A Nod to Routine Tablesaw Maintenance

glenn bradley

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I had gotten some less than stellar cuts on a small item I was working on. I hadn't checked the alignment on my saw in a while. Lo and behold, I was out when the blade was tilted to 45*. The 90* was off a bit more than I had achieved last alignment so; seasonal change? Temperature? The fact that I am checking with an alignment plate instead of a blade? At any rate about 30 minutes of effort has it back to within a thou and the problem cuts are now as expected.

TS-Align-Check.jpg

I had always had a bit more runout than I liked but, not enough to get too excited about. Some other generous person had posted about using stones to true up the arbor plate. I used a small stone that I normally use to round bandsaw blade backs. I followed that with a medium, fine and extra fine diamond stick and all but eliminated the runout. After that alignment was even easier than usual. Just a nod to occasional checkups even when you "know" things are OK. ;)
 
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so how did you true the arbor plate glenn just turn it on and hold the stone next to it to take off the high point?

Exactly. Light pressure. When I read about it it sounded quite unsafe. In practice you apply the stone to the underside of the shaft so the drag direction is away from you. Still, use caution (no rings, long sleeves, ponytails and such) and just a light touch.
 
Glenn on our contractor type cabinet saws what i did was to true up the disc side of the arbor by tilting to 45degree it made it easier to access that edge of the arbor. Used a new oil stone from HD to do it.
Also flattened the disc washer that goes on after the blade as well as the nut. This way u dont introduce distortion when you tighten up the blade to a washer that is essentially a pressed device and not exactly flat.


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Glenn on our contractor type cabinet saws what i did was to true up the disc side of the arbor by tilting to 45degree it made it easier to access that edge of the arbor. Used a new oil stone from HD to do it.
Also flattened the disc washer that goes on after the blade as well as the nut. This way u dont introduce distortion when you tighten up the blade to a washer that is essentially a pressed device and not exactly flat.

Great tip Rob. I do the washer by laying a sheet of 400 grit and 600 grit on the saw top. I just move the washer in circles to true it up. When I first set my saw up I set the throat position to allow easy access and then aligned from there :D. Isn't it great when we all chip in on something? It just ups the value of our threads. Thanks!
 
Some time ago, I bought a Delta arbor nut with a flange on it.

arbor nut with flange.jpg

You can easily see the difference between the regular nut and the flanged nut.

My original reason was that the assembly went on the arbor BEFORE starting the thread. What that meant was that I was less lightly to drop it into the saw dust below and risk having it migrate to the dust collector. Makes BIG noise. :rolleyes:

The other reason was to have a better flange against the saw blade. They are pricey if they can still be found, but I really like mine and would replace it in a heartbeat.
 
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