Every table saw owner should know how to tune up their saw — whether it’s a brand new beauty or a Craigslist bargain.
New models can get jostled around and misaligned during shipping. Simply using a saw can push it out of alignment over time.
And that 10 year old Craftsman you crammed in the back of your Fiat? You best believe it needs a tune up.
A misaligned table saw — where certain components are out of square to each other — is a problem for two reasons.
One, it won’t make accurate cuts.
Your boards won’t be square. You’ll get burned edges. And the table saw motor will have to work way too hard.
Two, misalignment can be a recipe for dangerous situations.
I’m talking pinched boards and murder-missle kickbacks. Probably not what you signed up for when you started woodworking.
But don’t fret.
Assuming it’s in decent working condition, tuning up and maintaining a table saw doesn’t require a Masters in mechanical engineering.
All you need to do is follow this 5 Step Process to ensure your machine is safe and accurate — before you turn it on and find out the hard way.
Christoph
August 01, 2022
Great directions for tuning the table saw! Thanks! I am running an old Martin T75 cast iron panel saw and was wondering for the longest time, when I checked for parallel with a micrometer gauge, why the fence was not exactly parallel to the saw blade and why the sliding table was also not exactly parallel (off by about 10-20 µm or so over the width of the saw blade, if I remember right, such that the back of the blade would not engage with the work piece when rip cutting against the fence or when cross or rip cutting with the sliding table.) When checking the sliding table against the fence, the angle was obviously twice as large. It finally dawned on me that it was aligned like that on purpose to avoid contact with the rising part of the blade, as you mentioned. I found that a good way to quickly check for that with my other saws is to cut a piece either against the fence or with the miter slot and listen for the sound when you pass the back of the blade. It is very easy to hear if there still is contact and you can also see it on the wood if there are traces from the teeth.