Table saw tune-up

[Aaron Conway]

Hi everybody,

I've been out of woodworking for the past 8 years and I'm at a point where I want to get going again. Unfortunately, I sold most of my tools 8 years ago. I did keep my Craftsman contractor's table saw, Dewalt plunge router, drill and a couple sanders and misc. other clamps and accessories. I rarely used the table saw these last few years so while building a new workbench last weekend I realized the blade was out of alignment. After doing some reading here I quickly decided to purchase PALS and the A-Line-It system. I took Friday off and my wife and I drove the 1.5 hours to the closest Woodcraft. While I was there I bought a digital angle gauge and the Incra 1000SE miter gauge.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon putting all these new things together and putting my table saw back in proper order. All I can say is...WOW! I feel like I have a brand new saw. These items are worth every penny.

Glad to be back among the woodworking world again.

Aaron

PS: Next project is a router table.

[Joseph Tarantino]

glad you got the saw sorted out. i also have a 1000 and i mount a dial gauge to it and that will do everything needed to check and set up your TS. save the money and return the align it. with the increa miter gauge, it'e redundant.

[Mike Cruz]

Welcome back to the world of wood! I know that feeling of being "out of the loop". Horrible feeling really... Anyway, you're back. Make some dust. While you're at it, make sure you pick up all that dust with a good dust collector. Read into a "good" DC however you want...just don't go without one.

[Steven Wayne]

glad you got the saw sorted out. i also have a 1000 and i mount a dial gauge to it and that will do everything needed to check and set up your TS. save the money and return the align it. with the increa miter gauge, it'e redundant.

Can you elaborate on how and what you are doing here? I need to tune my saw..

[glenn bradley]

All I can say is...WOW! I feel like I have a brand new saw. These items are worth every penny.

Amen. PALs, machined pulleys, link belts and a good alignment will do wonders for a contractor saw. Glad your back at it.


Can you elaborate on how and what you are doing here? I need to tune my saw..

A search here on "contractor alignment" will yield a lot of results in this area. More discussion here is always good but, if you want to capitalize on immediate access to years of activity, give the search a try.

[Rick Potter]

Steven

Go to the Peachtree woodworking site, and look for PALS. They only cost about $20, and allow you to move the alignment of the blade to the miter slot easily and accurately.

Rick Potter

[Aaron Conway]

Yes, I'm looking into dust collection beyond my little shop vac. When I was woodworking previously I never wore a mask and it never bothered my and now I have to wear a dust mask or I'm coughing up a lung.

The PALS were only $20 and when I was putting them on the saw I kept thinking there was no way it would be this simple and work...they are that simple and they do work.

I had already replaced the pulley and installed a link belt years ago but I found the pulley was out of alignment. I also found the rip fence out of whack (in the wrong direction) so I fixed that too.

Previously it was more about the collection of tools but this time I'm going back to basics and only plan on buying tools as I need them.

Cheers,

Aaron

[Howard Acheson]

Can you elaborate on how and what you are doing here? I need to tune my saw..

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. PALS alignment adjusters are a big help in adjusting saws that have their trunnion hung from the bottom of the saw table.

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.

[Joseph Tarantino]

Can you elaborate on how and what you are doing here? I need to tune my saw..

here is a pic of my set up:

209895

(and since i don;t know how to insert an image that can be magnified, here is a link to the referenced pic and other pics of my set up and TS tuning:

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2294463940104952478gxdefx )

slide a round head bolt or toilet bolt into the slot that's in the face of the 1000 (the bolt can be seen in the referenced pic attached to the fence). use a nut to lock the bolt in place on the 1000, then 2 more nuts to secure the dial gauge to the bolt. square the miter gauge to 90* to the miter bar and you're good to go. i squared the blades and fences on two 10" TSs using this set up and it works quite well. got everything to within .001" i always wanted an align it, i'm just too cheap to spend close to $70(?) when i can do it for under $1.00 with the 1000, which i got for under $100 on an amazon special quite a while ago.