Contractor saw heeling adjustment

[Douglas Brummett]

Contractor saw blues:
I have always had a contractor saw from craftsman. Recently I picked up a used one to replace my old direct drive. More HP, nice htc 52in fence, and an extension table. I am pretty stoked. Well, after reading a few tune up articles, watching a couple of videos, and of course checking my saw's manual I was ready to have at it. I measured it, loosened the trunion bolts, and adjusted. Well, looks like I am still about .020" off and I have run out of adjustment range on the saw. Are some contractor saws just this off? Any suggestions?

So far I have gone to the extent of drilling access holes in the cabinet in order to have a direct access with a punch to tap the trunion mounts. They aren't going any further in the needed direction.

[Phil Thien]

Have you been concentrating on the rear of the trunnion? Can you shift the front over in the opposite direction?

[Ben Cadotte]

Is this just at 90 or at 45 deg? But I agree, in that you may need to move the front over and then fine tune with the rear (guessing your only working with the rear now). Also some shimming may help bring it in closer (shims between the top and trunion). Need to check it at 90 and 45 first though. And get a good picture of where the blade is through its range.

[Douglas Brummett]

Working both front and rear mounts. I started with the rear loose and the front pivoting on one bolt. I was only able to get to about .035" heeled. So I loosened the front, drilled a hole in the case and gave it a solid whack in the right direction with a punch (okay, I gave it many whacks :D). After thumping on front and rear in some sense of order the best I can get is still about .020" heeled towards the fence in the rear (the worst case for kickback :eek:)

I am thinking a disassembly this weekend and filing/drilling of the trunion mounts may be the only way to get some extra throw on the adjustment. I could get the bolts trimmed to the minor OD at a local machine shop as well. I am leery to try that by hand as the results wouldn't be very consistent.

Any other hints or suggestions?

[Douglas Brummett]

Okay, I haven't messed with the bolts or anything more than the other day. But I did build a quick and dirty jig to make sure my measurement was accurate. By this jig I am measuring about .016" with my mitutoyo digital caliper. There is still some accuracy issue as far as point of contact, but I didn't feel like spending $20 on a harbor freight dial indicator of just as questionable accuracy.

At .016-.017" I am just outside of mfg spec of 1/64"(.0156"). Is this really going to cause me any grief more than just a slightly wider kerf?

[john bateman]

I own a Ridgid contractor saw and when the blade was more than just a few thousandths out of alignment, I found the cuts to be unacceptable.

If the back of the blade is .016 more to the left, anytime you make a crosscut on a wide piece...where you might stop pushing a soon as the trailing edge of your stock has been cut...you will see a .016" deep kerf mark on the cut edge of your stock.

And if the back of the blade is .016 more to the right, you will get burning during rip cuts using the fence. Maybe even some binding.

If all you ever do is hack up plywood for shop cabinets, this may not matter.

[Douglas Brummett]

Interesting. I ripped some pine 2x4 on it the other day and it didn't give me any trouble.

I installed a factory replacement riving knife (on this model it is just a splitter that curves around the back of the blade. That should help to keep material from riding up and over the blade from the fence side. But it does sound like it is best for me to dismantle the saw and get some more wiggle room via the file method.

[Ben Cadotte]

Interesting. I ripped some pine 2x4 on it the other day and it didn't give me any trouble.

I installed a factory replacement riving knife (on this model it is just a splitter that curves around the back of the blade. That should help to keep material from riding up and over the blade from the fence side. But it does sound like it is best for me to dismantle the saw and get some more wiggle room via the file method.

Washers / shim material under the trunion (between trunion and top) will move the blade as well. Most do this to help with alignment at 45 degree bevels. But can be done to help with 90 deg too. Just remember to check at 90 and 45. As you may get 90 right on, but 45 still out of wack. May need a combination of filing grooves some and shims.

[Douglas Brummett]

Well, I was able to get 90 dead on. I will check 45 tomorrow, but honestly the 90 is where I will spend 99% of my time. In order to line this thing up I had to pull the rear with a quick clamp, tighten it. Then I used a big screwdriver to pry the front over. End result is in the first picture. Individual teeth showed .001" front to back. I checked several teeth. So basically for my saw tapping or hitting it wasn't enough. The trunion had to be muscled into place and then tightened while pressure is still on it.

I broke down and picked up a HF dial. Honestly it was way easier to work with, more accurate, and the jig took about a minute to rig up. I can honestly recommend it to fussing with other methods.