Startrite 275 Table saw setup instructions

[andrewballantine]

Hi,

Just joined the web site and you seem to be a pretty helpful bunch.

I have just acquired a Startrite 275 Tilt Arbour Table saw.

On checking it over I find that the saw blade is not quite parallel to the mitre channels in the table top. Since the saw carrier is registered into the table top by two steel locating pins I am not too sure how to make adjustments to fix the problem.

The saw blade is about 1mm closer to the mitre channel towards the riving knife.

Has anyone by any chance got a copy of the Startrite instructions or any idea how to do this.

This is my first cast iron table saw and I am looking forward to much more accurate cutting than my Electa Beckum contractors saw bench.

Any help and ideas greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Andrew Ballantine.

 

[9fingers]

Welcome to the forum.

The usual place for startrite manuals is Daltons website but I have just looked and they don't seem to cover your model.
But if you looked at some of the other TS you might get a clue.

http://www.daltonsmachines.com/downloads.html

There has got to be a method of setting the angle. Are the pins on an eccentric by any chance? Or has anything got damaged in the past?

Looking at the forum users saw thread in the tools section, no one has confessed to having your model either but don't give up hope - someone might see this and be able to help.

Good Luck

Bob

 

[9fingers]

ANdrew, these people refurbish Startrite saw and may be able to supply an manual

http://www.dbkeighley.co.uk/masters/sta ... 75_275.htm

Bob

 

[andrewballantine]

Bob,

Thanks for your speedy replies.

I have printed off a Daltons manual which is very similar to my model, so I'll have a good look at that.

Thanks again,

Andrew.

 

[andrewballantine]

As a late post script, I managed to take-up/adjust the slack in the saw mounting so that the saw blade now runs true to the guide slots. I also made myself a sled which is brilliant for cross cutting large and small items.

Thanks for the timely advise and apologies for being so slow to say thank you.

 

[jo-53]

Hi,
I have just come across your post. I am currently having a similar problem trying to set the blade parallel to the table slots on my 275. I have tried in vain to slightly adjust the alignment by shifting the table on the mounting bolts, but it seems that your solution is the only one, to adjust the blade mounting itself. I have a manual (which I could copy if you still want one) but can't make out what to adjust. Perhaps when I go back and look at it it will be obvious, but I am hoping not to have to remove the table to get at it. Is this necessary?
regards
Jo

 

[Steve Maskery]

Jo
The table and the trunnions (that's the curvy bit that supports the arbor) have to be rotated with respect to each other. So it depends on what the trunnions are attached to.

If the trunnions are mounted on the cabinet and the table is also mounted on the cabinet, then you slacken off the table/cabinet bolts and tap it CW or anti-CW. My Xcalibur is like that.

If, on the other hand, the trunnions are hung from the tabletop itself, you need to slacken those bolts off and do the same. It has to be one or the other, doesn't it?
Cheers
Steve

 

[andrewballantine]

Jo,

If I remember correctly (I'm amazed that it is two years since I set up my saw), the arbor mounting on the trunions is a V groove and there are pointed pins that run in the V groove that can be adjusted. Mine were worn and I was beginning to despair of adjusting out the play. Then I found that the pins could be twisted in the adjuster and that takes up the slack.

You can get to these adjusters by taking off the table top.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Andrew.

 

[jo-53]

Thanks Andrew and Steve,
I have to admit looking at the diagrams in the manual I haven't quite identified the pins you mention, Andrew.
I spent nearly all day today adjusting the allen head bolts which go through the shoes for the tilt arbour (if that makes any sense) which seemed to be the correct point to be adjusting the alignment of the blade mounting to the table. Blade on to measure the slots, blade off to get at the nuts on the inside, tilt blade mounting to get at the allen head bolts, adjust, reverse order, etc,etc. Finally got it right, tightened table mounting bolts which I had slackened previously, thinking to move table top to align slots with saw, and... back to square one!
I will post the drawings from the manual to explain myself more clearly, and perhaps someone will be able to see what I am doing wrong.
regards Jo

 

[jo-53]

Pleeeeeeease!!!!
How can I upload my pics? This has been more difficult, and taken almost as much time, as trying to align my table saw!
I have uploaded them onto flickr and BBcode is on
Thanks for any help
Jo

 

[andrewballantine]

Jo,

Couldn't find your pictures.

