New saw, new questions

[Andrew Schaefer]

I must say, this valentines day was the best yet. I was talking to my fiancee about putting together a workshop to start making her some buttons for her knitting projects. I came back from a weekend of quail hunting to be surprised with a Dewalt 788 in the trunk of the car. Needless to say I was extremely happy and had to make her something immediately. There were a few things I noticed after my initial cuts.

1) The opening of the table which the blade feeds through seems like it is too far to the left. The blade is almost rubbing against the right side of the opening. I tried loosening the table, re-zeroed it, and everything looks even and centered. When I re-tighten the knob, it moves the table back to the right and it's about to rub again. Does anyone have any suggestions for fixing this?

2) My ultimate goal is to start making some buttons for my fiancee. I would like to start with some circular ones, and heard from a buddy of mine that I could put together some sort of circle cutting jig for the scroll saw. I've been looking around the forums and have seen a few that people have used for band saws, but it looked as if they had to put a hole in the middle of the wood. I am thinking I'll either have to freehand the cuts and just make them as close as possible, or use another tool. Anyone have any good suggestions?

Thanks again for all of the input!

[glenn bradley]

I have that saw but am not what I would consider a "scroller" so take that into account.


I tried loosening the table, re-zeroed it, and everything looks even and centered. When I re-tighten the knob, it moves the table back to the right

What are you loosening? The tilt knob or are you actually loosening the table/trunnion screws and adjusting from there. There are adjustments to align the blade perpendicular to the table but they do not have the degree of motion you are describing. The manual is typical for DeWalt and by that I mean near-worthless. Let me know if you need help with the blade alignment adjustments and I can shoot you some pics. My first table was terribly domed (no chance of doing a good job on thicker materials or stacked assemblies) and I had to get it swapped out.


I am thinking I'll either have to freehand the cuts and just make them as close as possible

The scrollsaw is not the tool for perfect circles. Maybe a plunge router with a template (http://www.amazon.com/Router-Circle-Template-Peachtree-Woodworking/dp/B003UO676O)? For more creative shapes, the scrollsaw is your friend.

The blades you choose will vary your success more than you can imagine. I crammed a lot of learning into a couple of emails to Mike's Workshop (Google it).

[Andrew Schaefer]

I was loosening the tilt knob, like you said the manual doesn't really have any information so I wasn't sure what else I could adjust. Is there something else I can adjust to bring the table over to the right a little bit, or the blade over to the left?

Thanks for the quick reply.

[Andrew Schaefer]

Well.... I really feel like a newbie now. I was able to loosen the bolts attaching the table to the base and move the table over a bit. All looks centered now, and I checked to make sure the blade was square to the table.

[glenn bradley]

Great, glad you got that solved. I was a bit slow getting back, sorry. The manual is truly worthless isn't it? If you loosen the top "wing knob" that tightens the blade you will notice that there is an adjustable "anvil" opposite the wing knob that the blade is pinched against when tight . . . did I ramble or did that make sense? Anyway, the anvils opposite the wing knobs are adjustable, that's the point.

By moving the upper or lower anvil (or both) in and out, you can change the relationship of the blade to the table. This takes a little trial and error as you must adjust the anvil with the wing knobs loose and then capture the blade and tension it to check your progress. The good news is that once you have one blade at a solid 90* to the table, almost all blades will be. The importance of this alignment becomes obvious the first time you do a stacked cut of several layers or make precision cuts in thicker material ;-)

[Andrew Schaefer]

Thanks Glenn, that makes perfect sense. The blade appears to be square to the table, but I will have to do some testing with some thicker cuts and make sure everything is aligned properly. Thanks again for your help.