- I couldn't care less about vertical on a saw blade, I want square (or some other angle that I want) to the table surface.

To measure that with a tilt type angle gauge, you need to move your saw to the working location, zero the tilt box, then measure the blade.

If you move your machine from that spot on the floor, your tilt box needs re-calibration.

Or just use a square to measure the blade, then check the wood after it's been cut. If it's square, that's what you want.

The other issue is accuracy of the electronic gauge. What are the specifications versus the square you are using?

Regards, Rod.

[Howard Acheson]

All saws I am aware of have an adjustment stop screw that allows the blade assembly to be set to true vertical. Look inside your saw and see where the stop screw is and tweak it until you have your blade at 90 degrees to the tabletop.

[Simon Leung]

Thank you for the quick responses and suggestions. I was not aware of the bevel adjustment stops until some of you mentioned it. I went back to the user manual and it mentioned the 45 degree stop adjustment which was on the right side of blade but didn't say anything about 90 degree stop adjustment. I looked at my TS and never realized there are set screws, one on each side of the blade. I loosen and removed the set screw on the left and saw quite a bit of saw dust in there. The saw dust build up probably stopped the blade from returning to 90 degree. After blowing off the saw dust with some compressed air and put the set screw back, I can now set the blade to true vertical, relative to the TS surface! Thanks again. I learned something new today.

[Ellen Benkin]

It's VERY critical. Glad you found a solution.

[Neil Brooks]

That would depend on how square you want your work... :)

Amen.

Every process in your woodworking will have its margin of error. In a perfect world, they'd cancel each other out.

We don't live in a perfect world ;)

I don't spend a lot of my free time worrying about thousandths of an inch, but I do try to get things pretty darned square, parallel, and true.

That leaves ME to be the overwhelmingly weak link in the chain :D

[Stephen Edwards]

+1 for checking the blade to the table with a square. Make a cut then check the cut with the same square. Of course, it helps to know if your square is, in fact, square.

I've got machinist squares and framing squares. When using a square, be sure that you use one that's long enough that the blade or tongue of the square extends out over the table a good distance. Also, make sure the portion of the square that's on the TS blade isn't hitting a tooth on the blade. My two cents....

[Lee Schierer]

My craftsman saw has collars on the tilt adjustment screw that are supposed to stop the saw at 90 and 45. They are adjustable with an allen wrench. As others have noted true vertical is not a requirement. 90 degrees to the table is. You also need to lubricate the screw periodically so that it moves easily. I use the spray on lube for my bicycle chain that goes on as a foam and then drys.

[Josiah Bartlett]

You also need to blow the dust off the screw and the corresponding mating surface often so you don't have a dust shim in there- it can mess things up.

[Bob Haskett]

When you say you broke the handwheel do you mean it broke off, or did you just hear a loud pop? I think you may have the R4511. If you do, if you try to hard to go past the stop, you will hear a loud pop and the handwheel will be able to spin more (althought it will actually not go past the bolt but backwards, really hard to explain in words) . I was trying to make sure I was all the way to the stop one time and I heard a loud pop and thought I broke the saw. It scared me at first, but I can assure you it is not broken.

[Mike Goetzke]

Thank you for the quick responses and suggestions. I was not aware of the bevel adjustment stops until some of you mentioned it. I went back to the user manual and it mentioned the 45 degree stop adjustment which was on the right side of blade but didn't say anything about 90 degree stop adjustment. I looked at my TS and never realized there are set screws, one on each side of the blade. I loosen and removed the set screw on the left and saw quite a bit of saw dust in there. The saw dust build up probably stopped the blade from returning to 90 degree. After blowing off the saw dust with some compressed air and put the set screw back, I can now set the blade to true vertical, relative to the TS surface! Thanks again. I learned something new today.

I was about to mention the stops too. One thing I read that may help is that many do not use these positive stops because you can run into the problems you encountered - like dust build up. Many back the set screws off and use a gauge to set the angle.

[Simon Leung]

Bob, I did break the handwheel. It is made of plastic. I turned it so hard the plastic around the spindle nut broke into pieces. I have ordered another one from Sears. Costs me $20 shipped.

[Simon Leung]

Mike, Very good point about not using the set screws. I actually backed the setscrew off a little to allow the blade to go a little past 0 degree (negative). I left the set screw in to keep the dust from falling into the hole.