Thread: Aligning cabinet saw to 45°

I guessing that the horizontal plane through the trunnions is not parallel to the table top.

For 90° cuts this won't matter, but when the blade is at 45° you are effectively getting a compound angle cut.

The fix will be to shim the table top so that it and the trunnions lie on parallel planes. (I say this on the basis that the top will be much easier to shim than the trunnions.)

This is my thoughts too.

i do remember when first acquired that I had the top off and some washers fell off. I didn't know better and added them back on willy-nilly thinking they were nothing more than something to aid "whatever".

Shame I didn't know this at first. It would be nice to see how much it was out from the factory. My addled brain seems to remember me loosing one (????) Gak!!!!

I just spent a bit of time in the studio and remeasured everything. The 90 deg is out only 1 thou and the 45 is 19thou. It's very noticeable.

Tomorrow I've a big job to wrap up, so I'll rip the saw apart after that.

I was just looking for a "shim pack" online, but couldn't find one. Perhaps I should buy a cheap feeler gauge set and make shim out of those? Drill bolt holes in them?

Quick Q, how much are other peoples 45 deg out by and do you find the finish acceptable? Is 0.0002 something I should be shooting for?

beer or soft drink cans cut up into very nice shims.
if the adjustment is relatively large, washers from the Green Shed are a good option

You used to be able to buy packs of shim in either brass or steel. The pieces were about 4" or 6" square (cannot remember exact size) with a range of thicknesses in the pack. Not sure where bought it but used the shim when working on old cars etc. maybe try Repco or Blackwoods.

https://youtu.be/bpg39Lbwpu0

At 2.20

i have seen a 2 pin dial indicator used where the bottom pin ( a screw an the wood) is static and the top pin moves. The guy sets the bottom pin to touch the tilted blade and reads the top pin. Then slides the gauge to the rear of the blade and tests for movement in the top pin. I can't find it now but will keep looking

Regards

Rob

I was thinking of using the coke cans again. They were used when I aligned the drum sander.... its absolutely bang-on accurate accross the full 450mm, pretty good!

Aluminium cans are amazing as they are uniform with 0.1mm walls.

Its the funniest thing. Again I was down there at 8am looking at the tilted blade and table top and can't get it into my head on whether to shim the front or the back!... do I shim the left, right or both sides.... My poor 47 year old brain isn't agile any more

Geez I wish those washers werent moved/lost when the top was off!

Thanks for the tip on the Grizzly. The TS doco on their website is totally comprehensive! A 96 page manual! In Real English!

I have a similar problem as yours in that the 45 degree tilt is out by quite a margin. But my table saw is a contractor style saw which means that the trunion is mounted to the table top and to access the two bolts, I have to tip the saw to its side, something that I haven't got around to.
The documentation that came with my digital saw gauge suggests a figure of 5 thou which I think its pretty right. You can get 1 or 2 thou difference in your alignment just by un-tilting and tilting the saw blade again, and another thou if you're referencing from a different tooth of your saw blade.
I like the idea of aluminum can originally but if your gap is quite a bit larger than 0.1mm, it's very tedious to keep all the shims together. So I moved to the aluminum tape which has the same thickness of 0.1mm but with the advantage of being able to stick together to form multiple of 0.1mms. I got mine from jaycar. From my calculation, I need to shim mine by over 1mm, so I will be looking at something a bit thicker. So I'm thinking about some 0.5 mm sheets from Jaycar.
If anybody got better ideas of making/getting shims. I'd like to know.
Edit : Well just found some shims online from hobbytools here.

For the contractors you can use a system called "PALS" which are alignment bolts. Very conventient. Once you do the 90deg, it stays put while you do the 45 adjustment.

Good tip Justonething, very good idea on the Jaycar aluminium tape - I didnt think of it at all - https://www.jaycar.com.au/aluminium-...-25mm/p/NM2862

I was thinking of cutting out shims like little croissants, so they can be slotted in without pushing out the others....

After looking around under the table and comparing other systems such as Grizzly, Jet, Powermatic or Sawstop you can see why mine is a "$1300 saw".... Its a great saw, Im quite happy with it, but looking at the lovely BIG worm gears of the others has me envious.

I'll give it a crack tomorrow and take some photos of the process.

Originally Posted by Tahlee

https://youtu.be/bpg39Lbwpu0

At 2.20

i have seen a 2 pin dial indicator used where the bottom pin ( a screw an the wood) is static and the top pin moves. The guy sets the bottom pin to touch the tilted blade and reads the top pin. Then slides the gauge to the rear of the blade and tests for movement in the top pin. I can't find it now but will keep looking

Regards

Rob

Hi WP,
Here is the type of dial indicator that I have used to check angles in the past, my jig is slightly taller to give me maximum height on the blade. ... the same jig is used to check the 45 degree alignment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2igoO_9KK0

and another for checking tilt graduation at 5.25

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLTVFrNZIHw

Regards

Rob