RAS blade wobble

[DCH]

Greetings all...

I found an older Craftsman (1960's) radial arm saw a few days ago, for 40$ looked fine, cleaned up real nice, leveled the table, added a new fence, it runs fine until you cut with it, once the blade gets into the cut it seems to wobble, making a kerf much wider than it should, the saw was made for a

9" blade but the guy had a 8" blade on it...I thought that might be an issue, but thought I would see if anyone else has seen this before and what the possible causes and/or cures that are out there....

Thanks for any help...

DCH

[J. Clarke]

First thing to check--are _all_ the adjustments locking tight? Grab the blade guard and try to move it in all directions. If it moves in any then you need to find out what's loose and tighten it.

Next, try to wobble the shaft up and down and in and out and see if it moves--if it does then you may need new bearings, which you should be able to order off the Sears site.

Check the blade runout--is it wobbling on the shaft? If so the shaft may be bent or the flat surface on which the blade seats may be deformed.

Next, get Jon Eakes' radial saw book and do what it says (there are a lot of adjustments to tune, several of them could be causing the problem that you're seeing).

Also, see if it is covered by the recall . If it is you can get a hundred bucks by sending the motor back--not as good as having a working saw but it beats not having anything.

[Todd]

Just out of curiosity....(and you probably have already checked this...)

do you have two collars on the blade? (1 to the left and 1 to the right?) I'm referring to the metal discs that go between the blade and the nut at the end....I ask because I also found an old RAS, and one of those collars was missing, which made for quite a wobble. Never cut with it like that, though...didn't have the guts... :-)

Also, go to www3.sears.com and check out the model number of your RAS, and take a look at a parts diagram of it. Make sure that you have all of the important parts.

Good luck,

Todd

DCH wrote:

[whit3rd]

If the plane of the blade is not parallel to the line of motion, it'll buck and catch and cut a wide groove. Put a straight-edge across the blade (guard off and power unplugged, of course) and sight down onto the kerf. If it's skew, that's your problem. A single-LED flashlight can cast a useful shadow, if you don't like squinting and have an assistant on a ladder...

Loose bearings are also a possibility, but you can tell by just wiggling the blade.

[Toller]

The first thing you want to do is to see if Emerson will buy it back for $100. I am not sure where that is, but it will come up on a search. If not, I wish you well, but don't have any advice to offer.

[Roy]

Several have made good runout and various wear check suggestions. Blade warped? Any buildups on the blade/washers that might be causing it to mount slightly crooked? Blade mount washers flat? DAMHIKT.

[George E. Cawthon]

A smaller blade isn't going to make it wobble, but that blade may be warped or it may warp during cutting. So, try another blade before you do anything.

It could be too much end play, check to see if the blade or shaft can be moved left to right. If it can, adding a brass washer may solve the problem, but you will need to buy sheet brass (check hobby stores for a package of several sheets with different thickness) and make your own washers. You want to get end play down to about

0.001 inch.

[Rod & Betty Jo]

Last spring I found the bearings on mine (late 70's) out of whack.....I could not properly align the saw, each adjustment just made something else off....I removed the motor and had a small electric motor shop repair it (approx. $100). Most likely sometime before I had bent something by cutting a oddball piece of wood(foolish mistake) of which had actually wrecked a blade. The bearings on mine are epoxied in place, the shop didn't sound real thrilled with the design but knew how to fix them well......I was told (but didn't check) that my motor was no longer available for replacement.......before assuming such a problem make sure the blade is true and all saw wear/alignment adjustments have been made. Rod

[mac davis]

ALL excellent suggestions and could be a tutorial!

I would like to begin the inspection with UNPLUG THE SAW, but I admit to being a bit paranoid about stuff like that...

Mac

[DCH]

mac davis wrote in news: [e-mail]:

on the sides of the blade flat...the blade does not have any play I can feel on the arbor, the arm seems to be as square as I can measure....both to fence and the table...sooooo I will try a better blade and see if that helps any, the saw only wobbles when its cutting...it runs very smooth until the cutting begins...I think the saw qualifies under the emerson recall, so at the very least I might make a few bucks off the saw...thanks to all for the advise...

DCH

[J. Clarke]

Is the blade parallel to the arm?

[Jim Behning]

Attach a pencil or nail to the saw blade. Set up your framing square on the back fence. Set a tooth, pencil point or nail point to trace the 90 degree leg of the framing square with the saw turned off. Do things wobble then? I have a radial arm saw from a production shop. The groves the 4 motor housing runs in is worn in the normal stroke area. it is tight all the way back and all the extended.

[David Starr]

I have a 10" Craftsman radial arm saw. I got it used back in the 1970's and still use it. The manual for mine is available on the Internet (Old Woodworking Tools). Google will find it. It's worth doing the alignment procedure just to rule out things and get everything tight. If the wobble only shows up when cutting, double check the blade. A single bent or broken tooth can cause a lot of trouble. If dull or mis sharpened, bad things will happen. Was it me, I'd invest the price of a new carbide blade to get the saw running. What kind of shape is the table in? If its warped, or badly cut up, cutting a new one might help. On my Craftsman, table alignment comes first. You loosen the angle irons holding the table to the base. Then adjust five set screws buried in the bottom of the table with PEM nuts until you can swing the arm from side to side with the blade just scraping the table. When the table is flat, tighten the angle irons to the base to hold it in position. Then use a framing square to get the arm at right angles to the fence, and a combination square to get the blade at right angles to the table.

David Starr

[findthehumorinthings]

replying to DCH, findthehumorinthings wrote: I know this forum is dated, but thought I would contribute a key finding on older Craftsman RAS saws. I just picked up a 1979 model. Hardly used. First thing I noticed was blade wobble. Confirmed it was the motor shaft. Removed the blade and blade washers. Noticed a rolled pin through the shaft to hold the motor shaft to the inside bolt next to the motor. Pulled that rolled pin and checked the motor shaft again. It's now completely straight. Looked at the hole where the pin was. It was not lined up. It was drilled incorrectly in the factory. I'm likely going to redrill that hole so I can fasten the pin in again, but that was a reasonably easy fix for a bad manufacturing problem that caused this saw to sit in a garage for almost 40 years, unused.

[dpb]

I'm having a hard time conceptualizing this...how about posting a link to a picture???

[Scott Lurndal]

A guess is that the blade wasn't seated squarely on the shaft and by taking the blade off and reinstalling it (regardless of the roll pin) it became square again (and lost the wobble).

[dpb]

A guess is that the blade wasn't seated squarely on the shaft and by taking the blade off and reinstalling it (regardless of the roll pin) it became square again (and lost the wobble).

Something of that ilk seems far more likely...