Getting REALLY FRUSTRATED!!!

[Chris Konikowski]

OK, just a few more questions....:eek:

First, should the wood be cut by the back of the blade? I am .002 out of parallel blade back toed towards the fence. I am kicking a little sawdust until the piece leaves the back of the blade.

I toed the fence away by quite a bit and it still dragged....:confused:

Second, my shopfox fence has a pretty good bow in the middle of it. I did not measure it, but it is significant. Do I need to replace it? Can I fix it. It bows back at the end.


Damn I sure would like to build something....

[Dewey Torres]

Question 1)

No No No! Back of the blade cutting = kick back!

Question 2)

Yes... send it back, that is unacceptable and will frustrate you to no end until you fix it.

Sorry,
It may have not been what you wanted to hear but I am the first to respond so maybe someone else has a better way....

or they may agree:(

[Brian Kent]

Chris is this a new fence? If so, return for replacement.

If you have had it longer than warrantee, it may be a problem with the fence or just a fence face.

Brian

[glenn bradley]

+1 on a warranty claim if the fence is new. Is this the model with the UHMW faces? If so I would not expect a new fence to necessarily fix your issue. The UHMW distorts under pressure from the screws. You may want to try more or less tension on them to see if this helps. On the other hand I may be talking about the wrong fence ;-).

I set my fence as close to parallel with the blade as I can. Some folks like it to toe out, away from the rear of the blade by a couple thou. You do not want it toeing in.

[Chris Konikowski]

This is a used saw and used fence. The best I could measure, the blade was toed toward the fence by .002". I guess I am going to start there and try and toe it out by .001-.002....

[Jim Kountz]

Second, my shopfox fence has a pretty good bow in the middle of it. I did not measure it, but it is significant. Do I need to replace it? Can I fix it. It bows back at the end.


Damn I sure would like to build something....

You must get that bow out of the fence, use shims or whatever you have to do but a fence with a bow in it is just plain bad news. Im not even sure how you can do any accurate reading between the fence and blade if this fence is bowed.

[Chris Padilla]

You need a flat fence or all bets are off for using it to do anything.

I assume you have a dial indicator and that you are referencing from a miter slot?

[Paul Demetropoulos]

Chris,

Why not build an auxiliary fence that slips over your fence. You could build it from mdf which is flat and stable. If you wanted to do that we could point you towards plans.

[Joe Chritz]

You got some good answers. If the back of the blade is cutting you have a problem that needs to be fixed. Use one miter slot for your measurements and make sure the fence is parallel (or tow away a bit) and the blade is as close to parallel as it can be.

Make sure you measure from the same tooth front and back.

I would set the blade them set the fence, depending on the fence you can fix it a couple ways. If it has removable faces some shims or new faces should fix it. If it doesn't you will have to attach an aux fence that is shimmed straight or replace it or machine it.

Joe

[Salem Ganzhorn]

OK, just a few more questions....:eek:

First, should the wood be cut by the back of the blade? I am .002 out of parallel blade back toed towards the fence. I am kicking a little sawdust until the piece leaves the back of the blade.

I toed the fence away by quite a bit and it still dragged....:confused:

Second, my shopfox fence has a pretty good bow in the middle of it. I did not measure it, but it is significant. Do I need to replace it? Can I fix it. It bows back at the end.


Damn I sure would like to build something....

I am no expert so take this with a grain of salt... but .002 ~ 1/512. I don't think this should cause problems. The fence sounds like your real issue. For example I doubt you could notice visibly .002 off so it sounds like your fence is much worse. And if it is bent toward the back of the blade that is really bad news. Don't use a saw like that.

Note that I don't own a dial indicator and I don't _really_ know that .002 would not cause a problem. I use a nail on an end of a stick to measure my blade from the miter saw :).

[Myk Rian]

I would set the blade then set the fence,
Yepper. Always set the miter slot to the blade first.

[Chris Konikowski]

That is the procedure I am following. Blade to miter. Miter to fence, miter gauge/sled....

it seems like the order you torque the bolts on the trunion assembly changes the spec on the blade parallel. Is this possible? I have a $10 off coupon and am going down the street to woodcraft to buy the PALS setup. $9.99 plus tax and hopefully it will make it much easier than it has been for me...

I am also going to flatten the fence. I have the shopfox pro that came with the saw. It has the aluminum face on it. Grizzly has the shop fox pro fence with the ...whatever it is made from ...face. Do you think that this would be a good investment?

[Paul Demetropoulos]

Grip-Tite makes a steel faceplate that you can attach to your fence.
This would be straight and solve your fence problem.

109383



http://www.mesavistadesign.com/griptite-fenceplate.html

[Mike Wilkins]

Replace it with a Unifence. Never had these type issues with mine.

[Steve Schoene]

Yes, buy the PALS device. It is quite true that tightening the bolts can shift the blades out of parallel.

[Bob Genovesi]

I am no expert so take this with a grain of salt... but .002 ~ 1/512. I don't think this should cause problems. The fence sounds like your real issue. For example I doubt you could notice visibly .002 off so it sounds like your fence is much worse. And if it is bent toward the back of the blade that is really bad news. Don't use a saw like that.

Note that I don't own a dial indicator and I don't _really_ know that .002 would not cause a problem. I use a nail on an end of a stick to measure my blade from the miter saw :).

BINGO

If you're seeing a misalignment of .002 inches it will have no impact on your cuts. Now, if you were machining steel on a BridgePort or other milling machine .002 "can" be a big deal.

Keep in mind we are cutting wood. If you're seeing allot of burning on the wood then you're off somewhere close to .015 to .020. If you're actually seeing sawdust you're cutting allot more than .002. I suspect that your fence is forcing the wood toward the blade a hell of allot more than you think.