How to Adjust Cabinet Saw Trunnions to Align a Blade

barryvabeach: As far as I know, you are right and those shims have nothing to do with the 90 degree alignment. Still, to simplify I removed them, which seemed like it couldn't hurt given that I don't know if I even put them back in the right postion. Once I align the top to a 90 degree blade, I will tackle aligning the top to a 45 degree blade.

knotscott: I am only dealing with the table top bolts, which are completley different from the trunnion bolts on the Rigid r4511. Thanks for the suggestion, though. Fact is that when I first tackled setting this beast up, I began loosening one of the trunnion bolts thining it was what another section of the set up instructions was talking about.

jcwalleye: I am familiar with purplev's write up and it is outstanding. It cleared up most of the mysteries left by the terrible instructions. Had I only seen it sooner. I originally did the alignment without the wings attached. When I discovered the other day how far it was still off, I tried aligning the saw with the wings and everything attached. I then tore it down to where the wings are off too see if it was easier to align. No difference, but there is likely less chance of damaging a wing.

At this point I am going to remove the blade to get a peek between the bottom of the table and the top of the trunnion mechanism. If nothing is obvious, I will drop by my HD. A few months ago, they were going to send a guy out to pick it up if I would help them load it on a truck. I opted to file out the holes as I didn't know if I wanted the same guys that set up there display saws using power tools on my saw. Maybe I will ask if they are still willing to give it a try. I would only want them to allign the top and, if needed, the trunnions.

Bad Idea?

One other thing; I was at the limit of how far I could move my top without reaming the bolt hole larger, when I called it close enough. I recall others saying they had to drill the hole larger to get their top aligned. Would a 1/16" or 3/32" larger hole allow you to align it.

Also, there is a sequence to aligning the top. First comes the mitre slot to the blade at 90. Then the mitre slot to the blade at 45. The difficulty is that any changes you make to align at 45 is likely to throw your alignment at 90 off. So after you make a change at 45, realign with the blade at 90 and then see how your 45 alignment is. I found it somewhat frustrating and think I ended up within .002 at 90 degrees but off by .012 when the blade was at 45 degrees.

Also, my fence had noticable indentions, .01 or bigger where the holes were punched out. I shimmed a piece of UHMW plastic with playing cards and got it fairly straight.

Good luck and I think you will really like the saw when you get it dialed in.

jcwalleye,

I had previously filed bolt holes out and thought it was aligned well enough, but I couldn't really tell how well until I got the TS-Aligner. Today I meticulously studied the bolt hole pattern and what was off.

I even had my artist daughter to a rubbing with the top removed of bolt holes in the top of the cabinet, which I pinned to the garage wall. I then placed push pins in the bolt holes so I could visualize what was going on. I then saw that much of the material I had removed earlier with a file did little or know good, but I was able to immediately pinpoint where metal had to be removed. II think I took material off the wrong side of the hole. Probably as I had trouble visulaizing what needed to be done from looking under the top. This way I mapped it out from the top, as though I could look through granite.)

This time I used my dremel and a small sanding drum. Oh'Mike knows how I love that Dremel.

I still unable to align it with the bolts loose but in. Perhaps I was supposed to remove three and losen the pivot screw. Anyway, I took all 4 bolts out and saw that I may just be able to align the blade if the top was tapped a bit towards the front of the saw. I gave it a final wack and it is dead parallel, but it isn't clear that one of the screws can be inserted withhout removing a tad of material. (The only one that wasn't enlarged).

When I got to that point, I stopped for the night. I wanted to shut down on a high note and am pretty certain I will have it tomorrow. If I do, I will post. Hopefully this will help somebody else. I do love the saw.

This was done with an inexpensive pirranha plywood blade I had for some time. It was flatter than my stock Rigid blade by .004" (.009" vs. .012") but the change didn't seem to make a difference.

As for my fence, it is similar to yours. At least it locks down without dispacement and I was able to adjust it to where the rear is .001 to the right of its front.

I didn't notice your post ealier, Cato. I did call One World Technologies and spoke w a tek, today. They were pretty certain that the problem wasn't that the trunnion had moved. As my blade is warped, with a difference of .012" from the highest to the lowest spot, they were concerned that it may be affecting the alignment and asked me to remeasure with a new blade since I should receive one in a few days as it was already on order.

If I still cannot bring the top within tolerance of being parallel to the blade, they said that they would have the trunnion gone over. Problem is that acceptable tolerance to One World is .018". Isn't that a bit much?

As noted in the above reply to jcwalleye (Joe), it looks as though I will be able to do much better and set it to within the tolerance of the cheap dial meter (.001").

The other item I want to check with the ts-aligner jr is how well I aligned the surfaces of the top to the wings. That and I am interested in seeing how true the granite was surfaced.

I looked at the video clip of truing a jointer and it looks pretty straight forward.

If you are interested in getting a TS-Alligner Jr, I think it is well worth the money but place your order early and be patient. I had to wait 3 months for mine.

Ingjr, Just stopped playing with the beast for the day (no I didn't spend the whole day wrstling with the orange monster, just four hours of it but I NOW HAVE IT ADJUSTED TO WHERE THE BLADE HEELS AWAY FROM THE FENCE ONE THOUSANDTH OF AN INCH!!!!!!

I would have taken the time to work out that last 1/1000". but I may as well wait and do the final aduustment with the new blade.

In the final analysis, I am confident that the problem was with the factory assembly. Perhaps a comgbination of several little things all being off just enough so that the saw barely fell within tolerance. Per One World Technnology that is .018" for blade parrellism to the mitre groove. With a lot of work, mine would adjust to .016". That may be good enough for the factory but not for me.

I had thought that I originally filed out the top bolt mounting holes enough, but I took a little bit more off with my dremel grinding stone. Still, it was off the same amount (.018 to .020) though it appeared that I was able to positon the table properly with the threaded holes over the enlarged holes in the cabinet. If your saw wasn't off by as much as mine, you wouldn't encounter the problem that was holding me back.

Two of the heavy allen head bolt washers/slugs were preventing the rear of the top from being postitioned far enough to the right of the blade. The left rear washer was hitting the side of the cabinet and the right rear was striking the inner wall of the square cabinet tube along the left side of the saw. I ground about 1/16" of a side of each washer and KABOOM.

What a bitch. Thanks for all the help and moral support.