Ok folks,
I just recently rebuilt a 1959 Unisaw (new bearings/link belt/motor/cleaning/etc), but the blade had as much wobble as my old Craftsman contractor saw and it was driving me nuts.
I checked the arbor for run-out using a dial indicator. It wasn't too too bad in the .003ish range at the flange. My cuts didn't look as perfect as I wanted though. So after much research as to the best method for truing the flange, I came upon this: http://forum.woodenboat.com/archive/index.php/t-19523.html
I also came upon someone talking about truing the arbor flange here: http://woodgears.ca/saw_arbor/index.html
My flange was HORRIBLE. Someone had WAY overtightened the arbor nut and warped the flange. This was fixed as described in the second article supra. It took me quite a while to sand the flange flat, but well worth the trouble.
Truing the arbor was quite easy and fun to do. I just busted off a piece of carbide off an old Freud blade that was collecting rust, locked it in some vicegrips, and sharpened it a bit with my Spyderco fine ceramic. Once I tilted the saw to 45 and raised the arbor to its highest position, I just very lightly touched the carbide tip against the arbor face while the saw was running (and blade removed!) (using lots of overhead lighting to see what I was doing) and milled it down till all high spots had been removed (I kept turning the saw off to see the progress).
Folks, I know you've probably looked into this before - I just wanted to write and say that it's well worth the effort. My blade has zero wobble in it now and I see virtually no saw marks on my wood.
Seriously, give it a shot, it's easy and you won't be disappointed!
I just recently rebuilt a 1959 Unisaw (new bearings/link belt/motor/cleaning/etc), but the blade had as much wobble as my old Craftsman contractor saw and it was driving me nuts.
I checked the arbor for run-out using a dial indicator. It wasn't too too bad in the .003ish range at the flange. My cuts didn't look as perfect as I wanted though. So after much research as to the best method for truing the flange, I came upon this: http://forum.woodenboat.com/archive/index.php/t-19523.html
I also came upon someone talking about truing the arbor flange here: http://woodgears.ca/saw_arbor/index.html
My flange was HORRIBLE. Someone had WAY overtightened the arbor nut and warped the flange. This was fixed as described in the second article supra. It took me quite a while to sand the flange flat, but well worth the trouble.
Truing the arbor was quite easy and fun to do. I just busted off a piece of carbide off an old Freud blade that was collecting rust, locked it in some vicegrips, and sharpened it a bit with my Spyderco fine ceramic. Once I tilted the saw to 45 and raised the arbor to its highest position, I just very lightly touched the carbide tip against the arbor face while the saw was running (and blade removed!) (using lots of overhead lighting to see what I was doing) and milled it down till all high spots had been removed (I kept turning the saw off to see the progress).
Folks, I know you've probably looked into this before - I just wanted to write and say that it's well worth the effort. My blade has zero wobble in it now and I see virtually no saw marks on my wood.
Seriously, give it a shot, it's easy and you won't be disappointed!
