SAABMaven

G'Day all !

Recently bought our first house, and my wife gave me a used Craftsman table saw model 113-241691, about 25 years old (looks exactly what I used in High School shop), plus a radial arm saw and some other goodies. An 80 year old gentleman was liquidating his garage and moving to Florida. No manuals, although I'm searching for these online.

Here are the two problems. The table saw slows down and or burns (makes smoke, sawdust dark brown) when I make a long cut (more than a foot or so). It seems to have not much cutting power. The blade does not seem dull, but I may be wrong. It feels sharp. I am only cutting 3/4" thick pine of a good grade, nothing hard or heavy.

Also, when making 45 degree cuts (blade straight up, wood 45* to the table, not a tilted blade cut) I have discovered that the blade does not cut exactly 45* to the table! More like 46*or 47*. Could that be related to the blade smoking and getting hung up? Is there a calibration that I need to do?

If someone else has this type of saw, please let me know your wisdom. I don't know what to look at first !!!

Thanks much !

Rob in Vermont

themechanic007

You will get far better response's than what i can say....
but my 2cents is-if its burnng the wood your cutting, then i would say the blade is shot-try another even cheap one and see if it helps...
if its burning sawdust under table then its probably the motor getting hot...
When you say wood 45* to the table, you mean on a miter gauge? if so then its probaly the miter gauge thats off or its not in correct aligment with the blade-

JohnnyR

Just a guess but are you running a saw wired for 240v on 120v? I ran into this problem a few years ago after inheriting my dads shop when he passed away and his Rockwell jointer behaved much like you describe. It would slow down almost to a stop if pushed too hard and when I checked the motor I found it to be wired for 240v but he had a 120v plug on the cord. I switched the wiring at the motor to 120v and presto...full power. It makes me wonder if my dad ever actually used the thing.

J.R.

__________________
Give the hardest job to the laziest man and he will find the easiest way to accomplish the task

Woodchuck1957

There are a couple things it could be, a dull blade or when riping your fence is out of alignment, pinching the wood between the fence and the backside of the blade, which is dangerous and could lead to a serious kickback. If it's burning the wood on a crosscut useing the miter gauge then your blade is dull. It could be one or both of those things. Hard to say without being there, but thats my guess. I noticed the saw is a cable drive, I wonder what kind of shape the cable is in, or if you can switch it over to belt drive without costing too much. KnotScott would probably know this one. One other power killer is not haveing enough juice for the motor, as in running the motor on a starved circuit, and or useing too light of an extension cord, a good indicator is if the lights dim in your shop when you power up the saw.

Hacksaw

Check the wiring...it does sound like you're running a saw that's wired for 240v at 120v. You should also adjust your fence and blade to be parallel to the miter slot. Get a decent dial indicator and make yourself a jig for checking this.

Suz

Rob,
First of all I'd get a new high quality "thin knerf" ripping blade for the saw. Who knows how old the one is that is on the saw now and what it has gone through, also there could be a build up of pitch in the gullets of the blade that will cause burning. Next I'd spend a day making sure the table top and miter slots are exactly parallel to the saw blade. When you are satisfied that the top is within a couple of thousands of being parallel you are ready for the next setting and that is making sure the blade is parallel with the miter slots when the blade is tilted at a 45. (BTW, the Sears' manual is very lacking on how to do this adjustment along with a lot of other saw manufacturers. One place you can find information on how to do this would be to go to Grizzly tools and download a manual for one of their saws.)
Once everything is straight and true with the saw top you can proceed to adjusting the fence. Make sure the fence is parallel to the blade AND the miter slots. Don't just run your finger along the miter slot thinking that the fence is true with the table. Get a dial indicator and check that it is within the .002 to .005 range.
Then make sure the fence stays parallel with the blade when you tighten it down to make a cut. I'd venture a guess that about 90% of the fences would move when they were tightened down. (When I had my Sears' saw I finally put a BIES fence on it. What a difference that made!!)
Another thing to check to make sure the motor swings free because this is the only tension setting you have. The belt could be warming up and slipping when making a long cut. Check the belt and make sure the sides of it are not shinny and glazed. Also, while you are under there, make sure the pulleys are tight and are aligned with each other.
Final thought. You have to be aware that the saw only has a 1 hp motor and IMHO is grossly underpowered for any heavy ripping operations. You have to feed your stock slow and steady and make sure the saw cut isn't closing up behind the blade and pinching it. If you are getting smoke off the blade I'd say it is dull even if it feels sharp, and with the Sears saw you must have a very sharp blade for it to cut correctly.

__________________
Jim

knotscott

I glanced through the responses and it looks like just about all the usual possibilities were addressed. It may have been mentioned and I missed it, but make sure the blade is clean too.... a new decent quality blade is a great idea but even that will need to be kept clean to continue cutting like new. The Freud 24T TK blades are < $30 at most homecenters.

SAABMaven

Folks,

Installed a new blade, the saw table rips as if the wood were made of butter !!!

First of all, I learned a lot on this thread, so THANK YOU very much.

So, here's what happened. Made the measurements recommended by Jim (Suz), using a dial indicator. Table alignment was OK, barely (no heeling) but the mitre gauge seems to have seen such heavy use that it will not hold a 45*. So I'll have to replace the mitre gauge as well. This gauge was steel, and all I see nowadays is plastic Made-in-China, so I'll have to keep looking or consult a machine shop. I'm definitely in the market for a BIES fence! Time to start googling .

Removed the blade, took it to a lumberyard. The gentleman working there said that it was possible that a dull blade could be the cause. It seemed sharp to both of us, but it was dirty. I liked that he considered many options and didn't try for a quick sale. So I bought a nice blade that was different from the 25+ year-old blades that came with the saw.

Hope to start contributing soon... I just made a custom jig to create shelving units, maybe somebody will find this useful.

Cheers!
Rob in Vermont

mtkng

Actually ended up replacing the motor with a Century using much lower RPM"s. The Craftsman motors are geared way too high for tough cutting. Solved the issue.