56 – Tablesaw Setup (2 of 2)

Video - June 22, 2008

In the second and final part of our tablesaw setup series, we continue our quest for fine tuning. Topics include setting the blade bevel angle, adjusting fence alignment with the blade, adjust fence so that it is square to the table, setting up the insert, and lining up the splitter.

And at the end, you will get a nice full view of the new saw. For those who are curious, it is a PM Custom from the folks at Wood Werks Supply.

Back to Part 1

Discussion

Pierre-Aleaxndre Girard June 22, 2008 9:23 pm

Excellent review and video Marc, once again.

During the setup you’ve mentioned that a think kerf blade would require a different adjustment of the splitter. Does it means that your splitter should match the width of the balde ?

On the same topic, I’ve read online that a thin kerf blade is prone to more vibration hence less accurate cuts. Is it really a big deal for thin material ? Or does a stiffener solve the pb ?

Thanks again

Reply
muddler mike June 23, 2008 5:05 am

ah, Marc? I do believe open flames are a fire hazzard…..

sweet saw, Marc – and great vid. Thanks!

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LONGHAIR June 23, 2008 5:40 am

Very cool looking saw Marc, you should be proud of that.

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Victor June 23, 2008 7:43 am

Thanx Marc,
As my son would say, “Swwweeeeeet!” Sweet tablesaw Marc. It’s always an inspiration to see your shop in the background, especially how clean it is kept.
Nice job explaining the basics of machine maintenance and tuneup. And since I am not always on track with sending you these notes, Thanks for all the teaching you do online, I am a better, and safer, woodworker for your deft, talent, and clear explanations. (Grateful appreciation to the woman behind the camera, Nichole also)
Victor

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Jason Land June 23, 2008 12:15 pm

I have to echo Victor here by expressing my appreciation for your teaching abilities. I am a very new woodworker and I stumbled onto TWW via FineWoodworking.com and I am so thankful that I did. It seems like you are reading my thoughts sometimes as I will have some sort of a question in the workshop and the next week, BOOM, there it is, explained perfectly by Marc.

It is through this type of forum that I have found that even though it may sometimes feel like I am going through some sort of problem that seems trivial, others have had, and conquered that same issue. This gives the rookies like me a quiet confidence that we aren’t always wandering on our own, rather that there are more experienced woodworkers out there that are willing to help.

Thanks again Marc!

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Denis Rezendes June 23, 2008 3:39 pm

great video Marc! just read your article in Popular Woodworking, great job! well now I’m off to tune up my table saw!

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Greg June 23, 2008 4:35 pm

Marc

Once again awesome presentation. The saw is dynamic looking and I really like the metal top of the right saw table extension.

Thanks for all you do frot he woodworking field.

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Brian June 23, 2008 8:09 pm

Marc,

I use to really struggle getting my blade to 90, until I found a really cool trick. You can make this jig in less than a half hour and you will NEVER squint down a square pushed against your blade EVER again. See here: (at the bottom)

http://www.garagewoodworks.com/jigsfixtures.htm

This tool will save you time AND it is more accurate than squinting at a square for light.

PS I love the new saw! :^)

Reply
Dave June 24, 2008 5:55 pm

Marc
one more step when I set up the saw (and I use a dial indicator for it 11 bucks at Harbor Freight) is I mount this on a piece of wood in the miter slot so it is stable and a constant distance to the blade. Then I tilt the blade at 45 and have the indicator at 90 degrees to the blade and measure the height from front to back.
I have a X5 Unisaw and I had to add .006 in shims to the front of the table so that the trunions and the table were in the same plane. Other wise there would be a pinch of the cutoff piece at the back of the blade when cutting bevels. Obviosly for 90 degree ripping this error never appears. At our guild meeting only one other person had this issue and it was a contractor version, so he added some shim stock as a spacer/washer on the bolts holding the trunion to the table.
Like the new saw though – really sharp.

Reply
Tom Cissell June 25, 2008 6:22 am

Marc,

Great video. I like your non-fanatical practical approach to things. After very careful setup of the blade to the miter slot, I simple move the fence in line with an edge of the slot and adjust according to feel. I slide my finger along the slot to sense whether it is off one way or another.

