Tweet
Finally got myself a table saw after many years of procrastination and denial. What prompted it was a spousal desire for cabinets either side of the fireplace. The theory was that these could be bought pre-fabricated and finished from Hume Depuis.
After several visits and a few pleasant hours spend watching the nice lady do battle with the cabinet design program it was determined that you can't get wood in white (only thermafoil) but you can get it unfinished for the same price and they want $100 for a 2X4 piece of plywood. The total quote was well over $3000
and needless to say this resulted in some heated discussions between the party covetous of shelving and the party responsible for obtaining the cash. A suggestion that said cabinets might be fabricated on site by the party with the pecuniary concerns was dismissed as taking much too long. This was hard to argue with since it did take me over a year to re-tile the very same fireplace. However after some analysis it was determined that the base cabinets could be obtained for about one third of the price and given that shelving is a relatively easy project if one has a table saw and that all had to be painted in any case which is where most of the work is, it was agreed that some on site fabrication was on the cards and a table saw should be procured forthwith.
Hence I am now the proud owner of a Craftsman 21829. I decided on this saw because of its portability and its BT3 pedigree - a table saw with a cult following...so strange it's irresistible.
Bought it, boxed off the floor at the local Sears saving myself the $100 shipping they wanted at the time but somehow I cleverly avoided the opportunity to get $50 off by joining the Craftsman tool club - Probably there's free shipping now its on sale again this weekend
.
Much of my first weekend of ownership was spent clearing a space in the garage large enough to swing a cat. Much to the relief of our feline companions I then proceeded to use said space to unpack the saw - not too hard if the box is the correct side up, the thing has wheels and almost unpacks itself if you give it a chance to work with gravity. I then tried to make some sense of the rather peculiar organization of the Operators Manual. Looking at it again it doesn't seem that bad so maybe I was just heady with excitement. Anyhow, all the parts seemed to be present and things became duly assembled. I did notice that the manual indicates that there are supposed to be two miter indicators on the miter fence and one was missing Despite the dire warnings that in the case of missing parts one should shun the saw until it is made whole else risk death or dismemberment, I decided to operate it anyway. Nothing untoward resulted so I think it was a reasonable risk
The first test cut revealed that despite the assurances of the manual that all was set at the factory, all, in fact, was out of alignment. The SMT was out about 1/8 in in 24 in and the height stops were about 1 degree off. These taken care of I turned my attention to the rip fence and found it to be about 1/16 off in 24 in. As I was adjusting this I notice the the fence "Front Block" would rise up when I engaged the locking handle. I consulted the venerable BT3Central FAQ and following its advice cleaned the rail and re-checked the alignment. But to no avail. I didn't like the idea of sanding the rail so I decide to apply the old grey matter instead - figuratively speaking of course.
At first I thought that maybe the far end fence clamp screw was too tight and that engaging the end clamp was somehow pulling up the front. However I found the problem occurred when the locking handle was in the first position before the end clamp engaged. I tried fiddling with the placement of the plastic locking "plate" and the plastic "slides" but that made no difference. I finally focused on the six milled "wings" that are on the underside of the "Front Block" and stick in toward the back of the front rail. These were painted with the same slick grey paint as the saw table top. This I figured must be the problem. I removed the slides, took a 10 inch flat file and gently ran it across all six milled wings. It seems that not only were they painted but that the milling was off quite a bit so that they were not actually aligned. A few more strokes of the file fixed this and after re-installing the slides the Front Block behaved better.
Looking along the back of the rail I noticed that when the locking handle was engaged only a small part of the milled wings actually touched the back of the rail and this was toward the top. Possibly I made this worse with my filing and in hindsight I should have checked this first. In any case I decided to fix it by temporarily taping a long narrow piece of 600 grit carborundum paper flush to the back of the rail, face out along where the milled wings run. I then ran the front block back and forth a few times holding it so the milled wings were in tight contact with the carborundum paper strip. This was quite effective in getting the milled wings to seat flush against the back of the rail. Problem solved - no more front block rising up and no need to sand the rails.
I got nervous at one point and checked - if you screw up beyond recovery a new front block is $25 + shipping from Sears parts - you have to enter model# 315.218290 to find it and not just 218929- took me a while to figure that out)
I wasn't too happy with the stock blade - a 32T Craftsman brand of Chinese origin so I replaced it with a 50T Thin Kerf Freud chosen based on some recommendations I found hereabouts. It makes much smoother cuts as one might expect from those extra teeth but for a while I was really regretting this "upgrade" since it proved very hard to align to my satisfaction. Then I discovered the engineer square I was using had gone out of alignment and actually all is well
Cabinets come this week, so time to start looking for wood. Thanks for all the help you didn't know you'd given me. Much appreciated.
