I bought this Delta Hybrid table saw in 2007.
And, when I finally got it down in my basement
and started using it, I noticed
it didn't cut very clean. I figured it was
the blade it came with, but then I tried
a better Freud blade and it still didn't cut that good.
On checking the saw very closely, I found
the saw's arbor was actually a little bit wobbly.
With the belt removed and the saw tilted 45 degrees,
on the dial indicator I could see there' still
a little bit of variation even after I fixed it.
So, this saw actually used to be much worse than this
It really just needed the arbor replaced.
But, at the Home Depot, they wouldn't just give me
a new part, they said I could return the saw,
but to haul it back out of the basement, and haul
another one in the basement, that was just too much trouble.
So, I tried holding a stone against it while the arbor
was running to grind away the high spot,
but I found my stone was just vibrating,
so potentially I was making it worse that way.
The next thing I tried was with the stone
attached to a big, heavy piece of wood to steady it,
but then I thought of something even better.
These are two solid, one inch steel bars,
and by putting the stone in between them,
when clamping it, I could really make sure it's steady.
So, the stone I've got in there, right now, is actually
a honing stone, it's not aggressive enough, so I'll try
some sand paper in front of it.
So, I'm just winding some string around the pulley,
so that I can then unwind it and turn it very slowly
and consistently.
This metric dial indicator is a bit more sensitive.
So, it looks like we still have one hundredth of a millimeter
which is about as good as it was before.
The sand paper really didn't work that well either
so next I tried a smaller stone, which is much coarser.
I'm not sure if I'm making any more progress
trying to grind this, so I just marked,
this is the high spot and all around just to see
what will get ground off.
It looks like my marks have been ground off all the way around,
so I think that last one, one hundredth of a millimeter
is just not possible with this technique.
Now to get some perspective on one hundredth of a millimeter,
if I just push on the whole arbor mount with my thumb,
I can get way more deflection than that.
In fact, just even pushing on the cast iron table
with my index finger, I can get a hundredth of a millimeter.
The other problem was that the flange that goes on this side
is just made out of stamped sheet metal
and if I put it flat on the table, like this,
it would rock back an forth, so it wasn't even completely flat.
So, I sanded this face, just by having a piece of sand paper
on the cast iron table. And, after that,
I sanded this face parallel to this face here,
and I did that just by hand, and by checking it
with the dial indicator, as I went along.
The most difficult cut to get really clean,
is a lengthwise cut on some really soft wood.
So, not quite planar smooth, but as good as
one of these saws will do.
So, just for reference, this surface is straight off
the table saw, here is hand-planed,
and sanded with fine sand paper
and here is just hand-planed.
So yeah, if you have a cast-iron table saw
that doesn't cut as clean as it should,
you might be able to fix it on the cheap.
But, if you have a saw, with a plastic base,
those are just junk. Don't even bother.