Delta Blade Alignment Procedures - Contractor's saw models 34-444 and 34-445Z series
Bob Sosenko
in aligning the blade parallel to the miter slot on these particular
contractor saws. They may also apply to other Delta series saws as long as
they have two tie-bars as part of the undercarriage.
I installed a new blade the other night and checked alignment using my TS
Aligner Jr. and found that it was off by nearly 5 thousandths (front to
rear - using same tooth on blade as ref). Decided to align and while doing
so, managed to snap a trunnion bolt !
Well, the saw was due for a good cleaning and lube anyway, so I pulled out
the whole undercarriage mechanism. It was a fairly simple process actually
and not nearly as difficult as I was anticipating. Luckily, the bolt I
snapped was left with a few threads exposed and was easily removed. There
is no printed spec for these bolts in their literature so I called Delta
tech support and finally got connected with a very knowledgeable and helpful
individual (Ron as I recall).
He said a grade 5 bolt (same size) will do - but add lock washers to each of
the four trunnion bolts as long as I have it apart. These will help
maintain the alignment. There also is no spec for how tight these bolts
should be but "good 'n snug and not over-tightened" is all that's needed he
said. The trunnion bolts are not marked with a grade number and using a
grade 5 means that I probably will never be able to snap the bolt again, it
will most likely strip out the threads in the base before it breaks. So a
word of caution - tight enough is one turn before it strips or snaps -
wherever that is !
Considering that I was using a 6" long 1/2" box wrench and was not leaning
on it when it snapped, the original bolts are definitely not grade 5.
Now for the interesting part. Delta faxed me a two sheet procedure that
describes how to do this alignment. It's called "Blade Alignment
Instructions for Original Contractors-Type Saws (when the saw has two
Tie-Bars)". Pages are marked CS07 and CS07a and are not in the manual. I've
included the instructions below but since binaries are not appreciated in
this ng, I didn't scan the diagram.
Here's the procedure (minus diagram) as faxed to me: (unplug the saw first)
I've added a note or two to help which are denoted by (My note....).
.......................................Delta
Procedures.....................................................
Initial Measurement:
1. Raise the sawblade to it's maximum height and mark one tooth, at the
front of the blade as a reference.
2. Using a combination square, measure from the left edge of the right-hand
miter gauge slot to the sawblade tooth that was marked in step 1 (Note this
measurement). Then rotate the blade to the rear and measure from the same
marked tooth to the miter slot. (Note this measurement).
IF the two measurements are NOT the same, proceed with step 3.
Note: refer to parts diagram on the following page for part locations.
(My note...this is the step I never knew had to be done, nor have I ever
heard anyone mention it before.)
3. Remove the sawblade. (Remember, it is still at it's maximum height)
4. Place a flat plate (or similar flat object) on top of the two tie-bars.
(The size of the plate should be at least 6" by 8", and the flatter the
better). Depress one corner of the plate and if it rocks, the tie-bars are
not parallel. This must be corrected as it will affect the alignment of the
blade.
To make the Tie-Bars parallel:
5. Loosen the tie-bar locknuts (2ea. ref #245) located at the rear of the
saw.
6. Grasp the motor bracket (ref #244) and move it left and/or right. Check
the rocking of the flat plate and when it can no longer rock, the tie-bars
are parallel...re-tighten the locknuts.
Aligning the saw undercarriage:
7. Remove the flat plate and re-install the sawblade.
8. Loosen the front trunnion bolts (2ea. ref #207) and the rear trunnion
bolts (2ea. ref #243).
9. Move the entire undercarriage around while measuring as in step 2.
10. When the two measurements are the same, re-tighten the front two
trunnion bolts (ref #207).
11. Before tightening the rear trunnion bolts, push forward on the rear
trunnion bracket to allow the undercarriage to snugly fit between the two
trunnions.
12. Re-check the blade to miter slot measurement and if they are still
equal, re-tighten the rear trunnion bolts (ref #243).
13. If the blade to miter slot measurements have changed, repeat steps 8
thru 12.
.........................................End of Delta
Procedures............................................
Without a diagram to look at this may be confusing but I suspect most of us
never thought about the tie-bar alignment steps 5 & 6. If these are not
parallel to each other then you can tap / hammer / move / and swear at it
until the cows come home and it will never align correctly. Move the blade
(up / down) then recheck alignment and you will find that you're out of
alignment again ! You must keep the trunnion brackets tight to the rest of
the mechanism.
I'm off to find some grade 5 bolts, lockwashers and a flat plate (glass
maybe if I can't find a steel plate of some sort). I'll be reassembling and
aligning tonight. If I find a better or easier way, I'll make a follow-up
post and let you know what I did.
