adjusting Delta Contractor's saw- Need help

[Archer Yates]

My 10 year old Delta Contractor's saw is out of alignment. The blade miter-gauge slot is not parallel with the saw blade. In the September 2005 article on table saw tune up, Roland Johnson stated on page 51 that to align the contractors saw you need to adjust the trunnions but he does't saw how.
Another fine wood working article( 2005) by Kelly Mehler advises loosening the screws that hold down the table top to make this adjustment for a table saw. Roland Johnson advises the same thing in his article. Apparently the Contractors saw adjustment is different than the table saw. Does this apply to the delta contractors saw? How do I make the adjustment

[Cary Falk]

Sounds like Kelly is talking about a cabinet saw instead of a contractor saw. What you need to do is loosen three of the foru bolts that connect the trunnion to the table. Move the trunion till the blade is parallel to the miter slot. Tighten up the bolts. Get a set of PALS. It makes the job much easier. http://www.woodcraft.com/Catalog/ProductPage.aspx?prodid=22765&ss=f2fb33af-40b7-43d3-a251-0bd6a0ddbad4

[James Henderson]

I purchased a Delta contractors saw model 34-410 in 1994.

To adjust the miter-slots with respect to the blade on that unit, raise the blade to the highest position above the table. Loosen the four screws in which fasten the trunnions to the table-top. These are accessible from the rear exit of the saw chassis. The exploded view of the components may be available in the user's manual for your saw. Download it from the Delta site if needed.

Determine the distance between the face of the saw blade and the miter slot, measuring at both the front and rear of the blade. Use this information to rotate the trunnion assembly slightly until the surface of the blade is parallel to the miter slot in the table-top. Tapping the trunnion brackets with a small, dead-blow hammer may be necessary. Multiple measurement-adjustment iterations may be necessary.

Tighten trunnion screws and verify measurement. Now use a similar process to verify that your fence is parallel to the miter slot. The adjustment procedure for your fence will be in the user's manual for the fence.

[glenn bradley]

As Cary said, PALs will be the best money you ever spend on something you will only use a couple times in this lifetime. Money well spent. If you search here under alignment for contractor saws you will find volumes of info. Let me check . . . Here's the result of a search on "contractor alignment".

http://www.google.com/search?q=contractor+alignment&sitesearch=www.sawmillcreek.org

One fundamental difference as you noticed in Kelly's instructions for a cabinet mounted trunnion saw; Contractor Saws have the trunnions mounted to the table and the trunnion is moved to align the blade with the miter slot. Cabinet and better hybrid saws have the trunnions mounted to the cabinet so the table is rotated to accomplish this alignment.

My old Contractor would take a couple hours to align and I still wouldn't be happy. Added the PALs and was done in under 30 minutes and never had to go back.

[Howard Acheson]

Here is the low tech, low cost way to align a tablesaw that I learned maybe forty years ago and use to teach to my students.

Make 3/4 x 3/4 x 12" hardwood stick. Drill a hole somewhat centered in one end and insert a brass #8 x 1" round head fine thread machine screw about half way. UNPLUG THE SAW. Raise the blade completely up. Clamp this board in your miter gauge (if you determine that there is some slop in your slot to miter gauge, use a playing card to take up the slop) so the screw head just about touches the blade at the front. Now rotate the blade by hand and determine which tooth is the closest. Adjust the screw in or out until it just touches this tooth. Mark this tooth. Rotate the blade so the tooth is now at the back of the table and move the miter gauge/stick assembly to the back and see if it touches the marked tooth to the same extent. If it doesn't, adjust the trunnion (if a contractor saw) or the tabletop (if a cabinet saw) until it does.

For a contractor saw, first use a small c-clamp on the rear trunnion and cradle to keep the assembly from moving. Then loosen the two rear trunnion bolts and one front trunnion bolt. Slightly loosen the other front trunnion bolt and use a stick to tap the trunnion until the blade and screw lightly touch. The blade does not move directly around the center so you will need to repeatedly go back to the front of the blade, readjust the screw, and then again measure the back. Be sure to check after tightening the trunnion as the trunnion frequently moves when being tightened.

For cabinet saws, loosen the bolts that hold the tabletop and tap one corner until things come into alignment.

The same adjustment gauge can be used to set the fence parallel to the miter slot. Slide the miter gauge to the front of the table and move the fence over to the screw head and insert a playing card between the screw head and the fence just so you can move the card as it touches both the fence and the screw head. Now move the miter gauge to the back of the table and see if you have the same feel when you insert the card. I like my fence absolutely parallel--if you want to have a slight opening to the fence, you can easily estimate the opening by adding a thickness of paper to the card.

I always show my students with a dial gauge that their adjustments are within .001 - .002.

You can also use the same gauge to measure blade runout by using a $5.00 feeler gauge.

Finally, after you are satisfied with the above adjustments, check the position of the splitter to make sure it is exactly in line with the blade.

Bottom line, there is no need to spend more than the $0.05 for the brass screw.

[Alan Schwabacher]

Howard's method is the way to go. Don't ignore that C-clamp: without it you may introduce slop into the mechanism, and the saw would drift in and out of alignment. Duginske's "mastering woodworking machines", Mehler's "Tablesaw book", and White's "Care and repair of shop machines" all have pictures to show where to clamp. Mehler shows using a longer clamp so you can use its handle to torque the trunnions into position.

[Chip Lindley]

While you're aligning your CS, replace the four trunnion bolts with grade 8 hardened. They will torque down more tightly, and stay put.

There was a great article in FFW #78 (Sep/Oct 1989) p.69, (Tuning-Up Your Tablesaw by Mark Duginske) on dialing in a Rockwell bench TS very similar to yours. I used that article to refurbish and tune up an older Rockwell Model 10 CS with very nice results. I used the saw for over 15 years with no additional adjustment.

[Archer Yates]

I want to thank all for the help they have offered ,your advice is invaluable.
Learning from others is one of the most rewarding benefits of searching solutions to common problems.

[Archer Yates]

I have learned a lot from my process to correct the misalignment of saw blade and miter slots. If you lie down on the floor and look up you with see the 4 bolts that hold the front and rear trunnions to the table saw top. Each of the bolts are 5/16 in much larger hole of the trunnions. Uneven stresses in any one of the bolts can effect the movement of the saw blade.
Since we really can't get much force on the front trunnions we try to work on the rear.
To test alignment I used a round head brass screw in the end of a 3/4 by 3/4 inch piece or hardwood that was attached to a plywood sub-fence on my miter gauge. I had to use a lot of brass shim stock to make sure there was no play in the miter gauge and the slot. I never could get my dial indicator set up satisfactorily.
The best thing I did was to remove the motor. Its a lot easier to move the trunnions without the weight of the motor. I tried the Pals but they were a disappointment. I finally used an Irwin quick clamp between the motor hanger and the side of the saw to move the blade over to correct position. Then without removing the clamp, I gradually tighten all bolts in a crisscross pattern. I did tighten the set screws of the PALS unit in hopes it would help hold in position. The set screw looked like a 10-32 but was not quite the same. On the left side the screw was too short to reach trunnion body with the lock nut ,so I had to remove the lock nut. Since I could not duplicate the set screw ,I could not get a replacement. I have both metric and USA screw checkers and their screw would not match up to what I had.
Then I released the clamp. All seems to be within .005 of an inch as determined by feeler gauge.