Sawstop contractor saw alignment

[Kelly Colin Mark]

My dial indicator is showing about .01" difference from the front of the blade to the back when measured from the left miter slot.

I couldn't find any instructions in the saw manual about aligning the blade to miter slot, nor on their website, for the contractor model.

Tom Hintz's site says that for most contractor saws, one needs to loosen the four bolts that attach the trunion to the table, and then tap the trunion to move it relative to the table.

I have two problems:
1- the left, front bolt is nearly impossible to reach
2-on the saw I can't figure out where to knock with the wood. The trunion doesn't really present any surface that can be knocked. There's only one bolt mount which offers a bit of purchase, but it's only slightly raised. I've been whacking at it with wood, then with a hammer on wood, but I can't get anything to budge.

I started wondering whether I needed to remove the rails and extension wings, but if we're knocking on the trunion then that's what we want moving, relative to everything else staying put, right ?

When I try to look at the saw from underneath to see what I could tap, I can't see anything obvious. But the stand and base make it really, really difficult to get under there.

Is there a natural spot to do this sort of adjustment ?

[Mike Heidrick]

Id start with a call to sawstop and ask them. They are VERY good at addressing their saw issues.

[Kelly Colin Mark]

Id start with a call to sawstop and ask them. They are VERY good at addressing their saw issues.
Mike, you're right. Best customer service I've ever dealt with - they handled another issue I had with more generosity than I could have expected. Furthermore, I found that replacement parts were very reasonably priced, and they actually call you to see how you're doing. Forget the saw braking tech - that customer service is worth paying a premium for.

But, I happened to speak to a rep on Wednesday afternoon (separate issue) and I knew they were trying to close down early for the Thanksgiving holiday - so I didn't expect to get a response until Monday. And of course, my wife is on me to get something done *now* ;-).

[Mike Heidrick]

And of course, my wife is on me to get something done *now* ;-).

That is called tool opportunity. 5hp SS ICS!

[Mike Cutler]

Kelly

I'm not sure the Sawstop falls into the "most" category. You have some extra parts in your saw not found on other saws.

The left front bolt is a pain to get too on most any contractor saw. Sometimes you just loosen the others and let Archimedes take over. Tightening it can be even worse.
I could never fit a block of wood in my Jet and do any whacking. But I could get a dead blow mallet in there just fine to nudge over the rear trunnion.
On a Jet you'd be aiming for the metal "orange slice" hanging down and trying to tap it as close to the underside of the table as possible, after loosening up some of the tilt and raise hardware.. Don't hit the rails, metal round stock, or you'll play hell getting your tilt mechanism set up again.

I'd be careful with your Sawstop though. As I said, you have some additional expensive parts under there.

[John Coloccia]

Don't loosen anything. PM me your e-mail address, and I'll forward you the instructions SawStop sent me, or simply e-mail them and they'll send them to you. My instructions are 3 years old so you may want to contact them just incase they've changed.

[Kelly Colin Mark]

Mike Heidrick: Re tool opportunity... in another thread I posted questions about building storage under a sloped ceiling. If I can pull something halfway-decent off there, my tool-buying window gets a lot wider. My wife keeps saying: you keep buying tools, but when are you going to actually build something ?

Mike Cutler: Thanks for the notes. I was able to loosen all four bolts but boy was it ever hard. Now I just need to figure out what the "orange slice" would be on the Jet. Also it seems I misunderstood what a trunion was... I thought it was the semi-circular parts that connected the motor to the table - but your email had me look it up again and it seems they're the long bars

John, I'm going to PM you. My saw has a manufacture date of 2008 so the instructions should be the same. Unfortunately, I've loosed some screws... and not sure but I may have sheared one of the four bolts that mounts table to trunion (not sure yet as I haven't pulled another out to measure length). If so, that might rule out buying something like a PALS.


thanks guys!

[glenn bradley]

Mike Cutler: Thanks for the notes. I was able to loosen all four bolts but boy was it ever hard. Now I just need to figure out what the "orange slice" would be on the Jet. Also it seems I misunderstood what a trunion was... I thought it was the semi-circular parts that connected the motor to the table - but your email had me look it up again and it seems they're the long bars.

Hmmm, in tablesaw-speak when I say trunnions I am usually referring to this entire assembly although the actual trunnion only makes up part of it:

276001

Here's a shot of the rear table mounted trunnion with PALs:

276000

[Howard Acheson]

>>>> Id start with a call to sawstop and ask them

Exactly. I wonder why they don't address alignment in their instruction or setup manual.

[Kelly Colin Mark]

>>>> Id start with a call to sawstop and ask them

Exactly. I wonder why they don't address alignment in their instruction or setup manual.

It is interesting since they address adjustment of several other things (e. G. Tilt, limit stops, etc) , but not this. I think they also don't mention adjusting fence/miter slot parallelism in the manual.

[John Coloccia]

It comes pretty well aligned from the factory, but the more persnickety amongst us want it better :)

[Nick Decker]

Old thread, I know, but I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has successfully made this adjustment on the SS contractor.

I'm thinking about pulling the trigger on one, so emailed SS about the procedure (it's not in the manual). They sent me the instructions mentioned above, but I'm uneasy for a couple reasons. One, they say it ships with a tolerance of .010". Not good enough for me. Two, the instructions they sent seemed to discourage trying to adjust it at all. I find this strange for a company with such a stellar reputation for quality and accuracy, but maybe it's just me.

[Tim M Tuttle]

Old thread, I know, but I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has successfully made this adjustment on the SS contractor.

I'm thinking about pulling the trigger on one, so emailed SS about the procedure (it's not in the manual). They sent me the instructions mentioned above, but I'm uneasy for a couple reasons. One, they say it ships with a tolerance of .010". Not good enough for me. Two, the instructions they sent seemed to discourage trying to adjust it at all. I find this strange for a company with such a stellar reputation for quality and accuracy, but maybe it's just me.

I have this saw and made this adjustment a few months back. It's pretty easy and I got it down to about .004 if I remember correctly. Took about 30-45 minutes. However, before I started I was in the same boat as you and posted around on other forums asking the same question. I ended up getting a reply from someone on Lumberjocks that had called SawStop and gotten instructions and then made some of his own notes on the process. It ended up being really easy. You do have to take off the back rail if I remember correctly. Sorry, now that I think about it this was last summer so I am a little foggy on the details. Let me see if I can dig up the info and get it sent over to you.

[Tim M Tuttle]

Well, as luck would have it I was able to track down the post. Here you go: http://lumberjocks.com/topics/228465

The links are about 10 posts down.

[Nick Decker]

Thanks, Tim. I found that thread before posting here, but the two links take me to the same thing - the documentation from Sawstop, which I already have. Do you have the four or five page procedure that the guy originally posted?

[Tim M Tuttle]

I just tested both of these links they are bring up different docs:

Here is the link to the SawStop documentation: https://www.dropbox.com/s/a459cd160ku5kil/Saw%20Stop%20Blade%20Alignment%20Procedure.pdf?dl= 0
Here is a link to Aktrout’s addendum: https://www.dropbox.com/s/14goetmkdcugz6n/Saw%20Stop%20Blade%20Alignment%20Procedure%20Adden dum.pdf?dl=0

Let me know if they don't work.

[Nick Decker]

Tim, never mind, I got the link to work. Thanks again.