Thanks for putting this video together. Mine is off by about 1/8 inch. I wish Rigid did more to help people know how to do all of these things when they get their table saws and are setting them up. I agree with the other comments. This was very concise. I see too many people take an 8 minute video and cram it into 22
No problem. It’s a very good saw for the money, so I thought it’s too bad that it quickly leads some people to frustration with its almost guaranteed misalignment that isn’t so hard to fix once you get the hang of it.
Thanks for this. Simple and concise enough to convince me to finally do it. It’s a lot easier than a jointer, but somehow I was expecting something more complicated. Glad to have this skill under my belt, now.
Yeah, really not bad. The jointer is definitely a headache, but once I discovered Matthias Wandel’s method of aligning new jointer knives it was extremely helpful.
Thanks for the video, this is the most concise one that I've seen that covers the actual steps of alignment. Only downside is that most people will be doing with a combination square instead of a dial indicator.
Chetan Raj that’s a good point. The instructions by Ridgid tell you to use a square and don’t mention a dial indicator. With a precise machinists ruler and a nice square you could probably get decent results, but it sure is a lot easier and more precise with the dial indicator. There are some acceptable quality indicators for very low prices now, and even the harbor freight version would give great results for a small price.
Thanks for the video. I've just spent the last 45 minutes trying to heel my blade to the miter slots and having no luck. Although I have the same saw, my owners manual shows all 4 of the bolts and suggests loosening them all. That made sense to me because unlike 3 bolt systems, if you only loosen 2 of the 4 bolts it doesn't seem reasonable that you could "pivot" the blade alignment without getting something in a bind, regardless of what your dial caliper says. Anyway, the front 2 bolts have VERY limited access (one is behind the motor) and it's like they're welded in ( I'm 6'4", 215 lbs and work out 7 days a week but am 69 years old) and, I couldn't budge either a single millimeter. I've had this saw for about 4 years so maybe they've revised the instructions in that time. I'll give it a try with your method and see what happens. It sure beats removing the saw from the stand, getting a friend to help me turn it upside down and using a cheater pipe to remove the front trunnion bolts.
I’m curious to see how it works for you. Since my saw is a bit newer, I suppose it’s possible they slightly revised the bolt arrangement, but I’m thinking it’s likely the same. I hope this method helps!
@@presentdayjeff5790 Will let you know. I just viewed a one year old owners manual online. It coincides with the method you describe here. However, instead of mentioning 4 bolts as in my manual, it mentions and has arrows pointing to the 2 bolts at the back of the saw only. I thought that perhaps they had done a redesign with the same 2 bolts in back but only one bolt in front which would allow a "swivel" alignment process but no: the illustration still shows the same 2 bolts in front as well. So, perhaps your method will work on a 4+ year old R4512.
Just returned from the shop. Even though their recommended method is different from the older method, it DOES work for an old saw of the same model. Apparently, they discovered that loosening the front 2 bolts was unnecessary for minor adjustment. My table saw was purchased in October of 2015. My front to rear deviation from parallel was almost 3/64ths of an inch. If you have a saw from this time period, you will need to drill an appropriate sized hole centered in the cross brace at the back of the saw for your screwdriver since one is not provided.
I have the same problem and it's driving me nuts. Other videos are mentioning shimming the trunion(new word of the day!) Just wondering if your adjustment has been effective. thanks
This adjustment worked well and is holding fine. I see what they mean about the motor trunnion needing to be shimmed, but mine appears to get out of alignment in that way only in the last couple turns of the blade height, if I run the blade all the way up. I’ve heard that this model has some variation in the build quality, so that some serial numbers will have this problem, some won’t at all, and some do to a small degree. I do very few cuts at full depth, so it’s not really an issue, but I still want to adjust that too... future video I suppose.
Sure thing. Actually, this reminds me... once the motor/arbor was aligned with the mitre slots, I found that the fence was off, not aligned with either one. If you aligned the fence previously with reference to the blade, you should realign it again after the blade is aligned. The fence was more finicky to get right than the motor/arbor.
Thank you for the video. It helped. My rigid table saw blade was off by 0.030” front to back.
