Table saw blade adjustment needed?

[Corey Pelton]

Hey everyone,

I’ve just setup my new Sawstop PCS, and when checking the blade to the miters, I’m seeing that 1/2 the teeth are aligned, while the other half aren’t. Using a dial indicator shows about .008 difference from front of blade to the back, with the back half pushing away from the fence.


https://youtu.be/L2lFZShc79E

Do I need to adjust the table? This is my first cabinet saw, so I’m green on dealing with alignment issues. Also, I wasn’t able to find something similar to what I’m seeing online. I know the procedure for adjusting the table, but I wanted to get some opinions before I start mucking around.

Thanks for the help!

Corey

[James Tibbetts]

My guess is the blade is warped, or much less likely the shaft is out. If it were planar the teeth would all hit once you set the square in place regardless of the orientation to the fence, slot or anything else.

[Corey Pelton]

Ok, that’s what I was thinking myself, that the blade might be warped. Hopefully, it’s just that. I’ll throw another blade on, see what I get.

[Corey Pelton]

Tried two other blades, same thing 😐 Guess it’s time to contact Sawstop.

[Matt Day]

If you have a magnetic base dial indicator check the runout of the arbor flange. Also, see if the arbor washer is flat and has any wobble against the arbor flange.

[johnny means]

How does it cut? That's all that matters. Twenty odd years making furniture a cabinets and I've never seen anyone set up a table saw with a dial indicator.

[James Tibbetts]

Follow Matt's advice first if possible. That would produce the same variation as the shaft being out.

[Charles Lent]

Put a mark on your blade so you know which tooth that you are measuring to and make your measurements from the miter slot to that one tooth. Turn the blade to get the marked tooth positioned to the right place for taking each measurement. This will eliminate any blade warp error from your measurements. Do a measurement with the marked tooth just above the table in the front and then again in the back of the blade slot and use a magnetic base and dial indicator for the measurements. They make special mounts that fit the miter slot to mound the dial indicator to and this way would be better than using the magnetic base. 0.008" is a pretty small amount and it's easy to get errors in taking your measurements that would give you that much error.

Charley

[Corey Pelton]

Put a mark on your blade so you know which tooth that you are measuring to and make your measurements from the miter slot to that one tooth. Turn the blade to get the marked tooth positioned to the right place for taking each measurement. This will eliminate any blade warp error from your measurements. Do a measurement with the marked tooth just above the table in the front and then again in the back of the blade slot and use a magnetic base and dial indicator for the measurements. They make special mounts that fit the miter slot to mound the dial indicator to and this way would be better than using the magnetic base. 0.008" is a pretty small amount and it's easy to get errors in taking your measurements that would give you that much error.

Charley

Hey Charley,

That's exactly what I did, heh. I used my Woodpeckers table saw alignment tool to check (has a dial indicator on the end of it, works well!). It's about .008 from same tooth, front to back. The bigger problem is that half the teeth aren't aligned when testing 1 revolution. The latter half of the cut gets extremely hard to push the stock through, which makes me worry a bit. Quite a bit of burn marks from forcing a couple pieces through. I'll wait to hear back from Sawstop CS on Monday. Bit bummed that it sort of sidelined me this weekend. Was hoping to get more accomplished than I have.

I'll try Matt's suggestion tomorrow and see if anything is out of wack on the shaft or arbor washers. Though the washers seemed pretty ok, at least to the naked eye lying flush on the table.

[Corey Pelton]

It’s driving me nuts that this thing is off, so here I am at 5am checking the arbor with my dial indicator, hah. Inner and outer arbor washers are spot on. End of the shaft has .001 movement. Not enough to explain my results when checking the teeth. I think I’m more confused now than at the start. lol

[Lee Schierer]

Check the flange on the arbor shaft and insure there isn't a burr or piece of debris stuck to the face of the flange. If none is present I would definitely talk to Sawstop. Your cut quality will suffer with that much wobble in the blade.

[Nick Decker]

Corey, have you checked the alignment of the fence to the miter slot? That would figure in too, if you're having problems pushing wood through.

