I have an old craftsman 10" contractor table saw. Picked it up, cheap, on FB marketplace, to replace my even crappier old craftsman portable table saw, as the fence was worse than useless, it was dangerous.
The angle adjustment, however, is the worst design possible. Pure friction!!!
Who the hell thought a ball and socket style bearing was a good idea?
I have an old craftsman 10" contractor table saw. Picked it up, cheap, on FB marketplace, to replace my even crappier old craftsman portable table saw, as the fence was worse than useless, it was dangerous.
The angle adjustment, however, is the worst design possible. Pure friction!!!
Who the hell thought a ball and socket style bearing was a good idea?
The only style of bearings I've seen are a Acme threaded "ball" with the corresponding size threaded shaft.The ball needs to pivot slightly because the angle of the shaft changes with the amount of bevel you dial in to the blade. There ain't a better way to do that that I'm aware of and it's actually very common on table saws. If the angle is never or rarely changed, saw dust can accumulate on the threads and make them gummed up, so it won't turn easily, but some preventative maintenance will fix that. Do not use oil or grease, but rather a "dry" lubricant to prevent the dust from sticking to the shaft.
The ball is fixed, and spins when you turn the arbor, rubbing between the formed metal retainer-plate, and the sidewall of the cabinet. Even clean with free-moving trunions, it squeals like a castrated donkey.
And as I'm not a trained tablesaw technician, or even user, I couldn't tell you the "accurate" name for the mechanism. Its the arbor for the tilt/angle adjustment. Its held against the saw body, in a friction fit.
I added pics to the OP.
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