Looking advice with my Delta 34-410 table saw.. Newbie to this forum

[Chris Herbert]

What's up everybody!

I am a furniture designer and I just got into woodworking about a year ago and started a small business at the same time. I just joined the creek and I am looking for help with my Delta 34-410 which I picked up from Craigslist. This is my first table saw, and I needed to use it right away so I was kind of thrown into a situation where I needed to use it the day I got it. Never had I ever touched a table saw before this. The only wood I currently use is reclaimed pine and some reclaimed flooring.

When I first got it, it was ripping great with the rip fence attached, and I was ripping with a basic Freud 50 combo blade. I had some burning and pinching, but nothing excessive It would blow the fuse box occasionally if I pushed material too fast through it. I come in a week ago, and the saw wouldn't turn on. With the belt not attached it wouldn't even spin, make weird sound and then blow the breaker. I took it apart and found a washer that was attached to the bearing was lumpy, and the drive shaft was not aligned to allow free spinning. I took out the washer and aligned the shaft and it ran like it was the same as before. Ever since then I have had a lot of problems ripping, it seems like it is tough to push the wood through. I can only push wood through VERY slowly without the breaker blowing and when I would slowly rip, there was a ton of smoke in my shop that even my dust collector wouldn't gather. Ripping the boards went from a 10 minute job to an hour job.

I have just bought a 24 rip blade, and when I get it today I am going to put it on and align the blade to prevent all of the burning and see if this fixes it, and am going to replace the breaker that keeps tripping. I am wondering if you all think that this is a bigger problem, since I do not have any experience with motors and I do not know if this is the problem instead.

Also, running directly into the outlet with a 110v plug. I tried to wire it for 220, but it would blow the breaker after 5 seconds of running on a brand new breaker. So i rewired it for 110v.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Chris

[Matt Day]

Chris,
It sounds like you have a can of worms!
Folks smarter than me will chime in regarding the motor, but it sounds to me like that should be the first thing you make sure is straight.
For burning, make sure your miter gauge slot, blade, and fence are accurately parallel. In your case with ripping, sounds like the blade isn't parallel to the fence. Google "how to align a table saw" for some ways to do so.
It sounds like you have excessive smoking which means something is really out of whack, likely from your work on the motor.
If you replace the breaker, replace it with the same size. Its that size for a reason. I would get your motor sorted out first.

[Chris Herbert]

The motor sounds a lot better with the 24 tooth blade! It cut through like butter. I made adjustments to the bevel, at 90* it was at about 89* and was pinching against the fence. (Hard to find without a manual, I checked online for one too!) Now the blade is not burning the wood at all and it is a true 90* cut. The smoking I think was because the blade was dull from pinching and not using a rip blade when I should have. I will get my HVAC buddy to replace the breaker, I think it is old and in need of replacing anyways.

Thanks for your help Matt!

[Floyd Mah]

Up front, I want to say your results may vary. Actually, I am not kidding. I have a Delta contractor saw which I have improved over the years. The reason is that the chromed bar in the front ("Up front"), when mounted using the hardware from Delta (I bought it new) for the fence proved to be crooked. That meant that the fence's alignment with the blade varied ("may vary") when I repositioned for a different cut width. This needs to be checked and corrected before anything else that you do with the blade makes any difference. The simplest check is to hold a straight edge to the bar and verify that it is straight. It turned out, for me, that the various mounting studs and hardware made the bar crooked and needed filing down to allow the bar to be straight when mounted. I ended up replacing it with the Unifence, which worked very well.

So, aside from your motor problem, check to see that the fence is doing what you expect.

[Matt Day]

Glad you have your saw running better now!

[David Eisenhauer]

In the future, I would advise you to never continue using something that was creating smoke and now taking an hour to do what used to take ten minutes. You are lucky that you did not do some serious damage to the saw motor and/or create a real electrical problem in your shop. When breakers start tripping, something is wrong. Maybe you could start reading some "How To Use A Table Saw" type books now that you are in the furniture design/woodworking business.

[Aliza Martin Joe]

This is such a nice post ..

[Gene Takae]

This is such a nice post ..
Is that supposed to mean that you're happy with the advice given or un-happy?

I have to side with David on this one. Aside from damaging your saw or starting a fire- you could've easily cut a digit off. Forcing a tool to work is an easy way to get hurt. That being said I hope that you have no other problems with your saw and I wish you much success with your venture. Hopefully you can sell some items before Christmas so you can buy more tools!!!! Might I suggest that you get a metal detector if you don't already have one. Reclaimed wood can hide nails etc, that can ruin a blade in a split second. Please post pictures of your work too.

[Mike Null]

I would also suggest that you use a dedicated 20 amp circuit for the saw.

The other thing I learned is not to cut wet or junk wood. It's dangerous.

If you don't have a blade guard for it let me know, I have one you can have for the cost of shipping.

[John Coloccia]

Am I the only one concerned that there was a "lumpy washer" that was simply removed from the motor?

Anyhow, I'll bet money that all the smoke and problems after you fiddled with the motor was due to installing the blade backwards. You'll get all sorts of entertaining results when you do that, including trouble ripping and lots of smoke :)

[Matt Day]

This is such a nice post ..

What does that mean?

[Bill Huber]

I think you will find that the saw will rip much better with that 24 tooth blade, the Freud 50 combo blade is just not that good at ripping.

For a combo blade I use the Guhdo, GMaxx, Glue Line General Purpose 50 tooth blade, it is a 50 tooth but it rips really good.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Am I the only one concerned that there was a "lumpy washer" that was simply removed from the motor?

Anyhow, I'll bet money that all the smoke and problems after you fiddled with the motor was due to installing the blade backwards. You'll get all sorts of entertaining results when you do that, including trouble ripping and lots of smoke :)

Exactly what I was thinking..... I have done it at least once. Well, probably only once. I noticed before I used it, but, I did manage to put it on and even walk away. When I walked back, I looked at the blade and thought "something looks wrong here". Followed by a little head smacking as I turned the blade around.

I have heard of people doing that on purpose for certain types of cuts (was it metal), but in general, I understand it is a bad thing to do.

Oh, and welcome to the creek! Where are you located?

[John Coloccia]

Exactly what I was thinking..... I have done it at least once. Well, probably only once. I noticed before I used it, but, I did manage to put it on and even walk away. When I walked back, I looked at the blade and thought "something looks wrong here". Followed by a little head smacking as I turned the blade around.

I have heard of people doing that on purpose for certain types of cuts (was it metal), but in general, I understand it is a bad thing to do.

Oh, and welcome to the creek! Where are you located?

I had the spindle on my CNC router running backwards for the first few cuts. Where's all this smoke coming from???? LOL. That was entertaining too.

[Mike Hollingsworth]

due to installing the blade backwards.

this
I agree