Craftsman RAS Alignment


cornelp

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So, I purchased this older RAS, so that I could build my garage wood shop for small projects.

Brand new blade. I attached the pics to go along with my issue, but:

If you look at the fence, you will see at 1/2 to 3/4in opening that the saw made. After checking the saw, it looks as follows:

When the arm of the saw is at the back (parked position), the blade is towards the right. As I pull the arm/blade towards me, its moving towards the left a tad, not much but enough to make 1/2in cut into the wood (like a dado type cut lol).

I tried to align the arm as perfect to 90 at possible, no matter what i do, it still does the same thing.

Now i tried to do 45 degrees cuts. When the blade/arm is in the parked position its OK. As I pull the blade towards me, it moves slightly to the left.

I used one of those angle readers, and the blade/unit is at 89.90 degrees, so not 90 exactly, but pretty close.

Does anyone know what am I supposed to align for this to do a proper cut without leaving a 1/2 dado cut into the wood?

 

Thanks

RAS-Manufac.jpg

IMG_20191117_181428.jpg

Fence-Opening.jpg

RAS-Forward.jpg

RAS-Back.jpg

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First, find the manual.  It should be online somewhere.  There is an adjustment for every angle of the blade.  I think the one for that plane of the blade is a nut under holding the motor hanger.

Find a dead on framing square.  Use it for aligning every plane (geometric). For setting the saw square, I barely let one tooth touch the square, and drag it out.  It's right when it makes the same sound, barely touching the square, all the way out on the arm

Once you get the blade dead on, replace that fence.

The rollers that the motor rolls on the arms from should have eccentric centers.  You can keep playing with their positions until you get all the play out of it.

Once you get everything adjusted, don't ever let the blade lock up in any piece of wood.  It will throw something off.

I adjusted my 1973 Craftsman 12", that I bought new, dead on in every plane, maybe twenty years ago, and I still use it for precision 90 degree cuts.  I even cut finished tenon shoulders with it.

Sorry, but I know nothing about that particular model.

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10 minutes ago, Tom King said:

First, find the manual.  It should be online somewhere.  There is an adjustment for every angle of the blade.  I think the one for that plane of the blade is a nut under holding the motor hanger.

Find a dead on framing square.  Use it for aligning every plane (geometric). For setting the saw square, I barely let one tooth touch the square, and drag it out.  It's right when it makes the same sound, barely touching the square, all the way out on the arm

Once you get the blade dead on, replace that fence.

The rollers that the motor rolls on the arms from should have eccentric centers.  You can keep playing with their positions until you get all the play out of it.

Once you get everything adjusted, don't ever let the blade lock up in any piece of wood.  It will throw something off.

I adjusted my 1973 Craftsman 12", that I bought new, dead on in every plane, maybe twenty years ago, and I still use it for precision 90 degree cuts.  I even cut finished tenon shoulders with it.

Sorry, but I know nothing about that particular model.

So, what happens is this:

The blade is 90 degrees to the table.

The arm is 90 degrees too.

However, when I put the square to the blade, and I drag out the arm, it goes AWAY from the square. I guess ill have to keep playing with it until I get it squared. I just dont know where to adjust the arm movement. Ill look for the manual, maybe that will help.

THanks for the help.

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To me it looks like your motor is setting off at an angle which will make your blade cut like that.

As Tom Said the arm may not be your problem.  The motor and blade is made to rotate also so you can turn it to make rip cuts.  because of this there are also adjustments to that part also.  When I had my Radial Arm Saw also a Craftsman it had a number of adjustments to be made on different parts of the saw, not just the arm.

Check with vintagemachinery.org   or  ereplacementparts.com for a manual.

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1 hour ago, Chet said:

To me it looks like your motor is setting off at an angle which will make your blade cut like that.

As Tom Said the arm may not be your problem.  The motor and blade is made to rotate also so you can turn it to make rip cuts.  because of this there are also adjustments to that part also.  When I had my Radial Arm Saw also a Craftsman it had a number of adjustments to be made on different parts of the saw, not just the arm.

Check with vintagemachinery.org   or  ereplacementparts.com for a manual.

Yes I went and downloaded the manual. Found that there are 3 screws behind the arm that allows the arm to  be adjusted (from the looks of it, its called cross cut travel carriage). It talks about, if the glade is not going into a straight line from start to finish, then to adjust 3 screws behind the arm. 

Also talks about heel adjustment, which is necessary for the cross cut travel to work properly. So I see that i must adjust 1 heel, then 2 cross cut travel, in that order. I guess I have some work to do tonight lol.

Thanks...

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