Tom

Reply
Mike (aka TacoTown) June 25, 2008 6:59 pm

Man, Fine woodworking is cramping your style. they just released a table saw alignment video on their web site…

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thewoodwhisperer June 25, 2008 7:24 pm

Rats! Foiled again! lol

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Andy June 27, 2008 12:26 pm

Where were you 2 months ago when I had to beat my contractor saw into submission to get in in alignment? I wound up doing exactly what you showed in your video, so I guess I did it right. Its pretty good now but I think it could be better.

On second though a table saw that isnt aligned is the perfect excuse to get a new one!! With a cast iron extension table, and flames! I love that!

Thanks for doing what you do! Its great!

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Yuriy September 21, 2008 10:40 am

Thank you Marc very much for great video!!!

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jack August 14, 2009 12:11 pm

what did you do with the old ts? how much did you sell it for and where did you sell it? I want a place to purchase used tools.

Reply
- thewoodwhisperer August 14, 2009 12:15 pm
  
  Sold it to a local woodworking friend. Can’t remember what the price was but I always give my friends good prices. :)
  
  Reply
Tim (aka Fixitmaster) September 30, 2009 7:43 pm

This is video has been a life saver. I bought a old Rockwell/Delta unisaw that was made in 1952 and had to take the top off it to rework some of the guts. When I put the top on it was way out of alignment and with all the web sites out there I found a lot of pictures that wasn’t much help. Your video taught this old dog some new tricks, but that wasn’t to hard being I new to wood work.

Thanks

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Aaron August 30, 2010 7:24 pm

Ok I not going let this one die yet. Great video Marc it’s just what I was looking for. My TS hasen’t been perfect sence I’ve had it. I took some notes and I am going to get all tuned up tomorrow. So thanks Marc for the tips.

Reply
Elmer September 1, 2010 9:55 am

Great video :) Time for me to go check mine again!!! LOL Thanks again for doing great videos :)

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CharlesL October 24, 2010 9:36 am

Thanks so much for the Tune Up video. I own an old Craftsman TS from the early 80’s. and it’s never been tuned. I was considering buying a new saw in order to achieve greater accuracy, but maybe now I can spend that money on something else if a good tune up does the trick.
Thanks again

Reply
Richard R February 8, 2011 9:02 pm

Marc-found your website while looking for info on tuning up my 2005 craftsman table saw. Could never get table squared up right following instructions from manufacturer (which are same ones as you so clearly show in your video). Everybody I spoke to simply said take a block of wood and whack the table (3 of 4 bolts loosened of course) into alignment. It was always off by 1/32″ at back of table. Finally took the top off and while trying to figure out what to do (enlarge bolt holes to allow more room for adjustment) I saw that the motor was never mounted even remotely square to the cabinet. It was off by 1/4″ in the back so that I would never have been able to square the table to the blade. Loosened motor mount bolts eyeballed it to get closer to square, mounted table and squared it up just like you did. Some folks may benefit from my experience as it isn’t always like the folks at the factory say it is! Thanks again, now to tune up my band saw. Richard R

Reply
Ed Hickcox April 27, 2011 6:19 am

Marc,

I’m really thrilled to see these tool setup videos on your site! I will finally get to take possession of the contents of my late grandfather’s entire woodworking shop later this year and I imagine that I will have quite the task ahead of me as far as tuning up all his old tools, especially the ones that haven’t been touched or turned on in nearly ten years.

That said, you can probably figure that I’d love to see more on tuning up different sorts of tools!

Thanks for the great site, and keep up the good work!

Ed

Reply
Wayne Booker January 24, 2012 10:50 am

Marc,

I just watched the two videos on tuning up the table saw. You covered the main points quite well, however you didn’t cover an adjustment that I found was a problem with my old Unisaw that I rebuilt a while back. I thought maybe you could cover it in a third video maybe.

The problem showed itself as the blade binding against the workpiece as it’s fed out on the backside of the blade, much like we see when the table is out of alignment to the blade, or the fence to the blade. I had just aligned the table and fence and everything was working fine until I started cutting 45 degree blade tilt cuts. It was then that I was getting the blade binding. It didn’t make much sense as it was fine when the blade was at 90 degrees. Then I started thinking in 3D. The problem was that the table was not level to the tilt axis of the trunion. When it’s at 90 degrees, both axis’ are aligned but only at that position. However when the trunion is tilted, the axis deviates from that of the table. The fix was to shim the front of the table up almost 1/8″. This brought the two axis’ closer together and now It doesn’t bind regardless of the blade angle.

I hope you can share this info with your viewers, I know that I’m not the only one who’s had this problem.