I had another look at my saw today and "pins" is not quite the right description. The saw carriage runs on a curved V groove into which run V blocks which are adjustable. I found that you could take up the wear in the blocks by twisting them in the V groove and then re-tightening them.
Having taken the play out of the saw carriage you replace the cast iron table and it is very important to align guide channels with the saw blade. This is the first priority. The next priority is to align the fence to the blade.

If you cannot align the top with the blade, then this suggests that there is a more serious misalignment which could be fixed by shimming the mounting of the complete saw carriage where it fixes to the side of the cabinet. However this would be a extreme case as once you have removed the play in the carriage you should be back the the factory setting.

Hope this helps.

 

[jo-53]

There are no pics because I can't upload them!... any advice?

I contacted ALT engineering (startrite spares), who were very helpful, and told me the way the machines were originally set up was to mount the table onto the cabinet and to secure the alignment of the blade to the slots by drilling 2 holes through the table,and through part of the apron of the rise and fall mechanism, where it is secured to the underneath of the table top, and putting in 2 spring dowels. The only way to adjust the alignment was to remove the dowels and rotate the table a little. How you relocate the spring dowels afterwards I don't know.


Well I tried that. Removed the spring dowels, slackened off all other nuts securing base to table top, rotated top to align blade to slots, tightened everything again, and it had all just gone back to where it started!
Not sure if I should admit to what I did next, but I have just spent 2 days trying to sort this out, and it worked. I took a large length of wood and levered the arbor against the saw slot!

I hope the official, or my desperate, solution will be of help to anyone else with this problem.

Next task is sorting out the rip fence, which at least is nice and solid when the clamping arm is down, but does not stay parallel to the blade when it is moved.

Jo

 

[andrewballantine]

Jo,

If it worked, that's great.

I made an interesting discovery the other day. For a long time I have thought the brass measure for the fence was pretty useless since it did not read zero when the fence was touching the blade. I was at an auction of woodworking gear and saw the identical saw to mine. Out of the side of the fence sliding block was a pin with a right angle and a pointer to the brass measure. This had been snapped off flush on my saw and the Allen key covered in sawdust. As soon as I released the Allen key I was able to extract the stub of the old pointer with a magnet. The diameter of the pin turned out to be exactly the same size as one of my stock nails so I cut the head off the nail, bent the point at 90 degrees and fitted it to the fence. Then set the pointer to zero, set a size on the fence and the cut was spot on the measurement.

See attached photo.

The red arrow shows the location of the pointer locking grub screw which is turned with an Allen key.

Hope this helps.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Chaps, this is fascinating.

If you use the "Full Editor" button instead of just submitting a Quick Reply, you can upload JPEGs from your local hard drive. You can then decide where to place these as "attachments" inside your messages (there's a drop down list of what you've uploaded, and one click puts an image in where you've parked the cursor. Try it, it's easy!

Andrew, I think you need to make a few more posts before the system will allow you to upload images (it's like that to prevent spammers, I think).

Anyway, us Startrite wannabes are all waiting with bated breath...

Cheers,

E.

 

[andrewballantine]

Eric,

My first attempt was a BMP file, which didn't work. I changed it to a JPG and that worked; photo now visible.

Thanks for the tips.

Andrew.

 

[jo-53]

Here are the plans. I will try and identify parts when I can see the pics myself.


Part 45 on the apron diagram, is the spring dowel (with the one on the other side not shown) which needs to be removed to be able to rotate the table. Before that I had tried to adjust things by slackening one and tightening the other of the allen head bolts, parts 36.37


On the other hand, part 85 on the saw spindle and motor arm diagram is where i applied the leverage to align the saw blade!

Jo

 

[mickthetree]

Morning
I am picking up a 275 today. I plan on stripping the whole thing down when I get it home and cleaning it before putting it into service. Any of you chaps know if the cast iron top can be removed? This would also reduce the weight greatly for the move!!
I'm assuming all imperial nuts are used?

 

[mickthetree]

if anyone has the manual that would be greatly appreciated!

 

[flh801978]

The top is easily removed by 6 bolts as i remember
Then the whole tilt arbour removes with another 4 bolts
then this leaves you with a very floppy base unit

all easily managable by one bloke to carry

Ian

 

[apreston]

You've probably found out by now - but I recommend carrying a full set of imperial and metric tools. Mine had imperial socket head screws holding the rails on, but metric hex head bolt elsewhere. I guess it depends on the age of the saw as to what mix of imperial/metric was used. As Ian said, easily dismantled, I'd also recommend removing all rails and separating the motor from the tilt arbour to get more manageable chunks. Easily manageable? I found the cast iron top alone weighed almost as much as me!