Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 17

Thread: Table Saw Alignment Woes

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Mountain View, AR
    Posts
    13

    Table Saw Alignment Woes

    I have a Jet 10 inch contractor table saw that I've been using for about a month. I was quite happy with it until I was cutting some bevels on some plywood - I noticed things weren't going smoothly. I brought the blade back up and tried to put the zero clearance insert back in, and it was WAY off...

    So, I've followed a few procedures I found online for re-aligning the trunnions. However, with them maxed out - front trunnion all the way to one side, and the back to the other side, it still is off by a very noticeable amount.

    I should also mention that I have an outfeed table and when I first tilted the blade over (which tilts the motor up pretty high) It came in contact with the table while I was cranking until I realized what was going on....stupid mistake...but, could that have tweaked something? What?

    Thanks for your help.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Camas, Wa
    Posts
    3,853
    Leo,
    Most contractor saw trunions consists of 2 rods connected to cast iron ends that connect to the table.The weight of the motor causes the trunion to twist when the blade is tilted and normally need to be rechecked after returing back to 90 degrees. My guess is that wne the motor came in contact with the outfeed table caused the trunion to twist even more. I would probably take a 2x4 and try to tweek the motor(with blade at 90 degrees) in the opposite direction to counter act what the contact with the outfeed table did. Before I did that I would move the trunion bolts back to center of the mounting holes to give you some working room on both side for alignments. If you don't have a set of PALS you might look into them. They make the whole alignment easier.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Mountain View, AR
    Posts
    13
    Thanks for the advice Cary. Worked like a charm...I'm aligned again!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Noblesville, IN
    Posts
    71

    Question

    Quote Originally Posted by Cary Falk View Post
    Leo,
    If you don't have a set of PALS you might look into them. They make the whole alignment easier.

    Sorry if I'm hijacking the thread, but what are PALS and where do you get them?

    Thanks!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    McKean, PA
    Posts
    15,593
    Blog Entries
    1
    Quote Originally Posted by Travis Rassat View Post
    Sorry if I'm hijacking the thread, but what are PALS and where do you get them?

    Thanks!
    Pals are a hardware kit sold by various places to aid in TS alignments. They look like this!

    Do a google searche for "pals table saw alignment" and you will find sources for them.
    Lee Schierer
    USNA '71
    Go Navy!

    My advice, comments and suggestions are free, but it costs money to run the site. If you found something of value here please give a little something back by becoming a contributor! Please Contribute

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Noblesville, IN
    Posts
    71
    Wow, that's pretty cool - thanks for enlightening me!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    22,492
    Blog Entries
    1
    Quote Originally Posted by Travis Rassat View Post
    Sorry if I'm hijacking the thread, but what are PALS and where do you get them?

    Thanks!
    Lee's got you covered but I'll kick in; when I had a contractor saw, PALs were the best 20 bucks or so I ever spent. Link belt and machined pulleys are a very close second. If you're going to run a contractor for awhile, I found my enjoyment of the saw well exceeded the money spent on the "goodies" for it.

    P.s. PALs are specific to the saw to some extent. C-man PALs don't work so well on Delta saws for example. But the few models they make cover almost anything.
    "A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".


    – Samuel Butler

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Boulder, CO
    Posts
    198

    Gah! I just did this

    I just ran into the same problem on my Powermatic 64. I'd installed an outfeed table of my own devising. It's been driving me nuts for two days.

    Worked great until I hit about 20 degrees of tilt and didn't realize I was hitting the motor until I was 4 degrees out of parallel to the miter saw. I'm guessing I twisted the trunnion bars.

    Is the solution to take a 2x4 between the bars and un-twist them the other way?

    -Matthew

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Griswold Connecticut
    Posts
    6,926
    Matthew

    Not quite.

    There are 4 bolts that secure the trunnion to the tablesaw top. Two of them are in the rear and two of them are in the front, where they are almost impossible to get at. ( A light and a mirror make it easy).

    The object of the game is to loosen the trunnion bolts and use a 2x4 to either "smack", or" lever" the entire trunnion assembly as a whole back into position. The application of force is being applied to the trunnion mount. Light taps with a dead blow mallet and a length of 2x4 should do it.
    I have a Jet 10" contractor saw and found that the singles, biggest contributor to the top not staying in alignment was that the bolt pad on the underside of the trunnion were not parallel with the base of the trunnion. This caused the bolt heads themselves to not make full contact with a flat surface. Once I machined them parallel to the base, they were rock solid, and didn't move.