Thanks,

Wayne Booker
Salem, OR

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craig behnke November 16, 2012 7:56 am

Thanks a ton for the setup tips. After the initial setup of my TS last year I forgot if I had really dialed in my miter slot to blade adjustment, so I checked it last night. Turns out it was a little more out of align than I prefer so I dialed it in to something close to 1/10,000….the needle on my dial indicator barley budges…sweet.

Reply
Ben Sterling December 6, 2012 3:56 pm

How are you liking that table saw

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Patrick Quebedeaux February 26, 2013 1:07 pm

Marc,
Great setup info. I recently purchase a ridgid R4512. It is contractor saw. After following your steps, everything is looking good. But I have an issue with the fence. It is an aluminum fence and seems to wobble like 1/64th of inch. Do you think adding auxiliary fence to the sides of it would help? Maybe using mdf? (it has t-slots to attach jigs and such)

Or should I just upgrade to professional fence?

Thanks,
Patrick

Reply
- David Misita August 12, 2013 9:01 pm
  
  You are clearly smarter than I am . . . Read my post . . .
  
  Reply
David Misita August 12, 2013 8:59 pm

As a word of warning, do NOT loosen the bolts holding the trunnions in place too much. Lord knows what would happen if you did. Well, after today, the Lord and I both now know . . . You spend the next 5 hours praying to God and Norm Abrams to help you fix your table saw!

Decided to correct the few thousands of an inch that my Ridgid r4512 Hybrid TS was out of alignment. It wasn’t really bothering me, other than a need to become perfect at my new hobby of woodworking. So, when the saw wasn’t shifting I decided to loosen the bolt on the front trunnion one more turn, and bam. The whole motor and arbor carriage assembly dropped down. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Well, no one but my brand new Diablo blade . . . It was nice 90T job, too. Oh well.

First I spent 2 hours trying to lift the assembly back into place, it weighs about 50lbs. But, I couldn’t get it to line back up with the trunnion groove that holds it in place. Then I enlisted the help of my unwilling assistant (aka. the wife . . .). After both of us failed, I decided to flip the saw on the table top. I got the assembly into position long enough to get the blade off, and flipped it over.

It turns out, the big breakthrough was accidentally unscrewing the worm gear for the tilt handle. Once I removed the rod from the housing, I was able to shift the assembly into place, and lock down the front trunnion. This rod was preventing me from sliding things into place.

I was expecting a HORRENDOUS alignment problem after all that. But, Norm apparently heard my prayers and came through for me. The alignment is actually not bad. A bit better than before I began this odyssey.

Sorry for the long post, but I figured this is the sort of thing that should be posted to warn idiots like myself!!!!!

Thanks for the GREAT videos Marc!!!!

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Stephen Bishop December 1, 2015 5:24 pm

I really enjoy your common sense approach to woodworking.
A pet peeve: there is no such thing as a feeler gauge, it is a thickness gauge. It measures thickness not feel. You use a thickness gauge to measure thickness or to judge feel when exact thickness is not essential.
Keep up the great work. I wood love to have a workshop like yours. Did you notice the play on words?
Have a great day.

Reply
- Marc Spagnuolo December 1, 2015 6:19 pm
  
  haha well you better tell as those manufacturers of “feeler gauges” that they’re doing it wrong! :)
  
  Reply
Adam Coe June 11, 2016 10:14 am

Howdy Marc,
I have enjoyed your website as I have been getting back into woodworking and putting together a small shop. I just purchased the Powermatic PM1000 and have been setting it up, using your table saw set up videos as reference. While attaching the wings I notice that the table saw surface and the left wing are flush at the front and the back of the saw but the wing is ever so slightly above the table in the center. They are flush for approx 4 inches from the front and rear and then it gradually gets worse towards the center. It’s similar on the right but not as pronounced. I’m not a terribly smart man but I’m thinking that you can adjust that out. Any adjustment is going to raise or lower the front or the back and the middle will be a percentage of that movement. Suggestions, please? Do you think the top may have a slight warp in it?

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Rod Bessey March 6, 2018 11:12 pm

I can’t afford a super nice table saw and just have a 200 dollar SkilSaw Table saw. How can I true up the miter and fence to the blade on that? I know my fence goes off true as soon as I lock it down and my miter fence……well it’s a joke! I don’t trust it with anything.

Reply

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56 – Tablesaw Setup (2 of 2)

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