Table saw vibration

[Chuck Fischer]

So I just put my pm66 back together, new arbor, new motor, link belts, the works. I'm still getting saw marks in my cuts, I've tried 3 different blades, one was a woodworker 2, which I expect to get perfect cuts off of. Could the trunion be out of round maybe, the guy that owned the saw before me used it as a molding machine with a big heavy cutter head. I'm worried I've upgraded to a cabinet saw and downgraded the quality of my cut, any ideas?

[Ben Rivel]

I have no idea, but just to offer the suggestion, if you could post a pic of what youre seeing in your cuts it might help someone identify whats happening.

[Charles Taylor]

Have you aligned it? Table to blade, fence to table/blade?

[Matt Day]

Sounds like you have possibly two things going on. Vibration, and cut quality.

For vibration, the first thing to do is remove the belts and run just the motor. Any vibration? If yes, it’s your motor. If not, it’s something with your belts or the arbor. Are the pulleys in the same plane? Offset pulleys can cause vibration, I think especially with link belts. Gates makes the vbelt standard for these saws. And I would think a link belt sitting in the pulley grooves too low could cause vibration.

For cut quality, you need to make sure you went through the process of aligning the table to blade, blade to fence. If that’s all good, make sure you’re using the right blade. Just because you tried 3 blades doesn’t mean it’s not the blade. For instance, i’ll get saw marks while ripping with a WWII but simply changing the blade to a Frued rip blade and it’s baby butt smooth.

Another issue with cut quality could be the arbor flange. If that’s not flat and running true, it’ll cause the blade to wobble. There are a few ways to true it up, which is whole topic by itself and worth digging around the forum here and especially on OWWM.

Report back and let us know where you’re at.

[Greg Parrish]

My pm66 runs smooth as silk but I was getting lots of burn marks on cuts with a Freud blade. Took it off and popped in a new Diablo blade that looks almost identical and cut quality is crisp and clean. Upon inspection of the Freud it's covered with pitch around the teeth that I didn't notice from afar. Will try to clean it up but point was to point out that it could be the blades if saw is aligned. Good luck figuring it out.

[Mike Kees]

I think Matt has given very good advice . The only question I have is why link belts ? I would replace them with a matched set of good quality v belts. Mike.

[Wayne Lomman]

If it's been used as a moulder with a heavy cutter head, check the trunnion is still running true. It was designed as a saw, not a moulder and has been used way outside its design parameters. All machines have weight and dimension limits on tooling. Also, scrap the link belts. Cheers