Tablesaw questions

I just acquired an older Sears flex-shaft tablesaw. It seems to run well enough but I ordered a replacement shaft from Sears (before they're discontinued) just to have on the shelf. I also ordered an owner's manual.

My questions are these:

1): The rip fence has a total runout (as measured by my dial indicator) of about .015 inch, which is not linear from front to back At about 2 " from the front edge and at approximately the center of the blade, the indicator reads zero. Between those points, it varies a total of about .003-.004 inch in one direction. All the way from front to back, it varies from about .008" in one direction to about .007" in the other. Is that too much? It seems excessive to me. Is there anything I can do about it short of replacing the fence?

2) The saw sat for a long time and most of the bare surfaces are lightly pitted with rust. Can I clean it up with steel wool and/or hardware cloth without compromising accuracy?

snip

If you consider the run out spec for the blade of typically .005", it is likely in tolerance. To improve on it, you'd have to replace the fence. Although, spending several hundred dollars for a fence for this old of a machine is questionable. I would suppose if you're doing precision cutting with very low tolerance, it may be worthwhile to you. Considering most cuts for woodworking is usually OK within 1/16 of an inch (.0625), You're a magnitude better than that. So for weekend projects, I think you're plenty good.

I don't think you have a choice; remove the rust and prevent it from reoccurring. I've used an air compressor driven grinder with a copper brush on the end to remove the rust and then use Top Cote (get this at a wood crafting store) to keep the rust off and the top slick.

If you can't cut a grove into your fingernail with the edge of a blade's tooth (while it isn't running of course), get the blade sharpened or replaced. A combo blade cost to sharpen is around $13, depending on the number of teeth. Harbor Freight has TS blades that are good enough for the weekend woodworker for about half that.

Good to see someone wanting to put an old codger back to work.

Thunder