OCtoolguy

Josh, that was one of the things that I hated about the factory stand. That and the fact that the saw was not stable enough for my liking. The plan I used called for 3 legs cut at 25" in length with a 5 degree angle on each end. I you want I will send you the plans. PM me your email address. Also, what brand of saw do you have? The one shown in the plans was unidentifiable so I have to figure an additional 9.5 inches from the top of the stand to the top of the table. I have a fairly short chair that I picked up at one of the homes near me that was going to be thrown away. I am still looking for the right chair. I may end up with an office chair that will give me some adjustment. Ray

Scrappile, I'm inclined to agree with you. That's why I'm going to hinge the front of the saw nearest to me and then make the rear adjustable with a series of pin holes of some kind. Something simple and quick to change. I love the sturdyness of this new stand. It is heavy enough that it doesn't move one bit and once I get the carpet under the saw itself, what little vibration there might be should be soaked up by it. I'm very very happy with this new setup. Anybody want to buy a factory stand. Cheap!! Ray

Ok, I promised an update so here it is. I took my saw apart yesterday and found where my vibration was coming from. The tension wheel has one large allen screw that holds it down in place with a tension washer under it. Well, the screw was about half way out. Also, I found that all the bearings are pretty snug so I will save that for another day. I have to find the right grease and a needle adapter for my grease gun. That video that Bob Brokaw made is fantastic and very detailed. As long as I was about working yesterday, I also got around to building my new saw stand. I got the plans for it somewhere on one of the forums but I can't remember where. I think it might have come from Scrollsaw Workshop. Anyway, they were very detailed also with very good measurments. So, I had purchased the lumber and built it yesterday. I am attaching 3 pics of it. I am still messing around with the correct tilt to the saw so that is yet to be finished. Hope this is enough of an update. Now, on to scrolling. I love this hobby. Ray

Thanks, I have pretty much read all the words right off that site. I have checked it many times. I have also downloaded the 4 videos segments on how to grease/tighten up all the bearings on the 788. I made it into a full length movie using Movie Maker. I have watched it about 3 times so far. Very interesting and each time I pick up something I missed previously. Ray

If you have a Woodcraft Store near you, they have a sale going on a Dewalt 788 with stand and light. I think it was listed at $569 but I could be wrong. It wasn't any more than that though. And I'll bet they have them in stock. I have an old Type 1 and it is in pretty good shape for it's age. I'm going to go through it and replace/grease all the bearings on it. I'm happy with it so far. Ray

Actually, wax is all I ever used on my table saw, drill press or anything else that might rust. Maybe I'll just take the "easy" way out and just wax mine too. I was going to ask what kind of wax but then I remembered that I used to use Johnson's Floor Wax. It worked great. Ray

I tried cutting a accessory table top for my saw out of 1/4 " masonite. I drilled holes on the underside for magnets. It worked well until the masonite started to warp a bit. Now, it has enough uplift that it pulls away from the saw. I think I'll try the 1/8" lexan or plexiglass method. I like the sound of that. I don't want to glue anything down to the table but may have to resort to that if my idea doesn't work out. Great info here on this forum. Thanks all, Ray

Hey AmazingKevin, thanks to you, I found a fantastic 4 part video series on Youtube on start to finish repair for my saw. I downloaded all 4 parts and using Windows Movie Maker, I stitched them all together and made a complete movie of the series. I will be doing my saw in the very near future. A good Saturday afternoon project. All I have to do is round up all the required tools and parts. But, that's half the fun. Thanks so much for putting together that list of sources. Ray

I, too, would love to be welcomed into the Scrollers Cafe. If you would be so kind as to PM me with a message on what I have to do, I would be most appreciative. Thanks for your info and any help you can provide. Ray

I am going to go completely through it as the video done by Bob Brokaw showed. My question for you guys is, can I buy a kit from DeWalt that would have all the bearings/bolts/nuts that might need to be replaced? It would be so much easier to buy it all as a kit than to try to piece it all together in an order. I probably already know the answer but just in case I'm wrong, I hope they do. Ray

I guess I must be dense. Can you possibly post a picture of what you did? I have a 788 with a vibration problem. Ray

Ike, it's long time out of warranty. It's a Type 1 and God knows when it was made. I'll figure it all out but for now, it works at low to mid speed and that seems to be ok. I'm not cutting anything very thick either. Thanks though. Ray

