Need to make trunion adjustment...squaring blade

Published by: mike 2009-01-07

After noticing the way some of my cuts are turning out....I took another look at the squareness of the blade. After a LOT of measuring it appears that my blade is not square to my miter guage (measured with 3 different blades). The reat portion of the blade is closer to the fence than the front. As a result, boards are getting pinched between the fence and the rear of the blade....and the quality of my cuts is poor.

After reading the handbook I tried to adjust the trunion myself, but I am having a heck of a time. Does anyone know what size allen wrench it takes to loosen the microadjust screws on the rear trunion? Any additional suggestions other than what is in the book?

I wish that I had waited for the 3612. I think it is a much better saw for the $$. Thanks for the help!!

Thanks for the tip. Worked Great. Any ideas on why the blade heels to the left when I tilt it towards 45 degrees?

Hey Dave it seems we have traveled down the same path. Homemade dust collector, adjusting from the front and the PALS. My saw being the Good old Craftsman is most likely just like yours. I did solve one problem with the left side PAL (viewed from the front of saw) I carefully aligned and drilled a hole through the side of the saw housing so that I could get to the allen head screw from outside. This has worked out real well, and my latest investment of the TS-Aligner has made it a breeze to align the saw.

Pittsburgh LockFormer HVAC Machines::
If you need to feed lots of metal to a rollformer consider using an uncoiler. This machine can make a Sharp Lock, Open Lock for Wire Edge, 90° Right Angle
http://www.americanmachinetools.com/hvac_tools.htmHOME

New bandsaw saga PartII (long) - DIYbanter::
for blade installation would give the table a nice place to warp, but the adjustment will only need changing when the table is tilted. The lower guides
http://www.diybanter.com/showthread.php?t=25458HOME

Jamie, sorry aboput the little hi-jack just thought it was interesting that two people had followed the same path to get where they were going. Good luck in getting your saw aligned

Dave :D

Yesterdays Tractors - Discussion Forum::
With the older fences, you need to do this anyway. NOW you can turn your attention to squaring the rip fence. IH2444 The blade mandrell has adjustment slots.
http://www.ytmag.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=toolt&th=191249HOME

Any additional suggestions other than what is in the book?

I have the earlier model TS2424, without the microadjust trunnion. So I added a gizmo called PALS that do about the same thing. Still, a bit of a pain to work with.

A couple months ago I needed to realign the saw, and the PALS just weren't doing the trick easily. I got to thinking about how the Ridgid saw is designed. It really is quite different that most other contractor's saws, which basically are clone of Delta's design. The tilt mechanism, for example, is different. The bevel lock is also, most other saws don't lock the trunnion, they lock the wheel.

It finally struck me. This saw just begs to be adjusted from the front! What I did:
1) Make sure the trunnion bevel lock is tightened.
2) Loosen the front (operator's side) trunnion bolts. This is the hard part, because access is limited. A socket, long extension, and rachet makes it doable.
3) Now, with the front trunnion loose, you can "microadjust" it from side to side with the bevel wheel, in very fine increments. Heck, it's almost fun.
4) Once you get it to dead parallel, the bevel mechanism will help hold it in place while you tighten.

Once I figured this out, the alignment process took about 5 minutes. It took longer to remove and reinstall my homemade dust collection fitting from the bottom of the saw (why I used so many screws, I'll never figure out).

Dave

Dave -

Thank you for the advice. Your instructions made the adjustment much easier. It is amazing what a difference having the blade parallel makes to the finished cut.

I appreciate the tip.
- Jamie

Thanks. I'll get a copy. Sounds like a time saver.

All contractor saws do that. It's because of the motor being hung so far off the back.

In this month's newsstand copy of "Woodworker's Journal", Ian Kirby has an article with some tablesaw jigs. One of them is for ripping bevels without tilting the blade.

Dave

Glad to have been able to help. I agree, proper alignment makes all the difference.

Dave