Thanks for putting this video together. Mine is off by about 1/8 inch. I wish Rigid did more to help people know how to do all of these things when they get their table saws and are setting them up.
I agree with the other comments. This was very concise. I see too many people take an 8 minute video and cram it into 22
No problem. It’s a very good saw for the money, so I thought it’s too bad that it quickly leads some people to frustration with its almost guaranteed misalignment that isn’t so hard to fix once you get the hang of it.
Jeffrey the friendly bloke down the street with a spot on video. Straight and to the point!
Thanks for this. Simple and concise enough to convince me to finally do it. It’s a lot easier than a jointer, but somehow I was expecting something more complicated. Glad to have this skill under my belt, now.
Yeah, really not bad. The jointer is definitely a headache, but once I discovered Matthias Wandel’s method of aligning new jointer knives it was extremely helpful.
Thanks for the video, this is the most concise one that I've seen that covers the actual steps of alignment. Only downside is that most people will be doing with a combination square instead of a dial indicator.
Chetan Raj that’s a good point. The instructions by Ridgid tell you to use a square and don’t mention a dial indicator. With a precise machinists ruler and a nice square you could probably get decent results, but it sure is a lot easier and more precise with the dial indicator. There are some acceptable quality indicators for very low prices now, and even the harbor freight version would give great results for a small price.
Thanks for the video. I've just spent the last 45 minutes trying to heel my blade to the miter slots and having no luck. Although I have the same saw, my owners manual shows all 4 of the bolts and suggests loosening them all. That made sense to me because unlike 3 bolt systems, if you only loosen 2 of the 4 bolts it doesn't seem reasonable that you could "pivot" the blade alignment without getting something in a bind, regardless of what your dial caliper says. Anyway, the front 2 bolts have VERY limited access (one is behind the motor) and it's like they're welded in ( I'm 6'4", 215 lbs and work out 7 days a week but am 69 years old) and, I couldn't budge either a single millimeter. I've had this saw for about 4 years so maybe they've revised the instructions in that time. I'll give it a try with your method and see what happens. It sure beats removing the saw from the stand, getting a friend to help me turn it upside down and using a cheater pipe to remove the front trunnion bolts.
I’m curious to see how it works for you. Since my saw is a bit newer, I suppose it’s possible they slightly revised the bolt arrangement, but I’m thinking it’s likely the same. I hope this method helps!
@@presentdayjeff5790 Will let you know. I just viewed a one year old owners manual online. It coincides with the method you describe here. However, instead of mentioning 4 bolts as in my manual, it mentions and has arrows pointing to the 2 bolts at the back of the saw only. I thought that perhaps they had done a redesign with the same 2 bolts in back but only one bolt in front which would allow a "swivel" alignment process but no: the illustration still shows the same 2 bolts in front as well. So, perhaps your method will work on a 4+ year old R4512.
Just returned from the shop. Even though their recommended method is different from the older method, it DOES work for an old saw of the same model. Apparently, they discovered that loosening the front 2 bolts was unnecessary for minor adjustment. My table saw was purchased in October of 2015. My front to rear deviation from parallel was almost 3/64ths of an inch. If you have a saw from this time period, you will need to drill an appropriate sized hole centered in the cross brace at the back of the saw for your screwdriver since one is not provided.
I have the same problem and it's driving me nuts. Other videos are mentioning shimming the trunion(new word of the day!) Just wondering if your adjustment has been effective. thanks
This adjustment worked well and is holding fine. I see what they mean about the motor trunnion needing to be shimmed, but mine appears to get out of alignment in that way only in the last couple turns of the blade height, if I run the blade all the way up. I’ve heard that this model has some variation in the build quality, so that some serial numbers will have this problem, some won’t at all, and some do to a small degree. I do very few cuts at full depth, so it’s not really an issue, but I still want to adjust that too... future video I suppose.
@@presentdayjeff5790 I'll give this a try. Thanks for sharing. ( Trunnion! yes)
Sure thing. Actually, this reminds me... once the motor/arbor was aligned with the mitre slots, I found that the fence was off, not aligned with either one. If you aligned the fence previously with reference to the blade, you should realign it again after the blade is aligned. The fence was more finicky to get right than the motor/arbor.
great very helpful.. thank you\