contractor saw tune-up question

[joe kuless]

This weekend I decided to tune-up my tablesaw (craftsman contractor style) for the first time. I used a dial caliper and followed the guides here on the site. In the process of setting the blade to miter slot parallel, I bumped up against the motor and noticed the caliper moved about .005" So upon further investigation, I discovered that te alignment changes significantly with changes in belt tension belt tension (about .012" at the blage edge between tensioned and untensioned). Is this normal?

The arbor bearings seem to be fine, when I put pressure on the pully it looks like the movement at the pivot pin of the assembly. Should I be concerned? My cuts look fine BTW.

Thanks for your help.

[glenn bradley]

In my experience; unfortunately, yes this happens. The long rods that the motor hangs from does torture your alignment on smaller contractor saws if bumped and when beveling the blade. The design is trapped between hefty enough for reliable cuts and light enough to be a job site saw.

That being said I had good results on my 1970's C-man and my dad still does. The trick for me was getting the blade lined up at 90*. Your motor must be on the belt and trunnion as it will during use or your alignment is useless. Having achieved that, I went after a good alignment at 45*.

I was able to get really good setup at 90* and keep pretty good at 45* although I would get some burning due to the skew imposed by the motor weight while beveled. Now, in between those angles, who knows.

The point is 95% of my cuts were done at 90* so I put my primary effort there and got a very workable set up.

[Keith Beck]

Joe,

Unfortunately, that's one of the setbacks with contractor saws. I've also found that going from angling the blade back to 90 degrees also adversely affected all the effort I put into originally aligning the blade. That's a large part of the reason I eventually gave it up and invested in a cabinet saw.

Keith

[joe kuless]

that is good news to me, it cuts well enough, I was just concerned it may be a sign of impending failure. I will just get it as close as I can and call it a day.

Thanks again