Table Saw Blade & Fence Alignment - How low do you go?

[Dave Carteret]

I'm in the process of cleaning up my late Grandfather's old Atlas Power King 8" table saw. As best as I can tell, it's a 1948 model (serial # is 48XXX).
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll169/DRIVENC3/Woodworking/c85c3b35.jpg
I'm hoping to put it to use as a secondary saw in my shop for those times when I need to make some small cuts, but don't want to change the settings on my main saw.

I aligned the fence and checked the alignment on the blade today.

Blade was already aligned to the mitre slot within 0.010, checking the same
Got the fence to the slot within 0.002 which seemed to be repeatable even when moving the fence.

Both seemed pretty good to me. How do those specs compare to what the rest of you stick to when aligning things.

Dave

[keith ouellette]

I think my jet had the blade out by .006 and I noticed less burning and smoother cuts by getting that to under .003. your fence is good. Id move the table a little.

[Dave Carteret]

Just for the heck of it, I checked the old Craftsman that I've been using for years.
Blade to mitre slot: 0.001
Fence 2" away from blade: 0.002"
Fence 12" away from blade: 0.060" :eek:

I was actually surprised it was that low! Puts a number on the reason I'm getting rid of the saw and the reason why I always have to check the fence-to-blade distance at the front & rear of the blade & nudge the fence straight.

[Larry Edgerton]

Those are very nice old saws! Being your grandfathers makes it so much cooler!

I wish I had something from my grandfather in my shop, that would be special..........

[Andrew Joiner]

Thanks for posting the saw Dave,
That model Atlas is the first table saw I ever owned. I paid $5 for a used one in 1959. I was 8 years old so it was a fortune!
Your set-up specs are as good as you need to get. I'd do some sample cuts and measure those. As long as you can rip uniform widths with 90 degree edges your fine.

[Dave Carteret]

I need to find the motor brackets before I can make a test-cut. It had a 1hp Baldor motor that's been doing duty on my Craftsman table saw since the Craftsman motor started tripping breakers (since fixed by cleaning up the starter switch internal to the motor). I found part of the bracket yesterday. Still digging through my shop for the other half.

I have the stand that my grandfather had it on, and I think it's actually an Atlas stand. Hard to say that it was made for the saw considering that it's a non-integral-motor design.

[Howard Acheson]

>>>> Blade was already aligned to the mitre slot within 0.010, checking the same

That's not very good. There is no reason that you can't get it to 0.003" minimum. 0.002" or 0.001" are attainable and will give you better cuts providing you have a good blade.

Your fence to slot is fine.

[Harvey Pascoe]

Your parallelism of blade to fence that is most important and you need to get that to as close to zero as possible if you intend to do any serious ripping and reduce the risks of kickback.

[Dave Carteret]

I thought that as pretty good considering that it was adjusted by yours truly about 15 years ago using nothing more than a steel tape measure :)
I didn't feel like mucking with it over the weekend, and figured I'd see what the general consensus was before I did.

I'm an engineer, so knowing that it isn't a perfect 0.000 is bugging me. LOL


I can appreciate the parallelism, Harvey. I doubt this will see much in the way of heavy ripping when it's paired up alongside a Unisaw or PM66. I'm shooting for perfection though.

[shane lyall]

As stated above, I'd work on the slot to blade a little but the fence is good.

[Angela micinski]

IF it is that close after 15 years that is impressive. especially if you used a steel rule. I have mine set so that it kicks out a few thousandth's at the back but I am not really sure it needs to be that accurate. it sure makes ripping nice though.