Table saw not square when blade set at 45 degrees

[Jeff Plemmons]

New here and have a problem. I was making a small miter box and after cutting a 5" miter on the end of one of the sides I checked it for square which was off by at least 1/32. I set the blade back to 90 degrees and all was perfectly square. I reset the blade to 45 degrees and checked for square again and it was back to 1/32 out. I am using a Ridged contractor saw that has been perfect up to this point ( after many hours of tuning). Any thoughts??

[glenn bradley]

This is remedied by altering the plane that the table is on in relation to the blade arbor. This is easily done on a saw with cabinet mounted trunnions but, most contractor format saws have the trunnions mounted to the underside of the table. The change you are after is to elevate one corner of the table or another in relation to the blade. If your trunnions are cabinet mounted, loosen the screws that hold the table to the cabinet and shim the table to bring it in line. If the trunnions are mounted to the table top, the job can still be done, it is just a bit painful.

There are plenty of articles on aligning your saw but, most chicken out when they get to the 45* alignment on a contractor saw (and with good reason). I think I have an article on this, let me look . . . . Ah, here we are. the whole article is good but you may want to start at the third paragraph in the section headed "Trunnion brackets are the answer"

[Jeff Plemmons]

Thank you Glen. The trunnion is under the table and has no PAL set up. I hate to think about going through the process. Thanks for the article and great advise. I will let you know how it turns out.

[glenn bradley]

Hope it helps Jeff. I should have mentioned that if you go through the effort, you will be rewarded many times over for your efforts. The few saws I have taken the time to align 'completely' (I don't go through saws that often ) have afterward done nothing but work as they are supposed to, every time, with very predictable results. It is surprising how rewarding this is. To be able to tilt the blade to 32 degrees and rip and angle down the side of some stock without burning or binding is a wonderful thing. I didn't mean to make it sound like more of a pain than one should undertake.

In fact, I encourage you to enjoy the benefits (of what will probably be a few hours of work on a Saturday) for years to come . Speaking of taking a few hours . . . when I do this type of work, I set aside the whole day without interruption. I clear my work area, get all my tools and measuring devices at hand and take it slow and steady. This is not the type of work to be doing if you have to hurry up so you can get to dinner at mom's house (as pleasant as that may be). My point is that I like to know that I have "all the time in the world" and if I have to do a procedure for the fourth time to get it just a bit better, that's what I do. Once completed, barring a traumatic event, the process should never need repeating.

I remove my fence and wings when I do this. The result can be a bit of final tweaking once the stresses of the fence and wings are re-introduced. This is minor and the ease of working on the saw body without all the extras hanging off of it is worth the little extra trouble.

trunnion tablemounted.JPGtrunnion tablemounted rear PALs.JPG22124 Alingment 002.jpg22124 Alingment 004.jpg22124 Alingment 010.jpg

By the way, a cut up beer can makes good shim material.

22124 Alingment 013.jpg

I would also mention that you can let gravity work for you. I level the machine with mother earth before I begin. If you pull the table top and trunnions to do the work on a bench (much easier), then level that work surface and assure it is relatively smooth and free of debris. Nothing like wasting half an hour adjusting around a piece of gunk that has gotten stuck the the table, finding it, using some blue words and starting again .

[Howard Acheson]

Here is something that should fix the problem. It used to be sent out by Delta when they were in good shape.

There is a significant area of alignment that is not detailed in most magazine tune-up articles. It is ensuring that the trunnion bars are exactly in the same plane. Proper adjustment affects bevel cuts and is indicated when there burning when making bevel cuts. Here are the corrective steps that were at one time posted on the Delta website.

First go throught the alignment process following the steps in the attachment below.

To check whether the trunnions need to be adjusted, tilt your blade fully to the 45 degree position until you get to the 45 degree stop. Then crank the blade back to the 90 degree upright position. Now again check the parallelism of the blade to the miter slot. If the blade is still parallel to the miter slot, declare victory. If not, follow the process below from Delta to adjust them. The process is the same for all Contractor Saws or Hybrids that have the trunnion assembly hanging from the table.

1. Remove the saw blade being sure it was at it fullest height.

2. Place a flat plate (or similar flat object) on top of the two tie-bars. (The size of the plate should be at least 6" by 8", and the flatter the better. A pane of glass works well.) Depress one corner of the plate and if it rocks, the tie-bars are not parallel. This must be corrected as it will affect the alignment of the blade.

3. Loosen the tie-bar locknuts located at the rear of the saw.

4. Grasp the motor bracket and move it left and/or right. Check the rocking of the flat plate and when it can no longer rock, the tie-bars are parallel...re-tighten the locknuts.

5. Remove the flat plate and re-install the sawblade.

6. Again perform the parallelism alignment process.

7. Before tightening the rear trunnion bolts, push forward on the rear trunnion bracket to allow the undercarriage to snugly fit between the two trunnions.