24'' Frantom - Alignment of vise to blade

[SammyK]

I recently acquired a 24'' Frantom saw.  The vise carriage does not travel exactly parallel to the blade and I'm not sure of the best way to correct the alignment. 

The shafts on which the vise travels are in a fixed position and do not have any means of adjustment.  I'm thinking that I'm going to have to change the alignment of the saw arbor itself, probably by using shims.  Does this sound right?  Does anyone out there have any other thoughts? 

Any advice would be appreciated.

Sam

[donsstoneimages]

The rails that the vise travel on should be bolted to the saw case.  You may be able to shift the vise a little by loosening and adusting the bolts.  Other than that shims for the arbor are your only other bet.

[SammyK]

The rails that the vise travel on should be bolted to the saw case.  You may be able to shift the vise a little by loosening and adusting the bolts.  Other than that shims for the arbor are your only other bet.

The vise rails are held with set screws into fixtures that are bolted to the saw case.  Thinking along the same lines as you, I loosened the bolts holding the fixtures to the case to see if it was possible to adjust the alignment that way.  There was no play at all and no adjustment was possible.  I suppose it would be possible to enlarge the bolt holes that go through the saw case.  It would probably be easier to shim the arbor, though.

[Taogem]

That one article I shared with you has quite a bit of information about this..

Blade-to-vise alignment, Flange check, Carriage drive mechanism, and Cross-feed travel info..

Good luck !!

[SammyK]

That one article I shared with you has quite a bit of information about this..

Blade-to-vise alignment, Flange check, Carriage drive mechanism, and Cross-feed travel info..

Good luck !!

That article was actually quite helpful to me.  Although the saw in the article is an 18'', it is a spitting image of my saw.  The author's tip for quickly checking the blade-to-vise alignment reveals the problem with my saw, unfortunately, he does not offer any guidance on correcting the problem should one exist.  :-( 

Everything else on my saw checks out just fine.

It doesn't look like there is a simple way for me to adjust the blade-to-vise alignment.  Unless I've overlooked something obvious, it appears that I'm going to have change the alignment by shimming one side of the saw arbor.

I was hoping that someone would point out something I'd missed, but so far, no luck.

[Taogem]

 unfortunately, he does not offer any guidance on correcting the problem should one exist.  :-( 

Ah.. I see what ya mean..

So this Frantom does not have any kind of adjustments at all on the arbor that looks like this adjuster bolt.. (front and rear of the blade end of the arbor)  ? 

Looking at the small image in that article, I can't see one.. Seems like this would be a common type of adjustment to align a blade on a slab saw.. Of course I am only familiar with my cheapo saw, but can't imagine another way to adjust the alignment without being able to adjust the arbor..

[slabbercabber]

Years back I rebuilt a Frantom that must have been one of their last before they sold to Highland Park.  That arbor was a simple shaft held by a pair of pillow block bearings.  There were no adjusters on that one but the pillow blocks were off the shelf type mounted by slotted holes for the bolts.  Slight loosening of the bolts allowed fine adjustment with light hammertaps.  Moving the carriage rails would require around ten times the motion of moving the arbor so see if you can find some way to adjust the shaft mount.
Steve

[catmandewe]

I have found a fast and easy way to align the arbor with simple tools.

leave your blade on the arbor and loosen up the arbor bolts, clamp a framing square in your vise (looks like an L), move your crossfeed on the vise into the blade until the framing square meets the blade, move the arbor until the blade is tight against the framing square, tighten the arbor back up.
Voila!! Get to cutting!

Have a great day............Tony