    To the best of my knowledge you don't try to twist the assembly using the trunnion bars themselves as the fulcrum point, or at least I never have.
    The last time I aligned my contractor saw though, I took it apart and flipped it upside down on the workbench and aligned it that way, upside down. It had a few other issues though to correct after 10 years of use and abuse, and rolling around the garage.
    Last edited by Mike Cutler; 07-06-2008 at 7:18 AM.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Mountain View, AR
    Posts
    13
    Matthew,

    Yeah, sounds like we both did the same thing, resulting in being much too out of whack to bring it home by adjusting the trunnion bolts. What worked for me was basically applying a twisting pressure exactly opposite to the pressure that was applied to the saw by my tilting the motor into the table.

    I adjusted the trunnion bolts back to the middle of their slots (snugged them up, but not tight), took a piece of 2x4 and stuck it in the mounting bracket of my motor and gave it some light tugs upward. That got me un-torqued.... then I could adjust like normal with the trunnion bolts and tapping with a hammer.

    Leo

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Tucson
    Posts
    5,001
    Blog Entries
    1
    I know what your problem is. Look on the back of your saw and see if when it's tilted, does the trunion rods hit the angle iron on the back of the table. If you go through my old posts yoy'll find pictures of this problem. My Powermatic did the same thing. I had them replace it just to have it do the same thing all over. The way I fixed it was to put a block of wood against the box and tilt it back until it hit the wood. Then i continued to tilt it back and forced it to re align itself. I haven't re-drilled my angle iron on the back yet so I just use my Incra miter sled for most angles or I use my Festool TS-75 for sheet material. PM me if you can't figure it out.
    What you listen to is your business....what you hear is ours.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Boulder, CO
    Posts
    198
    Success!
    After about a half hour banging on the back end the other way, I was able to re true the trunnion rods. Then I realigned and was back within a couple mils.

    The only way I could think to test the squareness of the assemblage was checking them with a little level. I actually did take a 2x4 inthere and tweak the back end rods. But you really need more like a 2x6 since you don't have a lot of lateral clearance to twist under there.

    Alas my first act was to make a new crosscut sled, which is out of square cause I messed up the squaring process. -sigh-

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Tucson
    Posts
    5,001
    Blog Entries
    1
    Have you tried tilting to 45* again? If it goes out again, check to see if the trunions are hitting.
    What you listen to is your business....what you hear is ours.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Boulder, CO
    Posts
    198
    Alas, no. What's causing the binding is the motor runs into the outfeed table support if i tilt it past about 20 deg. I designed the outfeed table to have to angle aluminum braces that run from the cabinet back to the underside of the table. It's running into one of these. I can tilt it over if I remove the outfeed table or re-design the support to use legs instead of braces off the cabinet.

    I must comment after pulling apart the whole machine and reassembling it. I am NOT impressed with the general design of contractor saws. This whole motor hanging out the back thing is for the birds. On top of that the trunnions are inherently not square if you tilt them since the rely on the rigidity of the rods to hold the end pieces together.

    My more severe problem is my electrical service. I've got one outlet for the entire garage that's on a tiny circuit. I ended up blowing the breaker right in the middle of a cut through some mahogany. Not good.

    I ended up wandering over to the local rental woodshop-for-hire (the sawdust shop) here in sunnyvale and used their big Saw Stop. Wow, so much nicer.

  15. Trunnion problem

    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Wyko View Post
    I know what your problem is. Look on the back of your saw and see if when it's tilted, does the trunion rods hit the angle iron on the back of the table. If you go through my old posts yoy'll find pictures of this problem. My Powermatic did the same thing. I had them replace it just to have it do the same thing all over. The way I fixed it was to put a block of wood against the box and tilt it back until it hit the wood. Then i continued to tilt it back and forced it to re align itself. I haven't re-drilled my angle iron on the back yet so I just use my Incra miter sled for most angles or I use my Festool TS-75 for sheet material. PM me if you can't figure it out.
    Bill, tried to find your old post regarding the above trunnion rod issue, but couldn't. Could you send the link to the pictures? I have a Grizzly TS that was perfect (better than I can measure) at one point, but now do not seem to have enough room left in the trunnion hole to align it.

Similar Threads

  1. Sliding Table Saws- Mark Duginske's article
    By Todd Solomon in forum General Woodworking and Power Tools
    Replies: 23
    Last Post: 01-12-2011, 1:43 AM
  2. Router and Table questions
    By Jacob Reverb in forum General Woodworking and Power Tools
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 04-04-2008, 5:39 PM
  3. Table Saw Overarm Guard/Dust Collector Mounting
    By Mike Scoggins in forum General Woodworking and Power Tools
    Replies: 20
    Last Post: 01-12-2008, 12:16 AM
  4. Homemade Unisaw outfeed table
    By Allan Johanson in forum General Woodworking and Power Tools
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 03-08-2005, 7:50 AM

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •