Sears Radial Arm Saw: Egg-shaped Indexing Holes

Step 4 Alignment

Put the carriage back together so the yoke is attached to the carriage. Give some attention to how tight to make the threaded plate before putting its set screw back in place. You want the spoon handle that locks the yoke to hold the yoke firmly without over-tightening. Cradle the motor in your hands and slide the carriage back into the roller ways on the saw arm.

As noted in the first step, turn the yoke to the outrip position and drop the indexing pin into its hole. Align the saw so the blade does not heel and kick up splinters at the back end of the blade on either one side or the other.

Move the saw to the crosscut position. You will need to lift the indexing pin a bit higher than before to clear the extra thickness of the strap iron plate. That is a small price to pay for having a very accurately aligned saw again. Align the yoke. You will not use the bolt heads you see in the photo on either side of the indexing pin (center of the photo), even though that was the procedure before your modification. Now you will make your adjustments for the crosscut and inrip positions by loosening the 10-32 nuts on the strap iron plate (as shown in the photo). 10-32 screws are a bit smaller in diameter than the 1/4 inch holes you drilled, so you can move the plates enough to restore accurate alignment. When finished make a test cut and check for blade heeling. It takes some time, but work with the adjustment process until the saw does not heel.

Repeat the process for the inrip position.

You now have a saw that allows you to align independently each of the three indexing holes used for precision setups and cuts.