Adventures with used machines

[lbhsbz]

I decided to upgrade from my 12 year old Ryobi table saw a few weeks ago and ended up with what I believe to be an Emerson built Craftsman 10" saw with cast iron wingplates. Got it for what I thought was a decent price...$150, but it had no fence. The guy had an incra jig on it that he moved to his new cabinet saw. He was the original owner, and had some nice work to show off...so I figure I was getting something pretty decent.

I was gonna build a fence...lots of plans out there, but then found a Delta T-3 brand new on craigslist for $95, so I scooped that up. Followed the instructions for installation, and ended up with a completely unusable hunk of ****.

I also do plenty of metal machine work and fabrication...so precision is sort of important to me.

I couldn't get the fence either (a) straight or (b) to clamp tight enough. I decided to check the table because I didn't have anything else to do at that point, and when I hit this point I usually resort to starting from scratch, and make everything as right as it can be. Table is about .020-.030" low near the blade...high everywhere else. After screwing around with emery cloth glued to big chunks of metal for a few hours and getting nowhere, out came the inline sander, and then the belt sander. Its flat within .010" now, which is good enough for the time being...a week later. The fence is still a *************. I started looking online for others who have had issues with this fence and found a few guys looking for some source on discontinued plastic "rub blocks". Well, I didn't have any of those on my fence. Dug around in the trash and found one stuck in a piece of styrofoam in the box it came in (sealed when I got it)...but the other one was MIA. I measured it up and found another sort of suitable piece of material to make one out of...yellow lid from a home depot storage crate on Sunday night. Got ahold of Delta yesterday and they have a new part number that's still sort of available if you look in the right place...$1.35 each. I need one. $17 shipping once I get halfway through check out. It's 1/4 the size of a stick of gum. **** that, we'll keep the yellow storage lid rub block.

Got everything back up and bolted on and the fence seems to square up nicely and work OK. Fired up the saw to make a few test cuts and after 2 or 3, it sounds like it's ready to come apart. Belt looks a bit chewed up and old, but nowhere near as ****** as belts on my other stuff that are nice and quiet still. As I was playing with it I heard a bang...looked underneath and the pulley had just fallen off of the spindle. Spindle is a bit fuckered, but not bad enough to do anything about it...smacked the pulley back on, tightened the set screw, hit the switch and it sounds like a belt driven table saw again. 4 foot rip test cut is out less than 1/32 from one end to the other, so a bit more fine tuning, but it's beginning to look promising.

The alternative was buying a new one complete and working for...probably $400 or so. I'm probably 10 hours into ******* with this stupid thing.

No, I'll never learn.

 

[The Cobbler]

I like it. I'm glad I'm not the only one! LOL

 

[American Locomotive]

Personally it's not worth worrying about .010" difference (or even .030" for that matter) in table height on a table saw. Especially since for most cuts it literally doesn't matter, and many saws have an insert around the blade that doesn't sit perfectly flush anyways.

At 1/32" taper over 4 ft you're really into the noise, and the internal stresses of the wood are going to be at play. You can try to get it better, but I think you will be chasing your tail, especially if you're just cutting normal boards. One board may come out perfect, but the next might not.

I understand the want for precision, but you also need to accept the limitations of your equipment. I've aligned CNC machines before, and typically we would shoot for less than 0.00005" runout. But we knew when to pick our battles, and if it was an older, worn machine that was putting up a fight, we would settle for less than 0.0002".

 

[lafester]

I have an arbor for a Craftsman 100 saw. No idea if it's the same though.



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[lbhsbz]

I have an arbor for a Craftsman 100 saw. No idea if it's the same though.



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I've got a lathe...I'll make one if I need a new one....because it's more painful that way, and that's how I roll.

 

[Chucktin]

Jeezs, and I thought I was into self imposed suffering!
And sure wish I could find one of those Unisaws at a good price I'd lose my Craftsman's Contractor Saw soonest!

 

[OccupantRJ]

If a saw has an aluminum pulley on it, it will be a losing battle until it is replaced with a steel or cast iron pulley. I have seen very few aluminum pulleys not fail over time.

 

[Ign]

I had a slightly similar experience w my Roll-In EF1459. But it wasn't as nearly as bad, although it still needed some TLC and a few new parts to get it cutting straight. At least parts are still readily available from the US in the case of Roll-In (although they're proud of them)

 

[cdsloop]

BTDT on the pulley. Go ahead and replace it with a good cast one. I fought the aluminum pulley on my Rockwell TS for a year, never could get it to stay tight for more than a dozen or so cuts. New cast pulley and a new belt last month, and it has never ran so smooth.

 

[speed bump]

Been there done that, unless my time becomes very cheap I would never do it again when you can buy dust collection, decent fence, and a riving knife equipped equivalent for $500.

 

[GrayFlattop]

I started with a Craftsman table saw back in the day, since EVERYTHING I bought was Craftsman then. That saw was the sole reason why I ended up with a Powermatic 66 with a Biesemeyer fence and never regretted it. I ended up giving the Craftsman table saw to a friend (I still feel bad about giving away such a turd to a nice guy).

The fence would never lock parallel to the blade, the pulley always walked off the motor shaft - after awhile - no matter how many times I re-aligned and shimmed the motor and motor mount. Bad design, bad execution. Even if I fabricated a different motor mount, the fence still would have sucked - and it would still be under powered. I spent more time adjusting and playing with it than I did sawing. This was a circa 1979 purchase - pretty sure it was Emerson, but not 100%.

I bought the Powermatic new in '84 and it was roughly 5-6 times the price of the Craftsman, but it was 100 times better. I would have bought used, but at the time I needed the saw for a big cabinet job, there was nothing on the market. The Unisaw would be a good alternate.

I don't count myself as a C-man hater, I have a lot of their tools. The earlier stationary tools they sold were much better. I can't speak to any stationary tools sold later as that was the last big purchase of a Craftsman stationary power tool for me.

 

[Chucktin]

My 70s Contractor Saw is still going strong. Admittedly I replaced the fence with a Rigid model from HD. And the pulleys with machined steel versions (from Woodcraft (?)).
There is a " Con" with the pulley on the arbor tho. It's factionally larger (in diameter) than the original. So with a linked belt it, pulley and belt will rub against the bottom surface of the saw table. Not a big thing.

 

[Gurp]

Better than my last set up i built my shed with...
I screwed a block of wood or a mesh lawn table.. Then would use a saw horse for support onnthe other side amd a C clamp to hold it in place. I still dont own a table saw. I buggered up a few cuts but nothing bad. Measure twice. Then check your marks 3 times then cut....