Tim
After several visits and a few pleasant hours spend watching the nice lady do battle with the cabinet design program it was determined that you can't get wood in white (only thermafoil) but you can get it unfinished for the same price and they want $100 for a 2X4 piece of plywood. The total quote was well over $3000
and needless to say this resulted in some heated discussions between the party covetous of shelving and the party responsible for obtaining the cash. A suggestion that said cabinets might be fabricated on site by the party with the pecuniary concerns was dismissed as taking much too long. This was hard to argue with since it did take me over a year to re-tile the very same fireplace. However after some analysis it was determined that the base cabinets could be obtained for about one third of the price and given that shelving is a relatively easy project if one has a table saw and that all had to be painted in any case which is where most of the work is, it was agreed that some on site fabrication was on the cards and a table saw should be procured forthwith.Hence I am now the proud owner of a Craftsman 21829. I decided on this saw because of its portability and its BT3 pedigree - a table saw with a cult following...so strange it's irresistible.
Bought it, boxed off the floor at the local Sears saving myself the $100 shipping they wanted at the time but somehow I cleverly avoided the opportunity to get $50 off by joining the Craftsman tool club - Probably there's free shipping now its on sale again this weekend
.Much of my first weekend of ownership was spent clearing a space in the garage large enough to swing a cat. Much to the relief of our feline companions I then proceeded to use said space to unpack the saw - not too hard if the box is the correct side up, the thing has wheels and almost unpacks itself if you give it a chance to work with gravity. I then tried to make some sense of the rather peculiar organization of the Operators Manual. Looking at it again it doesn't seem that bad so maybe I was just heady with excitement. Anyhow, all the parts seemed to be present and things became duly assembled. I did notice that the manual indicates that there are supposed to be two miter indicators on the miter fence and one was missing Despite the dire warnings that in the case of missing parts one should shun the saw until it is made whole else risk death or dismemberment, I decided to operate it anyway. Nothing untoward resulted so I think it was a reasonable risk
The first test cut revealed that despite the assurances of the manual that all was set at the factory, all, in fact, was out of alignment. The SMT was out about 1/8 in in 24 in and the height stops were about 1 degree off. These taken care of I turned my attention to the rip fence and found it to be about 1/16 off in 24 in. As I was adjusting this I notice the the fence "Front Block" would rise up when I engaged the locking handle. I consulted the venerable BT3Central FAQ and following its advice cleaned the rail and re-checked the alignment. But to no avail. I didn't like the idea of sanding the rail so I decide to apply the old grey matter instead - figuratively speaking of course.
At first I thought that maybe the far end fence clamp screw was too tight and that engaging the end clamp was somehow pulling up the front. However I found the problem occurred when the locking handle was in the first position before the end clamp engaged. I tried fiddling with the placement of the plastic locking "plate" and the plastic "slides" but that made no difference. I finally focused on the six milled "wings" that are on the underside of the "Front Block" and stick in toward the back of the front rail. These were painted with the same slick grey paint as the saw table top. This I figured must be the problem. I removed the slides, took a 10 inch flat file and gently ran it across all six milled wings. It seems that not only were they painted but that the milling was off quite a bit so that they were not actually aligned. A few more strokes of the file fixed this and after re-installing the slides the Front Block behaved better.
Looking along the back of the rail I noticed that when the locking handle was engaged only a small part of the milled wings actually touched the back of the rail and this was toward the top. Possibly I made this worse with my filing and in hindsight I should have checked this first. In any case I decided to fix it by temporarily taping a long narrow piece of 600 grit carborundum paper flush to the back of the rail, face out along where the milled wings run. I then ran the front block back and forth a few times holding it so the milled wings were in tight contact with the carborundum paper strip. This was quite effective in getting the milled wings to seat flush against the back of the rail. Problem solved - no more front block rising up and no need to sand the rails.
I got nervous at one point and checked - if you screw up beyond recovery a new front block is $25 + shipping from Sears parts - you have to enter model# 315.218290 to find it and not just 218929- took me a while to figure that out)
I wasn't too happy with the stock blade - a 32T Craftsman brand of Chinese origin so I replaced it with a 50T Thin Kerf Freud chosen based on some recommendations I found hereabouts. It makes much smoother cuts as one might expect from those extra teeth but for a while I was really regretting this "upgrade" since it proved very hard to align to my satisfaction. Then I discovered the engineer square I was using had gone out of alignment and actually all is well
Cabinets come this week, so time to start looking for wood. Thanks for all the help you didn't know you'd given me. Much appreciated.
Tim
Black wallnut
Comment