Most table saws come with a few basic adjustments, but sometimes they need to be tweaked further to get the best results. In this blog post, we’ll show you how to adjust your table saw so that it works perfectly for your projects.
Whether you’re new to woodworking or have been using a table saw for years, these tips will help you achieve great results every time. So read on and learn how to adjust your table saw like a pro!
So, let’s get started! I’ll try and explain the process as thoroughly as possible. Please note that if you’re not comfortable doing this yourself, please call someone who is familiar with power tools and their operation. It could save you a lot of pain and even your life.
Tools Used To Adjust a Table Saw
- Hex wrench
- flathead screwdriver
- pry bar
Tools needed, 3/32″ Hex wrench (if you don’t have one, go buy one), flathead screwdriver or pry bar, pencil for marking purposes please note that these can vary depending on each saw manufacturer, 2 Phillips screwdriver, 7/64″ Hex wrench again buy it do it now thank me later and finally, we need to remove the blade guard assembly from the saw. Most guards have a simple quick-release lever on the front of them.
In order to get started safely, take your time and make sure you’re safe before continuing with any further work. This is not a step that should be taken lightly or done quickly. Once you’ve removed the blade guard (which shouldn’t require more than half a dozen turns) mark where it was touching using pencil lines on either side of the blade itself.
This is only for reference purposes only not anything scientific. You want to be able to see where it struck in case there is an issue later on down the road (when someone else may try to fix this) like vibrations causing safety issues, etc…
Now that we know where our blade was hitting, we need to adjust the blade height. To do this we turn the height adjustment knob (labeled by most all machines) clockwise until we can’t go any further and then counter-clockwise (lowering the blade). Please read here How thick is a table saw blade.
This is where your hex wrench will come in hand. You’ll want to loosen up each of the bolts enough to where you can freely move them, but not too much as to lose all of the bolts from their threads.
How To Adjust a Table Saw?
There are a couple of things that could happen here on your machine:
1) You’ll turn it and hear a loud “CLUNK” noise as the blade lowers itself. This is good. Turn it back in the opposite direction until it hits your pencil lines.
2) You’ll turn the knob and nothing happens, no noise at all. This is due to a couple of reasons:
- Your blade height adjustment screw may be loose enough that you can’t select any lower heights on your saw from this knob. In this case, please refer to the owner’s guide that came with yours for more information on how to fix/adjust it properly. It’s possible that there could even be a set screw on the bottom of the table itself preventing the bolt from going any lower or close enough for us to make contact with our pencil lines.
- The other possibility is that your blade height adjustment knob is broken or seized up. In this case, start calling your local tool repair shop and see if they can help you out with the problem. If all else fails, contact your machine manufacturer for more information on replacement parts.
To Raise the Blade Of Table Saw:
Once we’ve set the blade height at the point where it hits our pencil lines (the lowest setting possible), we need to turn our saw off! We do not want to be adjusting any of these bolts when it’s running due to potential kick-back or accidental starting of the saw itself.
This will vary from what I mentioned above depending on your specific model of the table saw. Some have a large bolt in which you simply screw down clockwise with an Allen wrench while others may have a nut and bolt combination (usually one on top and bottom) and you’ll need to turn the bottom/top clockwise.
The bottom line:
If it’s not obvious by now, we need to be extremely careful when adjusting our blade height. There is no other way around this. You don’t want to remove your hand/arm/elbow/leg unexpectedly, do you? I didn’t think so… Please read here How to align table saw blade.
Now that we’ve got things adjusted, our blade guard is back in place and we’re safe again! Turn your saw back on and see how high of a cut you can get away with before it starts hitting your pencil lines again. Don’t forget there is still cast iron underneath our table and could potentially cause problems when trying to remove large amounts of material at once.
To adjust the lower guard/splitter Of Table Saw:
This is the other adjustment that comes into play with your table saw. Every manufacturer will have their own way of making this adjustment, but they are usually fairly similar across the board for each one.
The bottom line:
Loosen everything up again before adjusting anything down there! You don’t want any issues while you’re working on it which could cause injury or damage to your machine. If you need more details by all means give us a call here at Western Tool Repair!
Once you’re ready to begin adjusting your guard, grab your hex wrench and loosen up each bolt. Again, don’t remove them completely just yet! We need to have enough room for movement that way we can adjust it into place. You may even want to turn the saw off again now if you’d like as an extra precautionary measure.
Make sure everything is set properly with the blade height before moving on! If not, make any necessary adjustments until they are. Trust me when I say this is extremely important or there’s a good chance you could lose one or more fingers if something doesn’t match upright and no one wants that do they?
Now to adjust your lower guard/splitter Of Table Saw:
a) The first thing you want to do is check your manufacturer’s manual for a specific way in which they’d like you to set it up. If there isn’t one, I’ve been shown two different ways from what I’ve seen so far. Read more here How to set up dewlat table saw.
The top method:
Tilt the guard/splitter all the way back towards your blade and tighten each bolt slowly. When you get them, all tightened down, bring it forward slightly past 10 o’clock or 2 o’clock (depending on which direction we’re looking at) and then tighten the bolts again.
The bottom method:
Tilt the guard/splitter away from your blade and tighten each bolt until you can barely move it anymore then go just a bit further just to be safe. You don’t want it to swing back and forth, if possible, but you also do not want any part of the guard/splitter touching your blade during normal operation.
Once you have your lower guard/splitter adjusted, tighten each nut down finger tight for now. We’ll need to do a final wrench tightening once we’ve got everything else in place so hold off on that just yet!
Check the bottom of your lower guard/splitter again; make sure there isn’t anything that would obstruct its path or interfere with anything else under there if there is, consider moving whatever it is out of the way (ie: push sticks).
Conclusion
Our essential guide of how to adjust a table saw comes to an end here. I hope you’ve found this informative and it has helped get your table saw set up properly.
If there is anything that needs clarification or perhaps could be further explained, please feel free to leave me a comment below! We’ll always look for better ways of explaining how to set up a table saw and I’ll do my best to make an adjustment if needed.