Craftsman TS blade misaligned

[Mike W.]

Hi all... its me again.

Doing some more newbie-ish WW last night and noticed that blade on my cheap tablesaw seems to be misaligned and not parallel to the miter slot. It is a 'Limited Edition' ( I think I now know what the 'Limited' meant). I got it a couple of years ago and can't find the manual. I don't see where to download one on their website either. So before I go trying to fix it by trial and error... does anyone know if it can even be done on a cheap saw like this? If so, can you give me any pointers as to the approach.

Also, while I'm at it, would a stackable dado set work on a cheap low power saw such as this?

I'm not getting a new saw anytime soon so please don't bombard me with suggestions on laying $800+ out for a new saw. :-)

Thanks, Mike W.

[Greg]

My old Craftsman has 4 allen screws on the deck that hold the motor plate. If you loosen them you can align the motor and blade.

UNPLUG IT before you start. ;-)

[Dave Balderstone]

If it's a benchtop model like my Skil, the arbor isn't long enough.

djb

[Han]

"Mike W." wrote in news:fEhMb.20302$ [e-mail]:

I just went through this with my old tablesaw (Craftsman whatever). Mine has a trunnion holding the driveaxle of the saw in place. I had to loosen 6 screws underneath and wack the trunnion to get it to line up. It seems much better now, especially with the new WWII blade instead of maximus crappinus .

I think you should try to find the model number before rephrasing your question. Also, before I found my manual back, I almost orered a replacement one on line. Sorry, I forgot the url, but search sears with the model number and "manual".

[-VS]

"Mike W." wrote

In answer to your first question - it depends on the type and amount of runout. If the arbor assembly isn't parallel to the miter slot, then most craftsman saws are adjustable (usually via two bolts on the arbor at the rear of the saw). If the arbor bolt is misaligned (i.e., when you rotate the blade, it "wobbles"), you can correct for small amounts of runout by brute force (i.e., a hammer to the arbor nut). If the runout is significant, you are out of luck.

Using the TS-Aligner

I was able to reduce total worst-case runout to 0.004, which is acceptable for my purposes. The TS-Aligner can be purchased for about 100 bucks, I think. It is easy to use, and makes life much easier than trial-and-error.

Assuming your saw is a belt-driven saw with a motor current rating of

problem. I have a 13A craftsman which works fine, even for dense wood such as bubinga, without any burning or overloading - obviously, I'm careful with the feed rate. If you have a direct-drive saw or a flex-drive saw, then I'm not so sure.

Good luck.

-VS.

[Lawrence A. Ramsey]

[CW]

He never said anything about run out. Parallelism and run out are completely different.

[John Crea]

Blade is NOT mis-aligned, the table top is mis-aligned to the sawblade

Check your owners manual, you typically will have to loosen the table top and get the table top aligned to the saw blade

John

[Silvan]

Not long enough for a full stack indeed.

Sorry to hear someone else is saddled with one of these things.

[Greg G.]

This only works with cabinet saws whose mechanical assemblies are mounted to the cabinet instead of the top. On contractor saws and less, you loosen the saw motor/arbor and move it in relation to the table. FWIW,

Greg G.

[Key Bell]

I have an old craftsman ts. My dad gave it to me after complaining about alignment problems. This one was built probabably 1980. Anyway I got it working ok. I think I have the manual and could fax you what you need. But if you look real closely under the table you will understand what to do. Loosen a few bolts tap it into place and titghten it up. I used a home made rig to test for the balde being parrallel with the miter slot. Just place a piece of wood fitted into the slot, attach to it another at 90 degrees pointing to the blade, screw a fine threaded brass screw in to the end of the second piece so it just touches the front tooth on your blade. Use a round head brass screw. Now slide it back to the same tooth in the back of the blade. (mark the tooth to know you have the same one and turn the blade back to measure to the same tooth.) Adjust the screw until it barely touches the blade. The blade will ring with a distinctive tone as you pass the jig over the blade. When it makes the same tone on front as the back, you are aligned.

[V.E. Dorn]

That sounds like a good system, I've been fighting with a combination square up until now and I didn't want to spend a ton of money for something I would check once for alignment. I'll make of these tomorrow - thanks.

Don

[bob]

Brilliant! Thanks for the tip.

Bob