I need some advise with a bent saw blade

[Ken Shoemaker]

Like all of us, I paid lot of money for my saw blade. While tuning up my Delta contractor saw and found the miter slot appeared to be about .009 out from the blade. I kept at it and, to my great relief, determined that the arbor is dead on @ .001. I marked a reference tooth with a Sharpie. Finally, I put the dial indicator on the blade, which was properly mounted on a clean arbor, and rotated it using the link belt. It is bent by as much as .009, but returns to .000 when it reaches the reference tooth. After pluging the saw back in and visulaly watching the blade as it spools down from running speed, it does appear to "wobble" ever so slightly as the RPMs decrease.

Any suggestions??? Try to save the balde or buy a new one??

TIA for your valuable input.... Ken

[Bill White]

If it's out that far, I would seek a replacement.
Bill

[Ken Shoemaker]

I bought the blade over a year ago. I am so new at woodworking, I just now have enough knowlage to tune my machine.... I think:rolleyes:

[glenn bradley]

Exchange if new, replace if old. The error is enough to concern me (I'm kinda picky) but, compound it by all the cuts required to make a piece and the combined error will be enough to concern anybody.

I can rationalize my way into anything but being unhappy with a project made out of $100 worth of material plus all the time I put into it would definitly get me to acquire a new blade.

[CPeter James]

It can be fixed, but the cost may not be worth it. A friend had an almost new WWII and tried to tilt his arbor with the zero clearance still in the table. It bent the blade quite badly. Forrestt corrected it (we are not sure if they fixed it or replaced it) for $65.00. Considering a new one can be had for $80 if you look hard enough, this may not be worth it. The corrected blade is dead on straight.

CPeter

[Ken Shoemaker]

Thank you all for your input.... Now the question is; Has anyone ever tuned a Delta contractors saw to get the balde parallel to the miter slot??? I'm about to do it and any advise would be GREATLY appreciated....:o

[Mark Rios]

Ken, when I had my Contractor saw, the PALS kit that I bought for it was the greatest thing ever. It lets you turn an allen screw, one on each side, to adjust the alignment instead of using your precision hammer. :rolleyes:

http://www.in-lineindustries.com/saw_pals.html

The only thing that I did that deviated from the standard instructions was that I drilled a 1/2" hole in the side of the cabinet to access one of the adjusting screws. I could have fussed with it and not drilled it but the little, hidden 1/2" hole also saved me from having to buy my dogs ear protection from me yelling and getting frustrated. :D

For $20, it's a VERY tremendous accessory.

[Mike Seals]

Like all of us, I paid lot of money for my saw blade. While tuning up my Delta contractor saw and found the miter slot appeared to be about .009 out from the blade. I kept at it and, to my great relief, determined that the arbor is dead on @ .001. I marked a reference tooth with a Sharpie. Finally, I put the dial indicator on the blade, which was properly mounted on a clean arbor, and rotated it using the link belt. It is bent by as much as .009, but returns to .000 when it reaches the reference tooth. After pluging the saw back in and visulaly watching the blade as it spools down from running speed, it does appear to "wobble" ever so slightly as the RPMs decrease.

Any suggestions??? Try to save the balde or buy a new one??

TIA for your valuable input.... Ken


Maybe I'm wrong but .009 is about the thickness of a hair. I would think that maybe you are trying to get to tight. Too many factors can cause that slight sway, like the bearings and how far out from the bearings on the arbor the blade is located.

I would think that once the blade is up to speed, the natural centrifugal action would take place and tend to keep it floating tight enough for wood working. Without the motor driving it, the tendancy to wooble as the speed decreases with no driving force to control the thrust and radial loads may just be the nature of the beast. We are not talking a Siemens turbine here.

[Pete Bradley]

Forget the measurement for a moment. How well does the blade work? It's easy to overthink things with precision measuring equipment.

You may be able to reduce the total runout by putting the max point of the arbor and the max point of the blade 180 degrees apart.

Pete

[ron hill]

My wife bought me a Bosch Pro 1024 ripping blade for X-Mas and tried to use it today on a piece of 8/4 walnut and it made a horrible sound when it started to cut and then sounded ok for the rest of the cut. When I looked at the edge of the board is was really scarred up at the beginning of the cut. I turned the saw back on and watched the blade and could see it wobbling almost an 1/8" at slow speeds but looked pretty good at full speed. Took it back to where she purchased the blade and they wouldn' except it without a receipt which can't be found. This one went into the trash. It did come with a nice carrying case. I emailed Bosch and suggested that they just concentrate on making the cases.

[Frank Snyder]

Has anyone ever tuned a Delta contractors saw to get the balde parallel to the miter slot??? I'm about to do it and any advise would be GREATLY appreciated....:o
Ken,

I used to spend at least 20 minutes each day tuning my contractors saw (Ridgid TS2424) prior to using it. Main reason being that it got a bumpy ride out from my garage (where I stored it) to the patio (where I used it). No matter how tight the trunnion bolts were, it always managed to come out of alignment enough to cause saw marks or binding. In fact, I sheared off a few bolts by over tightening them. My advice is...

1.) Once the blade is set parallel to the miter slight, tighten the trunnion bolts just a little, check the alignment again, tighten them a bit more, check the aligment again, and repeat. If you torque one bolt down too much, at least on my saw, the whole trunnion would shift on me and by the time they were all tightened, the saw would be out of alignment again.

2.) Consider investing in an dial-indicator alignment tool which rides in the miter slot (TS-Aligner Jr.). This takes out much of the guesswork. I used to use an adjustable T-square...not really the ideal tool for the job IMO.

3.) Avoid moving the saw around.

4.) Start saving for a cabinet saw. Alignment is a cinch.

Hope this helps.

[CPeter James]

I know I am repeating myself, but this might help.




CPeter

[CPeter James]

I know I am repeating myself, but this might help.

http://home.metrocast.net/~cpjvkj/tstuneup.htm

CPeter

[Bruce Wrenn]

Like all of us, I paid lot of money for my saw blade. While tuning up my Delta contractor saw and found the miter slot appeared to be about .009 out from the blade. I kept at it and, to my great relief, determined that the arbor is dead on @ .001. I marked a reference tooth with a Sharpie. Finally, I put the dial indicator on the blade, which was properly mounted on a clean arbor, and rotated it using the link belt. It is bent by as much as .009, but returns to .000 when it reaches the reference tooth. After pluging the saw back in and visulaly watching the blade as it spools down from running speed, it does appear to "wobble" ever so slightly as the RPMs decrease.

Any suggestions??? Try to save the balde or buy a new one??

TIA for your valuable input.... KenFirst, deviation is+/-.0045 from neutral point. Check with Dynamic Saw (www.dynamicsaw.com) as they only charge $8.00 for normal flatening. Send the blade to them and have them check it out. When saw blades are tensioned, they become less than flat when measure across their entire width. Then centrifical force takes over and straightens blade. Main thing is HOW DOES IT CUT? If cut is okay, forget about doing anything to blade.

[Loren Hedahl]

I've got a Freud thin kerf rip blade that's out about the same also on a Ridgid TS with arbor run-out only so-so.

What I did was find my 'high' and 'low' spots and stick a small piece of scotch tape on the blade under the arbor flange in an appropriate spot to take out the wobble.

Once I found the exact placement, I marked the spot with a indelible marker. I also marked the arbor flange with a center punch at its high spot so I can install the blade in the same orientation each time.

If scotch tape is too thin, try a piece of Avery label, or even electrical tape.

Kinda fussy, but works for me until I decide to get a better table saw.

Loren