Need help with my new Sawstop

[John Adank]

Hello everyone, I just bought a new 3 hp Sawstop Prefessional cabinet saw today and started setting it up. I was trying to align the saw blade parallel to the miter slot using a Woodpeckers alignment tool and the Master Alignment plate on the arbor. Everything looked good out of the box. I was only about 3 thousandths off on the out feed end and I probably should have left well enough alone but I had to use these new adjustment tools you know. I loosened up the 4 bolts holding the table to the cabinet but it got more out of whack. I guess I should have adjusted the trunion bolts first Anyway, I am now about 10,000ths off on the outfield and I can't seem to correct this. I feel terrible because If I would have left it alone, I wouldn't be in this predicament. Can anyone offer any assistance?
thanks,
John

[Tim Janssen]

It's almost three years ago I bought mine so I don't exactly remember the details for that adjustment but there are very detailed instructions in the manual.
I certainly don't remember having to fiddle around with the trunnion bolts.
You can always call SawStop for help.
Good luck,

Tim

[John Coloccia]

I wouldn't recommend you touch the trunnion. Loosen the table just barely enough that it will move if you bang it with a hammer. Take your measurements, and then using a block of wood and a hammer, tap the table into place. It worries me a little that you're saying you're some amount off on the outfeed side. Unless you've moved so much that the zero clearance inserts don't work anymore, your choice of which side is off is very arbitrary.

Oddly enough, it's almost impossible to make any sort of precision adjustment without a hammer :)

[glenn bradley]

+1 on no-touchee da trunnion bolts. They are for mounting, not adjustment. The four corner bolt for the table top have a degree of play in them. It is possible to get to the extreme limit of one and be able to go no further. I have re-aligned cabinet mounted trunnions enough that I am now foolishly fearless :rolleyes:. If you choose to follow my instructions, please read all the way through this blah, blah. There's some caveats at the end :).

I remove the fence rails and wings for this but, choose your poison . . .

- Loosen all four table bolts and shuffle the top around till it is sort of centered.
- Tighten one corner so that it will act like a pivot point.
- Using the alignment tool of your choice, get the table pretty close to parallel, miter-slot-to-blade (or plate).
- Snug the remaining three bolts but don't go crazy.
- Check alignment at front and rear of plate.
- Tap the table with a rubberized dead blow mallet to achieve perfect alignment (no, really).
- Tighten the remaining three bolts and re-check.

Caveats in no particular order:
1. I do this with the fence rails and wings off and then do any very minor final tweaking after re-assembly (often this is none).
2. I set the table adjustment starting point as far right as possible for a left tilt saw to allow a larger opening for my hand when performing blade changes.
3. I use the left hand miter slot as this is the one I use the gauge in most of the time.
4. Once I am good at 90*, I depress myself and check at a 45* blade-tilt angle.
5. Re-adjust as required to achieve nirvana at 90* and 45* bevel.
6. Align the fence to the same miter slot.
7. Attach wings and re-check (adjust if required).
8. Attach fence and adjust using the same miter slot.
9. Wax table top, wings, and fence face.
10. Die happy.

This whole hoo-hah takes about 2 hours so I generally set a time aside on a Saturday morning and go to it. There is nothing worse than being "almost there" and realizing you should have gone to bed an hour ago since you have to get up and go to work. Your 45* should be fine if you haven't removed or changed the position of any of the factory shims at the four table bolt positions. Not all four bolts may be shimmed but, I always find at least one ;).

[Michael E. Smith]

Sounds like you have all the tech help that you need. So all I wanted to add was the fact that I have use a 5HP Saw Stop for about three years in my carpenter shop at work. It is without a doubt the best saw that I have ever used. And the quality of the machine is a 10 out of 10. You will enjoy that new saw once you get it back in alignment.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I had trouble with my 5 hp ICS. When I called SS, they said first thing, loosen all of your table adjustments, and put the blade dead center and straight in your throat plate. This is usually enough to get you started. Tighten everything down, run a test cut. Adjust from there if needed. This of course is old info, since they have changed the throat plate design. It should still be true I think. Oh yeah, no touchy trunion bolts.

Welcome to the SS owners club. You do know that you'll have to defend the saw from all the SS haters...... :eek:

[Stephen Cherry]

I feel terrible because If I would have left it alone, I wouldn't be in this predicament. Can anyone offer any assistance?
thanks,
John


Look at the positive side- it's your machine, and by the time you are done aligning it you will know it very well. I think that the big illusion people can have is that if they buy a new machine, they can approach it as a "black box", and that it will be perfect and not require normal adjustments.

[brian c miller]

I used this as a guide:

section 6.3 is what you want.

http://www.ts-aligner.com/Tsman.pdf

[mreza Salav]

have you looked at your manual? It explains all possible adjustments in details and are very easy to follow. For your case it's on page 63-66.
You don't need a hammer to bang or anything of that type, there are Allen screws to the sides of table and a pivoting point in the front that makes
this adjustment super easy. Just follow the instructions in your manual.
The only tricky part is to make the adjustment for the case that blade is tilted to 45 (that might need a bit of work), but I have done that.

[John Adank]

Those Allen bolts really do make it easy to adjust. I really like that feature. As to the link for the TS-Aligner, I wish that guy still made them. I really wanted to buy one. I left a voicemail and an email to him about one in half months ago but never heard back. Nobody has heard from this guy. You think he would take his website offline and disconnect his voicemail if he is in fact out of business. I'm waiting to put the cast iron extension wings on until I receive my Oneway woodworking gauge. I want to make sure this saw is as a curated as I can get it. After that, I will attach the Incra Ts-LS fence.

[Larry Frank]

Sorry to hear about your problems. I have had my 3 HP PCS for two years. It was dead on when I got it and has stayed there the entire time.

[John Adank]

Thanks but I think I got it figured out thanks to everyone on this site. Can't wait to use it but it may be a week or so because I'm waiting on another gauge to assist me in set up

[glenn bradley]

there are Allen screws to the sides of table and a pivoting point in the front that makes
this adjustment super easy.

That is a super nice feature. I get more SS inclined with nearly every thread I read ;-)

[John Adank]

Even the owners manual is impressive. Very detailed and easy to follow. All the parts are contained in blister packs so its very easy to assemble the saw. It's so well organized it makes it kind of fun to put together.

[John Piwaron]

your table is off by "10,000 thousandths?" Wow - that's 10 inches.

One of the big benefits of a cabinet saw is the ease of aligning the miter slot to the blade. Loosen 4 bolts, pivot it around dowel pin, tighten it down. What could be easier?

Please note that if you move your trunnions around, that ease of adjustment goes away. In normal use you'll never touch those.