unisaw table alignment

[Trevor]

I have unisaw that I can't seem to get into alignment.

When I loosen or remove the trunnions and push the back of the table to the far right and the front of the table to the far left I get close to parallel, but cutting stock leaves burn marks next on the stock being cut to size (but the cutoff piece is burn free) In fact I can't move the saw table so that the rear of the blade is further from the fence than the front of the blade without removing the trunnion bolts completely -- and then the holes don't align at all...

Is there something obvious I'm missing? Are there other adjustments aside from the trunnion bolts that can assist in aligning the table?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Leon]

You should not be loostening trunion bolts if you have a Unisaw. You should be loostening the table bolts holding the table to the cabinet. normally lcvated on the outside corners of the cabinet.

[Trevor]

I misnamed the bolts. I was loosening four the table bolts. (For some reason I was thinking they were called trunnion bolts it never made sense to me)

So other than the table bolts (which is actually what I tried), are there any other adjustments I can make?

[Mike in Mystic]

how are you verifying blade to miter-slot parallelism? I use the TS-Aligner, Jr., but there are other ways to do it. After that, you must ensure that the fence is parallel to the miter-slot, and thus the blade. When you get that done if you still have burning, it is likely due to the blade - either blade runout and/or pitch build-up or something. What type of wood are you using, or is this a general problem regardless (which is what I'd assume)? Some woods (cherry, in particular) burn easily.

Mike

[Trevor]

I've tried various ways of testing for alignment. one method using two

45 degree plastic triangles and another method simly using a piece of wood secured to the miter gauge and marking a tooth on the blade. I don't have a tool specialy designed for this.

Basically, to get the blade as close to parallel as possible, I need to have the rear of the table pushed as far as possible to the right, and the front to the left. Any other setup will have obvious issues with the rear of the blade binding.

I have been cutting oak, which I believe is more prone to burning, and I would like to try what other have done and actually have the blade is ever so slightly not parallel so that the rear of the blade is further from the fence than the front.

The blade is a new old ham signature.

You are right though. I should check whether the fence is parallel to the miter slot again.

Mike > how are you verifying blade to miter-slot parallelism? I use the

[Lawrence Wasserman]

Not sure about your sequence here. Usually, one would loosen the table bolts on a cabinet saw (or trunion bolts on a contractor saw) then adjust to make the table miter slots parallel to the blade. (i.e. perpendicular to the saw arbor) Then use the FENCE adjustment to make the fence parallel.

[skeezics]

im not sure if i read this correctly but you should be aligning the top by getting the blade parralel to the miter slot then you adjust the fence to the blade or miter slots. simply moving the table wont do you need to adjust both. hope this helps.

skeez

[Leon]

If you do indeed need to move the table more you can elongate the holds in the cabinet so that the table will shift a bit more.

[Leon]

If my miter cuts are smooth and what I expect I cheat on the fence. I simply adjust the fence until it makes a smooth cut with out doing the comparison to the miter slot.

[Trevor]

Yes, that is what I did... I jsut mistakenly wrote trunnion bolts -- I actually meant the bolts securing the table top. I was attempting to align the blade to run parallel with the miter slots. The problem is that the setting closest to parallel (which is pretty dang close) is when the table top is shifted to the extreme most possible points allowed.

The fence is parallel with the miter slots as well.

More than anything, I was curious because I can only get the blade to be out of parallel in on direction and not the other.

Pretend these ascii characters are the blade viewed from above and the sides of the viewing window are the miter slots...

"/" is what I can get easily.

"|" is what is desired,

"\" is impossible, and makes "|" (parallel) hard to get

Of course I could widen the holes that the table top bolts go through to allow more play, but I thought there may be another adjustment somewhere that could more easily remedy this. Basically, If I push as hard as I can in an effort to get "\" I can acheive nearly "|"

Now I hope I didn't confuse everyone with my cheap symbols.

[Trevor]

Yeah, that was the only solution I had come up with too. I didn't know if there was another adjustment I could make before elongating the holes. It's pretty dang close to parallel and I think my miters are fine so I may just cheat on the fence if I need to.

[John]

You should be lining up the blade to the miter slots by loosening those bolts and adjusting the table top.

You DO NOT aline the fence by doing that, the fence is adjusted seperately

See your instructions for setting up the fence that came with the saw/fence OR that is downloadable from Delta

John

[Roger Shoaf]

If you are out of adjustment on the table check underneath. There are bolts that hold the mechanism on and these might be loose or mis adjusted. Before you file anything see if you can get a little movement moving the blade in the direction you need then make final tweak with the table.

[Wilson Lamb]

WOW, I don't have a Unisaw, so can't speak directly to it, but I have worked with a lot of machinery.

Isn't the trunnion mounted to the tabe? If so, it seems that's the place to set the blade parallel.

If the trunnion is mounted to the cabinet and the table adjustment won't do it, then the trunnion still has to move.

Was this saw ever aligned perfectly? Is it new? Maybe it was cattywumpus from the factory and you need to see Deltaman?

You should NOT have to be filing on a $1500 saw!

[John]

Frankly, if this is a new saw and you cannot get it aligned with max adjustment of the tabletop with the bolts loosened, time to call Delta about replacing the defective saw

John

[Trevor]

Well, I talked to Delta and they were helpful. The trunnion bolts also fit through slightly over sized holes to allow for adjustments and they were maxed out to one side making the table top bolts impossible to get right. I had to take the table top off completely to do access those bolts, but after I adjusted the trunnion bolts it was easy...

The saw had always been like this and I was always a bit frustrated -- I could get it close enough to be a little bit disappointed, but still semi-tolerable. As some of you mentioned, not what you would expect from a new unisaw... I can only guess that it was either assembled that way or that it was jarred pretty hard at some point in transit between the manufacturing plant and wherever it all went before it reached my house.

Delta suggested that I also check the trunnions for cracks in case but all looked good. Now I finally feel like I got what I paid for -- and now it's pretty sweet. I also like having a more intimate knowledge of the saw -- not that it was anything that I'd consider a real eye-opener...

Anyway, thank you fellow wood wreckers for all your help, support and ideas.