You’re welcome! Glad to hear that you got it figured out! This is a first for me. I’ve never heard of the tilt mechanism preventing proper blade alignment. Good job!

Ed

For those following Craftsman, changing the tilt angle did not effect the problems in alignment at all. However when disconnected all went into place.

When the tilt was mounted again everything worked as it should and the alignment stayed on.

Also I loosened off the 3 upper cabinet bolts to allow flex when I did up the tilt again. Then, tightened these up as part of the operation.

Thanks again Ed.

I think you mean to say that your alignment is out by nearly 1/100 of an inch. 1/10th inch is 0.100″. Still not so good.

It is possible that your saw was machined so badly that it cannot be aligned. I would have to get a look at it to know for sure what is wrong. Sometimes people don’t realize that it’s important to loosen both trunnions (front and rear) to align the saw. It’s also possible that there is something other than the size of the mounting holes that is preventing you from making enough adjustment to get proper alignment. Sometimes the best thing to do is turn the saw upside down and have a good look at the assembly. Loosen up the trunnions and check to see just how much adjustment you have and what is restricting it.

Sears does stock spare parts for most items. Give their parts department a call to find out if you can purchase replacement trunnions.

Thanks,
Ed Bennett
ejb@tablesawalignment.com

I have ground out the holes of the trunnions to allow a further adjustment but it is all for naught. And, the trunnion holes now have very thin walls. It could be my imagination but I get the feeling the lock downs have turned to mush.

Is there any place a person can buy replacement trunnions?

I have my hopes set for a Delta but until that happens I have to get this POS working. Assist appreciated.

Measuring horizontally or vertically is not the answer. It’s just too difficult to obtain consistent and repeatable readings. It’s best to tilt the indicator to match the tilt of the blade and then apply the correction (multiply by 1.414).

I’ve re-written the article to reflect this and have added some additional information which might help people to obtain good results. Let me know what you think!

Thanks,
Ed Bennett
ejb@tablesawalignment.com

I’ve heard this too. Since I haven’t had a chance to try it myself I decided to leave it out of the initial publication of this article. Certainly, the rods do need to be parallel. Plate glass isn’t guaranteed to be flat but it’s not unreasonable to assume that its fairly flat. Placing it on the rods and adjusting so that there isn’t any rocking would line them up in one plane but not guarantee that they are parallel.

I’m looking forward to rebuilding the Delta contractor’s saw and testing techniques like this. I will update this article with photos and information as they become available. Stay tuned!

Ed Bennett
ejb@tablesawalignment.com

I’m not sure I follow exactly what you did. It seems as if you have confirmed the Pythagorean Theorem. And, you’ve demonstrated why it’s important to keep the dial indicator perpendicular to the surface being measured.

I’ve been very busy this week so I haven’t had a chance to do the testing I promised. I will post my results when I get the testing done.

Ed Bennett
ejb@tablesawalignment.com

I have results from testing on my RT Unisaw.

To simplify testing I reasoned that the measurement could be done by adjusting the height of the indicator using the shims directly under it instead of under the tabletop. This would also remove the need to compensate for differing measurement baseline and tabletop mounting distances. If you think there is a problem with this let me know.

For the first test I tilted the blade to 45°, set the dial indicators axis at 90° to the blade and the indicator tip touching the blade directly over the arbor about half way up the blade. I zeroed the indicator at this point. Then I placed metal shims under the indicator, being careful to keep it’s base parallel to the tabletop, and made the reading.

For the second test everything was the same except for the indicators axis being vertical, 45° to the blade.

All numbers are in inches except as noted.
My dial indicator is metric.
My alignment jig is all metal. I can take a photo & send it if you’d like.

Indicator = 45° [90° to blade]
Shim
Thickness Indicator (mm) Indicator Indicator * 1.414 Error
0.006 0.120 0.0047 0.0067 0.0007
0.023 0.420 0.0165 0.0234 0.0004
0.104 1.860 0.0732 0.1035 -0.0005

Indicator = vertical [45° to blade]
Shim
Thickness Indicator (mm) Indicator Error
0.006 0.120 0.0047 -0.0013
0.023 0.550 0.0217 -0.0013
0.104 2.610 0.1028 -0.0012

This data supports both of our statements.
Your statement re the indicator needing to be at 90° to the blade is validated by the data in method 2. While the absolute error is only about 0.001″, it is 22% of the reading in the most applicable range.
Method 1 validates my initial statement that the indicator reading must be corrected by multiplying by 1.414. My June 22nd statement re multiplying by 0.707 was in error.

Art