tuning contractor style table saw, so blade is parallel to miter slots

[cody michael]

I have a delta contractor style table saw. I am trying to get the blade parallel to the miter slots.

I bought a set of table saw pals to help with this, I started and noticed even if I move the rear trunnions all the way to the right and the blade is not parallel. The front of the saw (where you would stand while cutting) is moved all the way to the left, the rear is moved all the way to the right. The blade is still about 10 hundredths of an inch off. Either the front has to go a little more to the left or the rear a little more to the right but neither can. Is there some other adjustment I can do? Just live with it? Mainly the saw is used for ripping.

If I adjust the fence parallel is that what would matter?

[Charles Lent]

I've heard others have had similar problems. From what I can remember, they filed the holes to elongate them in the correct direction. You can set the rip fence parallel to the blade if you only do ripping, but to use the saw properly for cross cutting and ripping you want to set the blade parallel to the miter slots first, and then set the fence parallel to the blade and miter slots.

Charley

[cody michael]

How do you file them? Take it off table? Loosen it enough it hangs down? You can only reach the back 2 well, if I file both of them enough it should then be in alignment?

I'm assuming you would use a round file? Possibly a Drexel tool? Or would that be to aggressive?

[Dave Zellers]

All I've got re this are random thoughts running through my old brain. I say this because I was able to successfully tune my Delta contractors saw very accurately recently. What sucked for me was I built my sleds before I tuned the blade to the mitre slot so I had to retune my sleds. Not a huge deal since I finally fully understand the 5 cut method and re-tuning the fence on my 3 sleds went quickly.

- How old and / or model number might help. Mine is 1973 ish, a newer model would have different manufacturing specs.

- I'm wondering if pushing the front all the way one way and the back all the way the other way is the same as pivoting off a fixed point. I only loosened 3 bolts, and tapped the carriage to pivot around that point. It worked perfectly.

- Is it possible there was a cast iron remnant in one of the slots that is preventing the required movement? Unfortunately that would require a complete removal. Ugh.

I don't know. But my contractor's saw adjusted perfectly. Don't give up. And if you do get it aligned, you'll want to enter the world of sleds.

[john Intosa]

Table saws work much better with a high quality fence (Biesemeyer or Uni fence). The easy answer is to make the fence parallel to the blade and neglect the miter slot. If you want cross cuts that are burn free and accurate, then precede with getting the blade and trunnion parallel to the miter slot.
Saw Pals are raved about and great in theory, but didn't work well for me. Loosen three of the four trunnion bolts, bump, check, bump, check.....Maybe you'll get lucky. If you look hard enough in Delta manuals, you will read that they recommend that you clamp the trunnion assembly together prior to loosening the 3 of 4 trunnion bolts, so all three pieces of the trunnion move as a unit. To do this, you need to take the trunion out of the cabinet. This will improve your chances of parallel blade to miter slots when blade is at 90. Now bevel the blade to 45 and see if the blade is parallel to miter slot. Probably not. To chase this degree of accuracy, you need to make sure the plane of the two torsion bars in the trunnion are 90 degrees to the blade. To get this degree of accuracy, you really are rebuilding the saw after full disassembly.
Contractor saws can be tuned, but not as easily as a cabinet saw. Saw stop takes it up even a notch from the standard cabinet saw with the ease of dialing in the blade to miter slot adjustment. The trunnion sits firmly in the cabinet and the top pivots on a post in the front of the saw, until it is adjusted parallel to the miter slot. Sawstop does use two built in micro adjusters at the rear of the table (like PALS), but design and implementation is much better.

[cody michael]

I would really like to get it aligned, I will try filing the edges.

what part are you supposed to clamp? I have never understood that.

the front of the blade is where the black marker is to the right, rear of blade is where the dial is.

my table saw is i believe a 2000 series not sure how old.299959

[cody michael]

I filed a little bit off the 2 rear holes and it is now aligned!

[cody michael]

I have always thought about switching over to 220, but from what I read you don't get anymore horse power. On my saw it say 1 1/2 - 2 hp does that mean that if I switch to 220 I get 2 hp?

[glenn bradley]

I filed a little bit off the 2 rear holes and it is now aligned!

Way to go Cody. It seems like a lot of extra work but, a tablesaw is very limited unless it is aligned to do what it is designed to do; cut straight. Your time and effort will pay dividends for the life of the saw.

[cody michael]

I also got the fence parallel that was alot easier, I set the rear of the fence to be a tiny bit wider then the front, to help with blade pinching the wood.

[Phil Barrett]

Congrats on getting your saw tuned properly. It's a good feeling to take a problem and solve it perfectly. It seems like the trunnions (or table top) had to be defective out of the factory.

I notice on your motor plate that at 230VAC, the motor is rated to pull 8.6 which is more than half of the 115VAC rating. In fact the watts at 230 are exactly 1/3 more than at 115 which reflects the 1.5 - 2 HP range. I doubt you will actually get more delivered HP. Even if you get no more HP, it's probably a good thing to switch over, especially if you are cutting thick hardwoods or running the saw a lot as the motor will run cooler. Plus, it does reduce the load on your 115 circuit if you use a beefy DC on same circuit as your TS.

[cody michael]

Thanks, I think I might switch it over, I have everything I need I believe.

[Charles Lent]

The motor on your Delta contractor's saw is not a typical dual voltage motor. Most motors have the same horsepower rating when they are set up for either 120 or 240 volts. They just draw 1/2 the amperes when connected to the higher voltage. Your motor was specially designed by Delta to produce 1.5 hp when connected to 120 volts to allow it to be used on-site in new or remodel housing where the power available is usually only 120 volts at 15-20 amps. You can't run a 2 hp motor from a 120 volt 15 amp circuit. But when the saw is used in the contractor's shop it was designed to allow it to be changed over and used on 240 volts with the benefit of higher available horse power at a lower current draw. The extra 1/2 horsepower can be very handy when your saw is used in the shop. Since it will also draw less current at the higher voltage you will also benefit from having less losses in the wiring to the saw.

Charley

[cody michael]

Great I will put this on my to do list, to switch to 220 should be pretty straight forward right? Just switch a few wires around? And put new plug on it? Should I replace the hole cord or just the plug? With it only drawing 8.6 amps I should be fine using 12 gauge wire right?


The motor on your Delta contractor's saw is not a typical dual voltage motor. Most motors have the same horsepower rating when they are set up for either 120 or 240 volts. They just draw 1/2 the amperes when connected to the higher voltage. Your motor was specially designed by Delta to produce 1.5 hp when connected to 120 volts to allow it to be used on-site in new or remodel housing where the power available is usually only 120 volts at 15-20 amps. You can't run a 2 hp motor from a 120 volt 15 amp circuit. But when the saw is used in the contractor's shop it was designed to allow it to be changed over and used on 240 volts with the benefit of higher available horse power at a lower current draw. The extra 1/2 horsepower can be very handy when your saw is used in the shop. Since it will also draw less current at the higher voltage you will also benefit from having less losses in the wiring to the saw.

Charley

[cody michael]

is the chart in the bottom of the picture the wiring diagram for switching it over to 220?