Craftsman TS rehab

sorry worry side

Re: Craftsman TS rehab

Charlie

Consider a high quality thin-kerf blade on it with blade stabilizers. That'll help some with the power issue. A dedicated thin-kerf rip blade certainly would, but you'd have to change blades when you needed to do clean crosscuts. If you have a SCMS, I'd set up the tablesaw with a rip blade only. Spray the blade with Bostik BladeCote.

Just random thoughts ....

stabilizers likely not needed

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Had a good chat with a Freud tech person some years ago. It was his opinion that blade technology had developed to where it was no longer necessary to use a 1/8" kerf blade for most work. The thin kerf blades ran without deflection in most cases. Note all the cuts in a modern plate that were not there 30 years ago.

Re: stabilizers likely not needed

Charlie

I had the same saw as the OP many moons ago, or at least a model within a year or two of that one. I had a CMT thin kerf rip blade on it. That particular blade ran better with stabilizers. They can't hurt and they're cheap, then probably $15 or so, now I'd guess $25 to $30. Not a major investment. Sometimes a blade will tend to wobble and runout when it gets really hot, as during a long cutting session one board after another.

Re: stabilizers likely not needed

Charlie

CMT stabilizers are more expensive, but look a little more serious and fit-for-purpose than others:

https://www.amazon.com/CMT-299-102-00-Blades-Stabilizers-Diameter/dp/B000P4NTRW

I ended up buying a 4" set

Kevin French

and passed on the 5"

Thanks for the link

Re: I ended up buying a 4" set

Charlie

I'm sure the 4 will be fine. Good luck. I cut a lot of wood on one just like yours. Check it from time to time to make sure the rip fence isn't pinching the wood. It should be open just a hair. Cut waney wood on a carry board to get your first straight edge, make a pass or two over your jointer or with a jointer plane to true it completely up, then rip the other edge to bring the board to width. NEVER register anything but a perfect edge against the rip fence or you'll be eating the board for lunch.

You probably know all of this, but there could be somebody reading who doesn't.

Good luck.

The 'open a hair'

Kevin French

was the reason I bought the new fence. I couldn't get that with the original fence without clamping the near side and making an adjustment to the far end with a soft hammer.

I'm still working to get the blade/miter groove aligned.

It's Alive

Kevin French

Nice square cuts, no binding.

It ripped a 2" piece of Beech with no bogging down with a thin kerf Freud blade and a slightly bigger 2" blade stiffener that I had kicking around.

Re: It's Alive

Charlie

Sounds like you're there!

Question

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Post a test whether the stabilizers offer any advantage. I often run a 7 1/2 very thin " "framing" blade on my Unisaw. I ripped many pieces of 1.5 x 1.5" cherry yesterday with no problem of the blade deflecting.

I can try that

Kevin French

I guess I could use a stack of feeler gauges. I don't have much in the way of micro-measuring tools. but that should work.

Re: I can try that

Bruce, a MN Galoot

I’m not sure what a feeler gauge would show you or how to achieve it.

Try this: make a long rip cut and hold the sawn surface in a raking light. Any deflection of the blade will show up as concentric rings on that cut. I use a thin-kerf Freud rip blade and get no deflection, and I don’t use stabilizers.

Re: Question

Charlie

If I had a tablesaw I would. I can tell you that on the saw I had, the same as the OPs, the difference was easily noticeable with the naked eye.

I do use a tablesaw from time to time. A colleague and friend let's me use his Altendorf F-45 with a 14" blade when I need to rip thick material. Otherwise, it's all by hand. I think the Altendorf has an 8 hp motor or something close. It obviously goes through anything you can throw at it like it was butter.

I can't imagine that somebody hasn't posted something on YouTube or elsewhere dealing with stabilizers.

Otherwise, I don't really see anything less than a hundred bucks as being that terribly controversial, even if the effect is entirely in the eye of the beholder.

Now, I'll turn it over to the pedantics.

Re: I can try that

Kevin French

In addition If the blade is deflecting the kerf should be wider(?) That is where I'd use the feeler gauge

Re: Question

Charlie

*lets*

Going to guess not on the wider kerf...

John in New Mexico

That would be the case from a wobbling blade - like if the shaft were bent or maybe some cases where the shaft bearings were really bad. If the blade is deflecting for some reason, it will show up as a less than square cut when the blade is set square to the table (as measured with the saw off, of course). I've usually seen deflection problems when running a dull blade - carbide is a trickster that way, it cuts without burning long after its dull enough to start seeing deflection.

Re: I can try that

William Duffield

Those Freud blades use a different method to minimize deflection, and noise. The serpentine laser-cut slots in the blade are filled with rubber and are designed to absorb vibrations. The ?-shaped cuts at the outer edge are designed to close up as the blade heats up due to friction on the carbide teeth, also so the blade doesn't warp when the outside expands more than the center.

Re: I can try that

Charlie

All the blade manufacturer's sell these things -- Forest, CMT, Freud, etc.

Forest sells them up to 10" in diameter up to a 1.25" bore, and with pinholes for Felder and Martin tablesaws.

Somebody's buying 'em, and presumably not just for $hits and giggles.

https://www.forrestblades.com/dampeners-stiffeners/10-dampener-1-bore/

Re: I can try that

Charlie

*Forrest*

Re: I can try that

John in New Mexico

People buying them doesn't mean they're useful. I make grips people buy that I would never use myself, but there's a demand and I profit by meeting it with a product.

It could also be that stabilizers did once fill a useful role and are kind of a hold over product that is less than necessary now. That is what these guys are saying with improved plate design and carbide teeth making stabilizers irrelevant. The world was quite different when saw blades were tool steel with set teeth.

Could also be that the original purpose was not stabilizing during all operations where a hobbyist might use a table saw, but instead be designed for specific industrial applications where the saw is set up and optimized, then not changed much beyond blade changes. The large versions make me think this is the actual answer if stabilizers aren't in fact a hold over product - which I still think that is the most likely answer.

I've yet to ever see the need for them myself, but then I've also not seen everything there is to see by a long shot.

Re: I can try that

Charlie

People buying a 10" stabilizer/dampener for a Felder, Martin, Homag, etc. are not backyard hobbyists.

Re: I can try that

John in New Mexico

I know (virtually) hobbyists who run machines like that, but they are certainly in the minority of hobbyists and the minority of owners of such machines, so point is quite reasonable.

But back to the original points here. Your original point was because they are made they must have a purpose. I was trying to say (perhaps in an overly complicated manner) that the purpose may not be what we assume it is.

Do you find blade stabilizers necessary? I don't. So they exist and are marketed, yet I don't find them to be necessary. There are three possibilities, of which I outlined two. The third is that I'm ignorantly missing the boat on some great improvement to cut quality. Perhaps there are others possibilities too.

Re: I can try that

Charlie

I thought I had stated quite plainly that on the saw I had, the same as the OP's saw, a stabilizer made a noticeable difference detectable by the unaided eye. I have experience, on point, with the very saw being discussed.

But, again, a company like Forrest doesn't make these in a blizzard of sizes just for kicks nor do the other manufacturers.

You may not think they're useful, yet it appears that practically every major saw blade manufacturer supplies them for those that do.

I think an Altendorf F45 weighs over 1600 pounds, installed. The one I have occasional access to requires 400V 3Phase power. I'd like to be a fly on the wall watching one of these go into a residential shop. It can be done, of course, but it sure as hell doesn't happen every day. And then the proud owner might slap a stabilizer on it as icing on the cake, so there's that. After all that, why not?