Joel...

UNPLUG the saw. take out the insert and blade, Look for a piece of wood jamming the thing up. I've had this happen a couple times on my saw.

 

Bill may have it but I've had mine get tight from trying to turn it the wrong way with a little too much force too. While you are trying what Bill suggested have a look at the thread on the tilt mechanism and figure out the right way to turn it and then apply enough power to unstick it. If you let the sawdust build up too deep it can get in the threads and cause them to bind. I think I remember the manual suggesting that you take a piece of string and make 1 wrap around the threads and then have some one turn it back and forth to clean the thread. If this is the problem don't lubricate the threads after unless you are using a dry graphite or silicone lubricant. Oil based lube will make sawdust stick even worse.

 

Part ID #181 is the locking knob, #176 is the tilt shaft. #145 and #168 are the front and rear trunnions. #138 is the trunnion brackets (2). Attached is a better photo.

All those should work freely. Pay attention to where the rear trunnion and trunnion and trunnion bracket fit together... that is where my boss'es old Unisaw would grab sometimes.

*** On the annotated red quote.... True, I find oil based lubes attract wood fibers and saw dust to the mechanisms. WD40 is petroleum based. But, they still need to be lubed. and cleaned occasionally. The two suggest would work if you use your saw occasionally. I used Teflon based lube... Actually, if you ask me who's I use and what I found that worked best = "Remington Rem Oil".

 

Thanks guys. There is nothing stuck in the blade, and no sawdust buildup. Feel more like the lock is on, the knob you turn to keep it from going from 45 to 43.

 

see if you can remove the locking knob completely...the knob itself my be stripped out

 

I've had my left tilt fight going back to ninety, but I had just manhandled it too much and a good tug got it going again.

About twenty-five or thirty years ago, I bought my first Unisaw, a right tilt, and a ten inch blade wouldn't drop under throat plate, so I had to grind the stop a bit. I remember being able to do it with a die grinder. It suggest some pretty tight tolerances in spots, so, if it's not the lock, it might be something dragging on the rack and pinion against the bottom of the table. So make sure it's dropped all the way down.

If I forget to change throat plates and try to tilt..........

 

Hi. We (my son inlaw,and me) ended up taking the whole saw apart. There was nothing broken or bent, so we cleaned it up lubed up with silicon and put it back together. We still have to square up the top with the blade, and put the side table and the fence system back on. All in all not to bad, it needed a good cleaning anyway.

I think the problem was I went to far and jammed it.

Thanks for all the suggestions.
Joel

 

I was thinking of this before I saw your post. I would suggest you consider opening up your stops a bit. They aren't perfectly accurate when the saw gets a little dirty anyway. I've had mine stick on me quite a few times and it is usually when I forget which way to turn and start going the wrong way. I don't tend to depend on them myself and keep a small machinists square handy to check 90* with. If the pointer is set right you can usually get close enough with it. Having the stops opened up a bit will allow you to feel it getting tight before it gets to the point of sticking.

 

You should avoid using silicone lubricants on woodworking machines or anywhere in or near a woodworking shop.

While they may work very good, any that lands or somehow ends up on your wood projects will give you fits when it comes to finishing time. The finish will not stick or penetrate where the silicone is, and it's nearly impossible to remove it once it is there. If spraying your finish you will have fish eyes everywhere there is silicone and you will likely never get it off sufficiently to make your project look good. I have banned silicone, and anything that contains silicone, from my woodworking shop.

For lubricating the gears and trunion slides in my Unisaw I use only Johnson's Paste Wax applied with a tooth brush. It lubricates very well and forms a dry crust that does not attract sawdust like oils and petroleum lubricants do. I use Johnson's Paste Wax on all my cast iron, especially the table tops, and re-wax them frequently. I also use it on high pressure laminate (Formica) and aluminum surfaces to make the boards that I'm working on slide easier. It has never affected the finishing steps on any of my projects.

Charley

 

Charlie, I've been using silicon in my work shop for forty years. Of course, I don't get wild with it, spraying it everywhere. But then, I don't smear wax all over, or spray other "slickeners" all over either.

I have a shelf of all sorts of magic lubricants, which includes Teflon, a Teflon mix, silicone, grease, oil and so forth. The Teflon type and silicone type get used on pipe clamps, lock down knobs and so forth.

I keep only the oil free type around, since I have better luck with it for what I use it for. Not having oil in it helps, since the oil wont let go of fine dust and just contributes to problems on down the road.

Spraying silicon on gears under the table shouldn't affect anything on the table.

On a couple occasions, I even flooded the table top with it. It helped float light rust off. Of course, after I was done, I wiped the table down - very well.

If I sprayed more, I might have to be more cautious in my use of silicone, but a little common sense in its use seems to go a long way.

Most my finishes get a penetrating coat, then a brush finish and, if needed, a buff and polish. Others get a thin coat of shellac and some even get a thin coat of Elmer's white glue. When I'm in a hurry or otherwise need it, I spray. I don't remember a single fish eye.

I'd have to lay the silicone on very heavy, almost intentionally, to get it to stop a penetrating finish, since it doesn't build and fill the pores. After the penetrating coats hardened, future coats would be adhering to it, instead of the raw wood.

This is not to say your concerns should be abandoned, because I've seen what silicone does to automotive paint finishes (and which can be overcome, but with much more work). I'm just saying be careful. For example, you can let it set to penetrate microscopic pores of cast iron, but you should get rid of all excess.

If you have to, steal another of the wife's shirts to make sure you get it all off, but use her cotton ones, since they seem to work better. :laugh:

 

Also for prosperity...

Delta bought Rockwell. My old Rockwell Shop Saw had a gauge wheel under the table, with a plastic widow in the table to see it. It indicated the degree of tilt. The linkage to that, after years of wear and it being lose, would cause it to stick. I took off a loose link and it was then fine. I later found that it was loose because the link had stripped where it went into the trunion. I put in a thread insert to repair it. But, that wheel was never that accurate an indicator of tilt.

 

Parafin wax is great for gears. Won't attract the saw dust at all.