I just purchased and assembled the same TS. I haven't had a chance to(safely)play around with it too much, just a couple small cuts to make sure everything was working correctly. I know one thing's for sure, a Zero Clearance, sled and a couple jigs are definitely in the near future. I just need to figure out how to make the ZC being that I don't have a router or band saw.

 

Are the trunnions on the Delta table mounted or cabinet mounted?

 

Here's a pic I took of the Delta at the local Lowe's. As you can see, the (front) trunnion is aluminum and bolted to the table bottom.

Here's another pic where you can see part of the rear trunnion, too. The dust collection looks to be well designed.

Bill

 

Any updates?

 

The only update I have is that I gave the one at my Lowes the once over and checked all the alignments and movements of the blade up and down and fully over to 45 and back. Could not start it up of course, but from what I could tell it was set up properly. However, I was not able to get the riving knife and blade guard off, so cutting none through cuts would be an issue for me.

I'm keeping my old reliable Cman Flex till it dies I guess. After adding the T2 fence system its a fine saw provided you take into account its limitations.

 

Lumberjocks has a very long thread on it with pics . Just type in a search for the saw there.

 

Has anyone been able to actually make a trunnion adjustment on these saws to align the blade with the miter slots?

 

knotscott asked: <<Has anyone been able to actually make a trunnion adjustment on these saws to align the blade with the miter slots?>>

From the pictures, it looks like you need to loosen eight (Torx head?) bolts that might require some cussing to reach.

Bill

 

Yeah...I'm wondering if the wholes are elongated to allow for some adjustment. I'm puzzled why Delta wouldn't mention this adjustment in the manual....it's not exactly their first TS!

 

I called Delta on Friday and inquired about trunnion adjustment and the person I spoke with said their trunnions will not work with the PALS system and are not intended to be adjusted. Somewhat disappointing.

 

Our Lowes finally got 2 Deltas, and they sit in the tool department still in boxes.... What good is that ??
All the throw-away saws are assembled and on display....
Home Depot doesn't even have a Ridgid.... You have to order it....

Sent to y'all offen' a iPad thing......

 

Our Lowes finally got 2 Deltas, and they sit in the tool department still in boxes.... What good is that ??

The one at my local Lowes is so poorly assembled that Delta will probably sell more of them if Lowes leaves them in the box.:thumbsup:

 

I wouldn't count out aluminum trunions, they're quite beefy if you look underneath it.....aluminum is much stronger than many give it credit for....if an aluminum engine block can hold 400+ hp in perfect alignment...I think it'll handle 1.5 just fine.

 

May be I'm wrong. But I saw that can happen with aluminum after 5 years of usage in similar conditions like the saw has: vibration, stress and stretching. It cannot be compared with iron

 

Everyone pictures aluminum to be flimsy and cheap because of beer cans....but If you look into the industrial uses of aluminum, it's plenty strong to handle this stress....the lower control arms on my 6000 lb truck are aluminum....the heads that hold the cams and valves in much closer tolerances than a table saw will need to be are aluminum....and the stresses run for hundreds of millions of cycles without deforming.

Aluminum trunions would be the very least of my concerns on a new saw.

 

While I completely agree that aluminum is plenty strong enough to handle most issues common to a table saw, I will never agree that the mating of an aluminum trunnion to a cast iron table top is a good idea.

There is a chemical process called galvanic corrosion that causes the aluminum to corrode over time and become brittle when it is bolted directly to anything other than more aluminum.

So, if you keep a saw for 5 years or more, the strength of the trunnion will be compromised and possibly break at the worse possible time.

Those control arms that ryan50hrl mentioned are mounted in rubber or synthetic bushings. They are not mounted directly to the steel frame. Freightliner trucks found this out the hard way in the 50's when their aluminum frames broke at the steel rear spring hangers after 5 years on the road. They replaced the direct contact between the different metals and their rigs have been fine ever since.

 

But that frame in a truck was stressed repeatedly and at high percentages of its maximum capable load....trunnions while under a small amount of stress, at their mounting points are under very little comparatively. I suspect you could never create the type of force needed to break a trunion on a saw....even a 5 hp beast of a saw with just the saw blade itself for leverage.

The mounting points were at least 1x1 square.....do you know how much force it's going to take to break 4 of those? Or to even bend 4 of those?

As to the corrosive issue....metal only corrodes to it's breaking point when the base metal is repeatedly exposed to oxygen. On a truck frame, every washing, every bump knocking off corrosion, ect. exposed new metal to corrode. Once metal has been oxidized, it can not continue to oxidize till it disappears. Its why table saws aren't rusting in half. Unprotected cast iron gets surface rust, and then generally stops getting worse....same thing happens to aluminum....aluminum oxide forms and then that keeps the aluminum from continuing to oxidize. No oxygen....no corrosion

.

