On 3/17/2019 10:05 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Saturday, March 16, 2019 at 6:59:02 PM UTC-4, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Saturday, March 16, 2019 at 6:19:46 PM UTC-4, Leon wrote:
On 3/16/2019 2:54 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
The standard procedure for replacing the arbor bearings (or the arbor itself)
on a 60's/70's vintage Craftsman table saw is to either flip the entire
saw upside down or fight gravity and wrestle the innards out through the
back after disconnecting the tilt and height shafts, the rear trunnion and
a bunch of other parts.

There's no way I can (or want) to flip the saw over. I'd have to remove the
fence rails, the router table extension, etc. Even then I couldn't flip it
over on my own, so I wanted to try something different.

I decided to see if I could get the arbor out by going in through the side.
To get the arbor out you need to remove the rear bearing retainer ring (3
screws) and a c-clip. (shown below) To get the entire arbor assembly out,
all you need to remove is 1 e-clip. Then you can R&R the arbor on the
workbench. The problem is, it's really hard to get to the screws or the
e-clip from the back or bottom of the TS housing. That's why people flip
it over and remove other parts.

So, I broke out the oscillating tool and made an access hole:

https://i.imgur.com/PezhREp.jpg

After removing the belt pulley, I had access to the back side of the arbor.
You can see the 3 screws for the bearing retainer ring. On the right you can
see the link plate and the bottom of the e-clip.

https://i.imgur.com/rWYBXZ6.jpg

I popped the e-clip off of the link, slowly tapped the arbor assembly off
of the link pivot rod and height adjustment shaft. Once it was free, I
lowered the assembly out through the bottom of the saw and then removed
the arbor.

https://i.imgur.com/RXKBg2A.jpg

Since I had a spare arbor that already had a new front bearing on it,
I decided to use that and just add a new rear bearing. Once the rust
was removed from all mating surfaces and pivot shafts, the arbor assembly
slid right back in. No tapping required.

The only alignment issue that I ran into is that the blade is about 1/32"
off from it's original position. You can see here where it cut into the
zero clearance insert.

https://i.imgur.com/CypdReF.jpg

The insert was getting sloppy anyway, probably from the bad bearing. I have
a few blanks, so it's not an issue. I will need to do something about my
sleds though. I'll probably just glue a strip into the slot and re-cut
it.

The only thing left is to patch the hole in the housing. A piece of plywood
to cover the side will give me a place to hang feather boards and other
accessories that are currently taking up shelf space.

The saw is purring once again.

Good job! I would suggest insuring that the blade is parallel to the
fence before cutting another zero clearance slot.

It's parallel to fence and parallel to the miter slots. None of that changed.
The only thing that changed is the location of the blade from a left-to-right
perspective and I think I have figured out why.

While cleaning up, I look a closer look at the old arbor. I noticed that
the c-clip behind the front bearing was not in its slot. It was still
around the shaft and the bearing was still tight against the flange that
contacts the blade. Somehow, all three of those parts had slid down the
shaft ~1/32" inch - basically the width of the c-clip.

Obviously, it's not anything that I could have seen prior to removing the
arbor so maybe it happened during disassembly. However, if I retrace my
steps, I can't think of anything I would have done to pop the c-clip out
of it's slot and move the flange and bearing towards the rear of the arbor.

When I hung the arbor by the flange in my vice and pounded the shaft down
to expose the c-clip slot, it took a few decent whacks to get the shaft to
move that small about. It wasn't like the flange was flopping around so I
don't see how disassembly could have moved it.

A flange that had slipped backwards would have taken the blade to the user's
left, which would explain why the new arbor placed it just a little bit to
the right of where it was.

A curious situation to say the least. In any case, I've adjusted the little
red line on my fence to compensate. ;-)

Inserts and sleds can wait another day.

I've been thinking about the blade location a bit more and may have narrowed
it down to the root cause.

A major difference between the new arbor and the old is that the new arbor
has a rather hefty e-clip behind the front bearing...

https://i.imgur.com/M2C51MX.jpg

...while the old one had a wimpy c-clip:

https://i.imgur.com/tBsQDNQ.jpg

This saw is ~40 years old. I'm guessing that at some point the blade was
so over-tightened that the flange pushed against the bearing, the bearing
pushed against the wimpy c-clip, flexed it and popped it out of the groove.

If that is the case, then maybe Craftsman/Emerson Electric became aware
of this issue and beefed up the bearing support with the heftier e-clip.

I've had the saw for about 30 years and I'll admit that early on I used
to tighten the blade more than it needed to be. I may have been one of the
many reasons that the front bearing clip was beefed up.

I think the fact that you R&R'd parts caused this issue. It is not
unusual for the blade to be somewhere else after a major parts replacement.