SMT alignment, burning on one side of cut

[jlm17]

Hi, I have the Craftsman 21829 table saw. I got it over a year ago and haven't used it much. I recently started using it again and right now I am trying to make some dadoes by making a series of cuts and then chiseling out the remaining wood.

I am using the sliding miter table to make a crosscut dadoe for a half lap joint. I notice that even when I cut slowly, the table saw starts to bog down. The end of the piece of wood that I am cutting is snipped off as the wood exits the back of the blade. The final cut is burnt on the right side, never on the left. The cut is about 1/32" wider than the blade.

I am guessing that the SMT is not aligned with the blade. I am quite certain that the blade is not dull, as it has not seen many cuts.

I looked at the FAQ, and I am having trouble understanding how to align the SMT. The first two links to SMT alignment are broken. The fourth link (http://benchmark.20m.com/tools/BT310...mentindex.html) takes me to some information but it mentions that adjusting the SMT alignment requires working on the clamps that hold the SMT to the fence, but that doesn't make sense. I tried adjusting these, but that did nothing to help make the SMT parallel.

I think I have to loosen the screws in the slider part that connect them to the chrome 'u' shaped metal part that sits beside the fence, but I'm not sure where that will get me. I don't think the holes in the slider part are wide such that I could adjust it by moving it left or right with the screws loosened.

So my two questions are:

1. Is my burning problem due to a misaligned SMT?

2. If so, how do I align it?

Thanks.

[dkerfoot]

It does sound like an alignment issue.

You are probably looking at the wrong place for aligning it. The main alignment happens with the four elliptical screws on the bottom of the SMT. Know what you are doing before you start tweaking them though.

Have you read the manual that came with the saw? I find it is best to start there, THEN look at the FAQs for additional help if something doesn't make sense.

The key is to follow all the steps in order. Sorry I can't give you a run down from memory - I am the type that forgets all the steps, but remembers where to look them up the next time I need them!

[LCHIEN]

The correct link to some of the BT3 articles is
http://www.bt3central.com/index.php?page=articles

I sort of think the FAQ is information the manual doesn't cover. I believe the manuals for the BT3000, BT3100, and crftsman versions all address SMT alignment, you could get the manuals and read that first.

[jlm17]

Thanks for the information. I have fixed the problem. What I did was to loosen all four screws holding the slide to the u-bar. The clamps were locked down. After doing that, the back of the SMT slid freely left and right. Since I believed that the SMT was out of parallel towards the left at the back, I pushed it right and then tightened the screws.

Then I measured the SMT to the blade. I put a block of wood with a screw sticking out of it on the table, and clamped it there. I turned the screw until it was just barely touching one of the saw's carbide teeth. Then I slid the table to the back and rotated the tooth so that I was measuring against the same tooth at the back of the blade. The screw scratched against the tooth just ever so slightly harder than it did at the front.

I figured this was close enough, so I did some test cuts. They were still burning. I did notice that the saw wasn't bogging down as much as I thought it was before. So, I decided to increase the feed rate. This did the trick and the cuts were not burnt nor were they chipped out at the end.

One other thing. I did not find anything in the Craftsman manual for re-aligning the SMT in case it was not traveling parallel to the blade. The only information I could find was on adjusting the clamps. My adjustments of those failed to change its direction of travel relative to the blade.