 

...aluminum oxide forms and then that keeps the aluminum from continuing to oxidize. No oxygen....no corrosion

.

everything is correct but you have missed one important point. Aluminium and iron has different potential thus there will be always small galvanic power at the place they are connected. This power will destroy a shield that is created by oxygen. So the corrosion will continues and continues and this is that I tried to say earlier. I saw how aluminium got destroyed after 5 years of usage in similar conditions. And vibration just speeds up the process.

But I think we are digging to much in details the time will show how Delta is bad or good.

 

The one at my local Lowes is so poorly assembled that Delta will probably sell more of them if Lowes leaves them in the box.:thumbsup:

Same with Sears.... Very poorly assembled... The wing on the right was so high it wouldn't allow the fence to slide over it....
The fence had a huge amount of slop on the rail...... I can't imagine anyone would consider one based on this example....

Sent to y'all offen' a iPad thing......

 

A poster on another forum said he was told they were set right on at the factory. His was off .004" from the miter slot. He said with a friend helping him they loosened the screws just enough to tap the trunnion over. He said do not loosen them a lot, just crack them enough to allow iit to move. He was able to get it within .001". For me I would have left it at the .004". I will be buying a Delta 36-725 soon, If I get one within .004" I'll be happy. Ed

t


There's another post on Lumberjocks where delta explained how to adjust the trunnions and the guy said it made it easy to adjust.

 

Virtually all saws have both aluminum and steel parts.....i've never seen one break due to corrosion. Heck....many of the craftsman and ridgid saws have a motor with aluminum end caps and a steel body......you don't see the motor breaking in half....

I think your right though.....we're beating a dead horse here......

 

IIRC, some of the older Ridgids and Cmans had aluminum trunnion brackets mounted to the cast iron table.

 

My aluminum concern was more around the gears wearing on the trunnions/worm drive, but in retrospect, the amount of use the gears will see going up and down from normal use shouldn't even remotely cause wear issues. I'd have no concerns with the aluminum trunnions, but that's imo.

 

Everyone pictures aluminum to be flimsy and cheap because of beer cans....but If you look into the industrial uses of aluminum, it's plenty strong to handle this stress....the lower control arms on my 6000 lb truck are aluminum....the heads that hold the cams and valves in much closer tolerances than a table saw will need to be are aluminum....and the stresses run for hundreds of millions of cycles without deforming.

Aluminum trunions would be the very least of my concerns on a new saw.

One should take into consideration that aluminum in an engine block is lined with steel sleeves. And for good reason. Aluminum has a poor ware resistance and is not "slick" onto itself. So the metal to metal ware is the killer. One reason is the high oxidation rate. Not to be confused with rust but actually in surface to surface contact it gets worse. The aluminum is really bad. Which leads to many problems down the road. and it's a very short road.

Don't get me wrong, I fly with an aluminum engine.

Al

Nails only hold themselves.

 

Same with Sears.... Very poorly assembled... The wing on the right was so high it wouldn't allow the fence to slide over it....
The fence had a huge amount of slop on the rail...... I can't imagine anyone would consider one based on this example....

Sent to y'all offen' a iPad thing......

This is the case with many items found in department stores. Lowes and Home Depot are the worse.

Al

Nails only hold themselves.

 

One should take into consideration that aluminum in an engine block is lined with steel sleeves. And for good reason. Aluminum has a poor ware resistance and is not "slick" onto itself. So the metal to metal ware is the killer. One reason is the high oxidation rate. Not to be confused with rust but actually in surface to surface contact it gets worse. The aluminum is really bad. Which leads to many problems down the road. and it's a very short road. Don't get me wrong, I fly with an aluminum engine. Al Nails only hold themselves.

If you look at the trunnions in this saw, I don't see any aluminum to aluminum wear surfaces.

 

If you look at the trunnions in this saw, I don't see any aluminum to aluminum wear surfaces.

That's good.

But then I did look and it would appear that the trunnions do have aluminum wear surfaces and that's just not going to last. Nice looking saw though. I'd take it over the other brand.

Al

Nails only hold themselves.

 

Nice looking saw though. I'd take it over the other brand.

You really need help.

 

I just found a lowes with one built. Like it's been said before, they won't sell one based on the horrible crap they loosely put together. It also seemed very rickety when on the rubber feet.

 

You really need help.

Excuse me. Just what warrants such a response?

Al

Nails only hold themselves.

 

Ya I saw it

Anyone look over the new delta saw? They sell it at lowes. Looks pretty interesting.

I heard or read they are also reengineering their 12" Planer. As for the Table saw, for 599.00 and options such as 110 or 220vac I think I am going to get it and donate my sears contractors (1994 vintage) Which I love, to a worthy cause.