Adjusting your table saw
john lucas
I've been working in wood for a very long time and used to subscribe to every woodworking magazine. Started with a shopsmith, then a no name table saw, then a Powermatic Contractors saw and now a used Grizzly Cabinet saw. In all the years I have read those magazines and books about wood working I have only seen one article on adjusting the table that mentioned shimming the table to get the alignment needed when the blade is tilted. I had to do that with the Powermatic which is when I read that article. The other day I had a problem with the Griz and had to disassemble most of it. While adjusting the pulleys that had slipped I noticed the problem behind the problem that was the screws that hold part of the shaft of the motor housing to the shaft that controls the blade rise were actually missing. Anyway I got that fixed and everything lined back up. It's when I was adjusting the top that I remembered the blade tilt problem. You adjust the table so it's square with the blade. Then tilt the blade and it's no longer square. I had to shim the inside right corner by about .035" to get the blade to track square to the table both at 90 degrees and 45 degrees. I find it interesting that you never read about this. It is a finicky adjustment and takes patience because when you loosen everything to insert the shims it throws off other adjustment but it didn't take too long. I got this saw used and it burns the wood when trying to make angled cuts but I rarely use that function so I wasn't worried about it. When i had to remove the top to fix the other problem I knew it was time to fix it right. Now it cuts like a dream. Someone needs to do an article on this for today's magazines. If I hadn't already taken everything apart and back together I would consider it.