[Corey Pelton]

Fence is dead on accurate. Table and wings are as well. Washers and nut are burr free and properly machined. Threads are clean on the shaft, no flat or oblong sections. I wish I knew more about the saw, so I could at least give a decent hypothesis. I’m hoping Sawstop has an answer for me tomorrow.

[Corey Pelton]

Spoke with Sawstop techs, and from what they can tell, the arbor block has a wobble. They’re sending me a new arbor block assembly and we’ll see if it fixes the issue. Glad to see firsthand how great Sawstop’s customer service is.

[Joe Hollis]

If it is the saw itself and not runout on the blade, then that is pretty poor manufacturing Q/C for a saw like this in my opinion.

My General Model 350 10" table saw is 17 years old, and the runout on the arbor flange as measured using a Starrett dial indicator (I checked it yesterday) measures a few tenths over .001.

JH


Spoke with Sawstop techs, and from what they can tell, the arbor block has a wobble. They’re sending me a new arbor block assembly and we’ll see if it fixes the issue. Glad to see firsthand how great Sawstop’s customer service is.

[Corey Pelton]

It’s mostly a guess that is the issue. Glad they are willing to try a fix. I’m upset there’s a problem at all, but hopefully this will fix it.

[Corey Pelton]

Can anyone with a Sawstop PCS confirm if they have a hand-etched number on their interior arbor washer? This seems incredibly odd to me.

387697

[Nick Decker]

Mine, purchased several months ago, has one. Why do you find it odd? Probably part of the quality control that Joe H. somehow feels is lacking.

Whatever turns out to be wrong with yours, mistakes happen. Your saw constitutes a very small sample size, just like Joe's General saw does. The key here is how SS handles it, and I'd be very surprised if they don't make it right.

[Corey Pelton]

It felt odd, only that it's hand-etched and not laser cut, but like you said, they have people doing actual quality control, so that would make sense. Sawstop is sending parts, and I do appreciate them doing that, but for a saw that's 2 weeks old, straight from the factory, doesn't exactly feel good. Like the Sawstop tech said to me, it's only a guess as to what could be wrong, since all they have are my videos. It's possible the cast iron of the table assembly / trunnion has a defect as well, which isn't exactly fixable or something I would even want to try and fix. Frankly, i'm not too kean on doing any fix honestly. I've already lost a lot of time due to this issue, and to have to tear the machine down, and rebuild with a hope that it's fixed, isn't sitting too well with me.

I'm sure i'm outlier here on this issue, it's just shitty to have to deal with. I have faith that Sawstop will make it right, it's just a matter of how long until that happens. I don't want to be swapping parts for the next 3-6 months only to find that nothing worked. Not to mention all the projects I have will be put on hold. If worse comes to worse, I'll get a replacement.

[joe milana]

I would send it back.

[Matt Day]

Send it back? I’d rather try to fix it than crate that sucker up for shipping.

Unless I sense sarcasm....

I’ll be doing a tune up and alignment on an ICS next week, hope I don’t find the same thing!

[joe milana]

No sarcasm. Strap it to a palate & call for a RMA.

[Corey Pelton]

No sarcasm. Strap it to a palate & call for a RMA.

A very real possibility. I'm of the mind if it doesn't come as intended, you are probably never going to get there. For the money, I would feel better having another saw.

[glenn bradley]

Just for peace of mind I would mark the blade and the arbor flange, loosen the blade and rotate it a bit, re-tighten and see if the deviation follows the blade mark or the flange mark. I know you have tried multiple blades so the problem should follow the flange mark. That is, if the saw is inducing the error and the blade blank is true, the problem should exhibit at the same place on the saw; unless things are sloppy bearing wise but, you would have noticed that. You are just snugging the arbor nut, right? No need to crank it down. I'm just wondering about distorting things under pressure.

[Corey Pelton]

Yeah, I'm snugging it up the nut, not cranking it down, but I'll try marking the flange as well. At least that will fully eliminate the blade.

[Bill Beall]

Yeah, I'm snugging it up the nut, not cranking it down, but I'll try marking the flange as well. At least that will fully eliminate the blade.
So what was the outcome...I am having the same issue on my 7 hp industrial saw. Checked EVERYTHING. 5 Blades all same issue. Did the new arbor assembly work?