Old TS

[Greg Ware]

A lurker repents. I have been amazed at the knowledge and experience that is shared on this site. I am fairly new to WW and have tried some of the tips and tricks I found here with great success. I am having some difficulty with my TS and am in need of some assistance. I inherited the saw from my father who bought it in 1958 and used it to help build our home and many other projects since. It's still in good shape, as he was very good at taking care of and maintaining his tools. Due to poor health he was not able to do much WW for quite a few years and passed away just before Thanksgiving this last year. Most of my experience and knowledge came from working with him, so I have a good understanding of the basics, but I have been bitten by "the bug". My wife would like to know if there is a cure. I have been teasing her about having my pay check set up for an automatic deposit to the local Woodcrafters store. Back to my TS... It's a Rockwell model 34-345. It has been in storage for almost 12 years. My older brother took it apart to take up less room and I have had a fine time locating all the parts and getting it put back together. The motor is still strong and works fine but I can't seem to get the blade lined up correctly. At first it didn't want to cut at all, just burned its way through even thin stock. After reading the posts found here and on other sites on the web I have been able to get it much closer and now it does cross cuts pretty good but ripping is another story. I have put a Freud combo blade on which has helped. (I have Freud blades on my other saws and really like them). I do not own a dial indicator but followed advise I read here about squaring the miter gauge and using a small block with a screw in the end clamped to the miter gauge as a guide I was able to line it up with the miter slot. Then using the same technique I lined up the fence with the same miter slot along its full length, then compared the blade to the fence and it is right on. But still is not ripping very well. The cross cuts are doing ok but when trying to rip I get a lot of burning and it sounds like the motor is bogging down, even on 1/2" red cedar. I rechecked the alignment and it has not moved. If anyone can offer some suggestions I would appreciate it. Sorry for the lengthy post.
We need to preach more repentance.... this is a great site.

Thanks
Greg

[Mike Gabbay]

Greg - If the fence is lined up and not toed in on the end then I would check the belts to see if they are in need of replacing. If they have hardened then they might be slipping. Also check the tension on the belts as well. That could be causing the saw to bog down.

[David G Baker]

Greg,
Make sure you let your wife know that there is no known cure for the woodworking bug. Welcome to SMC.

[Travis Gauger]

I would guess that your fence isn't maintaining it's trueness to the blade once locked down. Can you move the outfeed side of the fence while you have it locked? If so, that would allow the wood your ripping to "rub" the blade.

[Greg Ware]

Thanks for the replies. I will double check the fence and replace the belt. I guess after quite a few years of use and 12 years in storage the belt could be in need of changing. Sometimes when we look to close we miss the obvious.

Greg

[Greg Peterson]

Welcome to the Creek, Greg.

If the fence is parallel to the miter slots and remains parallel after the cut, then my next guess would be the blade is not parallel to the miter slot.

It is common for blades to go out of parallel in contractor style saws.