Good idea Spirithorse. I'll give it a try. I do have a good heavy work bench. I was messing with it today and it does seem to have a bit of free play in the upper arm mechanism. I'm going to check it all out and try to tighten it all up. Thanks for your suggestion. Ray

Hey AmazingKevin, you have outdone yourself. I will check out each and every one. Thanks so much for your kindness and interest. Ray

JustLarry, I have watched that video before but had forgotten about it. I will watch it again. I was going to go through my saw as he did but hadn't had it in mind to do right away. I'm going to build my stand first and get the saw firmly sitting on something heavy and level and then see how bad it's out of balance. I did do the test as mentioned above and there is a little wiggle on the upper blade holder but not much. I'm going to thoroughly check out and lubricate everything at some point. Thanks to you all for all the suggestions. I'll keep you all updated as I go along. Ray

Thanks to you all. I don't know why I turned up the speed on mine but I did just to see how fast fast was. It seems that it starts to vibrate pretty bad at just over half throttle. Then it gets VERY bad. I don't think that the stand has anything to do with it. I have taken the saw off the stand and put carpet between the two. I'm building a very good heavy stand that will have three legs of 4 x 4 construction and will have an adjustable table that I can get the tilt I want. It will be heavy because the wood is too heavy for me to carry all at once. And it is dry wood. I'm going to check out all the bearings just because I want to. I'm not expecting to find any bad ones but it will make me feel better to know that they are all in good shape, As for running the saw at high speed,the only reason I turned it up was because of an article that I read about running the saw at a fast enough speed to help it cut thicker wood easily. At this point, I am only cutting BB plywood that is 5/16" so I don't need to run it very fast. I was just concerned at how much it vibrated when I did. I figured that if any of you more learned folks who have saws like mine have encountered this problem, you would be ready to help me fix mine. Thanks again to you all, Ray

Thanks Scrappile, I was thinking that too. The saw is on a factory stand at this time but I'm in process of building a nice heavy wood stand. It seems like the saw is just trying to shake itself apart when run at anything over about half speed. I had never tried to run it that fast before I added the wooden knob covers. They can't possibly have added that much weight. I'll fiddle around with them some more. Ray

A question for those users of a DW 788. I never cranked up my saw to high speed until yesterday and when I did, I found that it vibrates quite a bit. I am afraid I might have built a vibration into my machine. I cut a couple of "knobs" out of cherry and glued them over the factory knobs. Of course, they are not balanced but I never gave it any thought when I put them on. Can any of you who have ONLY the factory knobs on you machines give me some idea of how smooth your saw is at full speed. If I have to I will take the additions off. It did make it a lot easier to tighten them when changing blades though. I will have a tough time getting them off if that's the problem. Can super glue be softened? Ray

Thanks for the suggestions but those printers are looooong gone. But the rubber rollers actually deteriorated. No rubber left. They fell apart. Typical HP crap. I'll never have another HP printer. They are in the ink business. Ray

Thanks. I'll start looking around. R

Thanks Fishman, can you give me a model number? R

Just a quick question to those of you using laser printers. I had at one time two HP ll 's and on both machines the feed rollers went bad. Have you folks found a laser printer that doesn't have that problem? The printers worked great until they stopped feeding the paper. Anybody have any advice on which brand/model to buy? Ray

How long have you owned the saw? Did you buy it new from Sears? If so, return it. That's what I do when I buy something that doesn't work the way I think it should. I bought my wife a new laptop last week. I spent two days getting everything set up on it but there was something wrong in the keyboard and it would just just for no reason. I thought my wife was crazy but then it did it for me. Back it went. Life is too short to spend it being frustrated. I bought my Dewalt 788 used on Craigslist for $250. And it came with stand and light. There are deals out there if you are patient. Good luck. Ray

Thanks Larry. That is exactly what I was trying to find out. I like all your dimensions. I am a bit taller than you so it would probably work out well for me. This has been a most helpful post. Thanks again for your time and posting of pics. Now, I go to the shop and start building. Ray

tvman, we've already concluded that. I'm trying to get some idea of the size of the folks and at what height their table is at. I REALIZE that's it's a personal preference. I just want some ideas. Thanks for your input though. Ray