If you try to contact Delta tech support, (800) 438-2486 you'll most likely
get a busy signal like I did for two days. Finally contacted HQ at (901)
668-8600 and they paged tech support for me and he was on the line in less
than a minute. Course I was nice to the sweet young thing that answered the
call, told her I'd been trying for two days and could she help - sure 'nuff
!
I'll ding Delta for not including these procedures in the manual or at least
posting them on their web site but tech support (Ron) was very helpful and
friendly. He also gave me a few tips on how to adjust the blade height
(worm-gear) mechanism since mine is a bit to tight when raising/lowering the
blade.
The worm-gear is pinned to a shaft that goes thru another guide-shaft that
has an off-center hole bored thru it. By loosening the nut near the
worm-gear end, the shaft (with the off-center bore) can be rotated which
adjusts the gear meshing clearance between the worm-gear and the gear-height
mechanism. Confusing explanation but when you look at the mechanism, it
will be clear to you.
Hope all the above is useful to someone and provides a better explanation on
why we're having problems when making the blade to miter slot adjustment.
Bob S.
Bob Sosenko
Just finished aligning the saw - the Delta procedures work as advertised -
follow them exactly.
I know I'm being a bit anal over 5 thousandths but it was more of a
curiosity of "why" it couldn't be adjusted out. No matter what I had done
previously, it would come out close but never dead-on. Was it me, or just
the machining tolerance ?
The problem was the adjustment of the tie-bars not being parallel. I used
an 8" sanding disk (minus the sanding paper of course) as the flat plate
they want you to use in the alignment procedure - see original post above.
The lock nuts on the tie-bars are 15/16th's and they sure are on there
tight. Had to use an 18" strong-arm bar to break them loose. Did exactly as
the procedure called for and the alignment came out dead-on. Surprised the
hell out of me too !
Now when you do the alignment (blade parallel to miter slot), you truly can
loosen all 4 trunnion bolts (leave just slightly snug) and move the
undercarriage around to make the adjustment. No more 2x4's as levers and
whacking the hell out of the undercarriage to coax it into alignment.
Simply tap (rubber mallet or use your fist if you like pain) the
undercarriage and when front and back measurements are equal, snug 'em up
good but don't over do it (as I did which has lead to this whole diatribe).
Ran the blade up and down, changed blade angle, made some saw dust and
remeasured - still dead-on ! Never even came close to getting repeatable
measurements before this, so I'm a real happy camper.
May as well align the fence to the miter slot while you're at it too. I
have the TS Aligner so it's easy and accurate but the procedure in the
manual works well also.
Will it improve my cuts any - Yes ! Ripped a piece of maple and no burn
marks at the end anymore. Could be the new Freud blade but I tend to think
it was the alignment that made the difference.
Only addition to the procedure I would make is to be sure the blade is at 90
deg to the table when doing the alignment which isn't stated in their
procedures.
I did make a slight modification to the front trunnion bolts that you may be
interested in doing to make life easier. If you ever tried loosening /
tightening the front trunnion bolts then you know how difficult it can be to
get to them - not to mention the skinned knuckles.
While I was at the nut's and bolts place looking for a replacement bolt for
the one I snapped, I came across a bin of couplers, 2" long which accept
5/16" thread.
Idea came to mind. Why not get a short section of threaded rod (5/16th's)
and two couplers and make "extended stud bolts" for the front trunnion ?
Bought a section of threaded rod, some inside star-washers and some flat
washers.
I cut two sections of the threaded rod 2 5/8" long to for the studs. I
wanted the threaded rod to go into the table as far as possible (5/8") and
2" into the coupler to help stiffen the whole thing.
If you have the entire undercarriage out as I did, you need to put the
undercarriage in-place first, then insert the stud bolts (threaded rod
sections). If not, then simply replace the front bolts one at a time with
the "extended studs". Put a flat washer and a star washer on the stud and
run the couplers on up till they're good 'n snug.
Now it's a simple matter to use an open-end 1/2" wrench to get at those
front trunnion bolts. No more fiddling with a socket and an extension and
finding the bolt heads. You can now see them and get to them easily.
Delta - ya listening ?
I was initially worried that the right front coupler would interfere with
the blade tilt mechanism by using a 2" long coupler, there is still plenty
of clearance and clears the trunnion by a good 1/2" or so when the blade is
tilted the full 45 deg. The left coupler - no problems on clearance.
As I mentioned in the original post, my blade height adjustment was a bit to
tight compared to other saws I've tried. Adusted the "off-center" shaft
about 1/8th of a turn and that blade now goes up and down real nice and
smoothe. You'll know when the adjustment is right cause it "just feels
right". You don't want it to loose or there will be to much slack in the
gear mesh - just play with it a bit and you'll know what I mean about
feeling right.
