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Delta Unisaw alignment issue

2.3K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Unknowncraftsman  
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I have a Delta Unisaw 36-L31X that I got last year. I just finished taking it apart and rebuilding it, new paint, new bearings & belts. It had two layers of Formica over the whole top, Insert included. It came only with parts of the fence laying next to it, so, I moved my Inca Jig fence from my old Grizzly contractors saw over to the new one. Now I'm trying to align the blade… it won't get any closer than 20 thousandths towed in.

Do I need to elongate the holes in the cabinet, or is there any additional movement with in the trunnions I need to look at first?
 
#2 ·
Welcome to LumberJocks!

Yes. The trunion mounting bolt holes have extra clearance, and you can adjust the position of them.

My standard rebuild process is to check the parallelism of the blade washer to cabinet before assembling the top. Typically put the blade/arbor position in center to right center of total available adjustment, and parallel to both cabinet sides. Then can normally rough align the cast iron top to be flush with right side of cabinet, and the miter slots are really close, and easy for final alignment.

The cast iron mount holding arbor also has some adjustment room, with spring washers used to keep blade pushed to one side.

Another tip or question:
Did you check the cabinet mounting flanges with the cast iron top mounts for flatness, and are they all in same plane?
While this usually doesn't impact normal miter slot alignment, if one or more corners of cabinet are bent due to abusive handling; it usually impacts the miter slot to blade parallelism as you adjust the blade angle to 45° (top is not in perfectly perpendicular to blade). A 3lb hammer and 2×4 can fix it, but might scratch fresh paint.

Best Luck.