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This Delta TS 200LS saw was given to me a few years ago. Anyone have issues with this saw. Granted it's a low end saw & you can't make a "silk purse from a sow's ear", but right now its all have have. The saw vibrates so bad when you turn on the switch, it throws the fence off about a sixteenth to an eighth. It's on the original stand it came with which is pretty light. Are these direct drive saws all like this?
Has anyone "tweaked" a saw like this to make it a little more useable?
Dave

Yeah ' i had one.It's now a router table because the armature shaft in the motor snaped in half.They really suck!Bigtime!

Ya, sorry to say Dave. That certainly is not a precision machine there.

Have you tried putting a different blade on it? The blade may be throwing it off. Mind you the bearing in the motor armature can more easily be out of balance than a blade.

I had one of those. I clamped it to a workmate and put some sand bags on the lower cross members of the workmate. You could try that with the stock stand. Or, put a piece of plywood down there and weight it down some how.

In the end though, you'll just be pining for a something better. It's really not that capable of a saw for much other than ripping 1/2"-5/8" plywood on the construction site.

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Is it a lost cause?

Might be a lost cause. A saw like this is made to cut wood to be banged down with 10 penny nails. idunno Like another said, try another blade, it might be the blade, but I doubt it. Delta has made some low end tools that aren't able to be precision tools. I got stuck with a drill press that was just like that. It never worked right. I sold it to someone wanting a rough tool and needed something big.

I believe the vibration mine had was the cause for the shaft breakage.It was just over a year old when it happened.Pure garbage.I will probably get more use out of it as a router table now.

The blade is the original one I'm sure. Maybe I'll try a new one. I thought maybe a sandbag on the stand shelf but haven't tried it. Been shopping for a new saw for the last few nights. The hybrid saw is the saw I'd like to have but my pocket book says no. I know I'll have to spend about $600-700 to get something more reliable.
Dave

I had many blades on mine and it still vibrated to it's death.

It is more of a basic contractor saw. Have you checked the blade to see if it is in balanced with the miter slots? Is the blade warped? If you just need to rough cut something you might get away with this.

I started with one of those. Like you said, you could rip a line to within an 1/8th to 16th, but the rest came off on the edge sander. I ended up giving it to my dad and live in fear of it biting him. I replaced it with the Bosch version which I'm very happy with, I can cut .020 rips on it with precision, and the price is still coming down on that machine, last I looked.

My woodworking pal Bill has one of those Delta contractor's saws. He replaced the drive belt with one of those segmented red belt thingies and it improved the vibration dramatically. YMMV.

Cheers,
Dave F.

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I've got one just like it tucked in the corner. It's my dedicated fretboard slotting saw. Granted, it's not much of a saw, but I surely don't have the vibration issues you've described - works plenty good for slotting.

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Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

This saw doesn't have a drive belt, it's direct drive. Wes, I was wondering if you could even use this as a fretboard saw. I guess you wouldn't need the fence for frets would you(fence should be trashed).
I was in contact w/Woodworkers supply this morning checking on a new Delta left tilt contractors saw w/ the WT-2 fence(mod. 36-980) for about $700. It's movable, w/castors. Grizzly's also got a couple of saws in my price range and free shipping right now. Anyone have their contractors saws? It's time to "mothball" this junk saw. What a headache.

Dave

Dave, what's your shop size?

If you can swing the extra cash, I'd move up to the hybrid from grizzly. You'll get a much better saw and the utility you get out of it will be higher.

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Dave,

Check your local craigslist and ebay stuff for and OLD Craftsman. The stuff made back in the 50's was fantastic. The ones that look like this one are great saws.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-SEARS-CRAFT ... 7C294%3A50

I had one that I sold for $100. They are made of about 150 lbs of cast iron and steel. The 10 inch ones have 27 inch tables, so if you dont like the fence, most aftermarket fences fit on them. Take some tools to check for runout. Ask them on the phone if you can run it. Check to make sure all the gear drive mechanisms operate. Just look it over like anything, kick the tires etc. You can have a great saw and money to spend on guitar stuff and jigs for the saw. My dos centavos.

Darrin

I even saw a Powermatic contractors saw on CL several months back for dirt cheap.

If it still has a 10" blade a 7" wii at least calm it down a bit

Dave,
I had that exact saw. Traded it even up for a larger belt drive saw. The guy who I traded with wanted it to take with him on job sites as it was much lighter.

I don't recall it vibrating so much that it threw the fence off a few millimeters. Try changing the blade if you haven't already. I do remember it wasn't very accurate when I clamped the fence down.

Sorry I wasn't much help.

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I had one, managed some pretty hairy cuts on it, with a good thick $50.00 Freud 'jointer' glue up blade. Then, I wised up and sold it, but it worked ok for me. I enclosed the bottom end to contain some of the dust.

Now I just use a japo saw when I need a straight cut,and a sanding board or plane to level it. I don't like power tools, especially table saws. Often times I buy on ebay, I ask if they can cut it, or get my stuff cut at home depo store.

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