10" Craftsman Table Saw (8 yrs old)

[ragswl4]

Went with a friend to look at this saw (model #113.299315) as he knows very little about saws. Owner wanted $100. I checked it out and all seemed OK except (this is a contractor style) when I raised the blade the belt got really tight and prevented the blade from raising beyond 2" above the table. When I lowered the blade, the belt had excessive slack. Is this normal for this type of design? I would think not as one would have to adjust the belt tension nearly every time the blade height was changed. Any insight would be appreciated.

[LCHIEN]

I think the motor is on a pivot, gravity on the motor supplying the tension for the belt. As you raise or lower the blade arbor the motor should come up or down ont he pivot to maintain the tension.

Means the pivot is frozen - rust or something? Shouldn't be too hard to fix. Gravity is simple and cheap.

[ragswl4]

Probably the cause

Thanks, somehow I knew you would have the answer. There was some rust under the saw near the motor mount and that's most likely it. Thanks again. I did't think it could be too big of a problem but didn't want to advise someone about the purchase without some knowlegdeable input on a problem like this. It all makes sense know as the belt got pretty loose when the blade was lowered. Thanks again and have a great week.

[BrazosJake]

It may be that motor mount is not adusted to pivot all the way up, or the pivot mount bolt is too tight. As Loring noted, the motor has to travel up & down. I think a lot of people don't realize this and tighten the motor pivot bolt down.

Be careful raising the blade on a contractor saw if it starts to get hard, you could bend the pivot rod or break the motor support base. This last is a surprisingly fragile piece of aluminum the Emerson-built saws, which includes older Craftsman and Ridgid. I found it broken (too late) on an old Craftsman I just bought. A couple hours of cutting, drilling, tapping and epoxying some 1/8" flat steel weld rods fixed it, but I'm surprised what a fragile piece of hardware it is to have a motor hanging from it.

[Knottscott]

The belt tensioning should be easily adjustable. There could also be some binding in the worm gears from saw dust...also easy to remedy with a bristle brush.

$100 is a pretty good price if it's in decent shape. (The parts should be worth more than that.) The "113" prefix indicates that it was made by Emerson (made in the US too!), and will be very similar to the modern Ridgid saws. Emerson stopped making the Craftsman in 1997 so it's at least 10 years old. Good luck!

[ragswl4]

Bought It

My friend bought it and sure enough the motor was bollted down tight allowing no movement. Loosened the pivot bolt, adjusted the belt and worked great. Nothing broken or bent. He is very happy with it going from a $99 benchtop to a real table saw. Passed the nickel test. Original owner was astounded that fixed the belt problem. He had been readjusting the belt every time he changed blade height for 10 years. Thanks for all the input.

[BrazosJake]

My friend bought it and sure enough the motor was bollted down tight allowing no movement. Loosened the pivot bolt, adjusted the belt and worked great. Nothing broken or bent. He is very happy with it going from a $99 benchtop to a real table saw. Passed the nickel test. Original owner was astounded that fixed the belt problem. He had been readjusting the belt every time he changed blade height for 10 years. Thanks for all the input.

Cool, glad to hear it.

I think when most people see that motor pivot plate, they immediately assume it's there to tension the belt, so they pull the motor back to snug the belt then lock down the bolt. If the arbor happened to be down when they did it, either it won't raise, or something (likely the flimsy motor support base) is going to give.

That's an important inspection point when shopping used contractor saws. I bet there's lots of old Craftsman saws out there with a broken motor support base (like mine).

I'm thrilled with mine, too, though I didn't get as good a deal. I got a false start with a cheap BT saw, also. Can't believe how much smoother and quiter this one is.

[ragswl4]

Turned Out 2b A Nice Saw

My friend is thrilled with it after the bench top. While I haven't retired my BT3 just yet, I went with a Craftsman 22114 last week. I learned a ton about woodworking (jigs, fences, etc..) on the BT3 but the 22114 is, of course, in a different league. Very happy with it and unless I live to be 130, I won't ever have to buy another TS.