So ends the story... and on a happy note too. Now I can get back to making
sawdust and stop playing mechanic. Have to make 3 double-hung windows for
my shed (the place where my lathe is going to be....8>)
G'night all,
Bob S.
swi...@gmail.com
Thanks!
Tom
woodchucker
other forums. Good to see it again.
I had done this, but still can not get 45 degree cuts to be dead on, the
blade does not track straight.
When I get my saw stop, I will enjoy not fighting my 45 degree cuts.
--
Jeff
Bob
This had been posted many years ago on either this site, or various
other forums. Good to see it again.
I had done this, but still can not get 45 degree cuts to be dead on, the
blade does not track straight.
When I get my saw stop, I will enjoy not fighting my 45 degree cuts.
--
Jeff
Been a number of years but there were some follow-up posts by others that
addressed the misalignments at angles other than 90° when the blade is
tilted. I found on my own saw (at the time) that the trunion lands on the
underside of the top were not at the same height. So when you adjust the
tie bars at 90°, they are not parallel at any other setting.
Turn the saw upside down, use a flat plate and check at 90° and then again
at 45° and see if the plate wobbles. You have to hold the plate to the bars
obviously but you'll know if they're parallel or not. The procedure for
finding which land was not at same height others was trial and error. I
simply placed a small shim ( a thou or two) on one of the trunion lands and
rechecked alignment until I found which combination of shim and position
worked.
I have to attribute that tip to Ron at Delta also. We talked for quite
awhile that day and he mentioned that some of the iron Delta got for the
tops was not aged the full 3 years and would warp after being machined. So
while he didn't have a good procedure to give me, he said it was worth
checking and trying to adjust for it by adding shims. Conversely if a land
is higher, stone or file it down but keep it flat.
I don't recall if I ever made any posts on that trial and error procedure
since others were already coming up with ideas on how to check and make that
adjustment. Trying to think of the right terminology to search on but
coming up blank at the moment.
Glad that original post was found to be helpful to others.
Bob S.
Leon
> snip....of long post...
>
> This had been posted many years ago on either this site, or various
> other forums. Good to see it again.
>
> I had done this, but still can not get 45 degree cuts to be dead on, the
> blade does not track straight.
>
> When I get my saw stop, I will enjoy not fighting my 45 degree cuts.
>
saw not being set up properly from the factory is probably close to
zero. BUT the Sawstop, at least the industrial model, has specific
instructions to correct that problem should it occur. Typically with
most cabinet saws you use shims between the table and the trunnion/yoke.
The industrial SawStop has an engineered adjustment found at the back
inside of the saw cabinet.
Now simply making the blade parallel to the miter slot at the 90 degree
bevel setting is a piece of cake with the SawStop.
ts
>
> When I get my saw stop, I will enjoy not fighting my 45 degree cuts.
>
Thanks!!
Bob
Bob -- Could you post the pdf somewhere?
Thanks!!
Have any idea how old that post was and how many computers I've had since
then....;-) I never had a pdf file, just a fax.
But I did do a search of all my hard drives (13 of them) and then did a
quick Google and if you can believe it, I found it here:
http://media.ptg-online.com/media/dm/Articles/FAQs/OriginalContractors-TypeSaws/20030108143706_Cs07m.TSD.pdf
After all these years... It doesn't say it's for the Delta 34-444 / 445Z
series but the reference numbers and diagrams are what I put in my original
post.
Hope it helps - at least you now have a diagram.
Bob S.
sueon...@gmail.com
John Carroll
Peaks Island, Maine
krw
jimno...@gmail.com
Ted Sickles
Sonny
> Well, after only seven years the url to the pdf is no longer valid. I don't suppose anyone has saved it?????
https://www.google.com/search?q=delta+contractor+saw+blade+alignment&rlz=1C1CHBD_enUS734US734&oq=delta+contractor+saw+blade+alignment&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l2.27343j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Sonny
Sonny
Ted Sickles
I followed Bob Sosenko's instruction. Checking the parallelism of the tie bars (Step 4) Using a feeler gauge I found the plate wobbled 0.0025 to 0.003 inches. After step 6 I could not effect any change. It's not apparent to me if my wobble is too big. Nor is apparent to me what step 6 is actually supposed to be doing. Maybethe trunnion bolts must also be loosened before doing step 6.
Michael Booth
> Well, after only seven years the url to the pdf is no longer valid. I don't suppose anyone has saved it?????
https://web.archive.org/web/20040720101323/http://media.ptg-online.com/media/dm/Articles/FAQs/OriginalContractors-TypeSaws/20030108143706_Cs07m.TSD.pdf
Many, many thanks to Bob for posting this, since I now have my own misaligned Delta contractor's saw to wrestle with.
Mike B