How to tell if table saw is accurate?

[Silas Smith]

What are some signs that your table saw is tuned correctly? I trued mine up with the master bar and found my blade off by about .05. I corrected this and then trued up the fence to dead even, but I still had burn marks and a ringing when the stock passed the back of the blade.:( When I toed out the fence more, and I mean like .015, the burn marks went away and the stock felt alot smoother going through. When I checked dimensions, the width was within .008 on a four foot board. I think it measured 7.592 inches on the front and 7.584 inches on the rear.Is there any way my mitre guage slot is not parallel? Wood movement makes this irrelevent right? I am thinking that .008 is not a big deal, but I could be wrong.I have a Bridgewood contractors saw, not a uni, but not a ryobi.

[Jim Dunn]

Silas as a former Toolmaker (yeah I capatilized it for a good reason) I have found that making the jump to wood is a real challenge. I spend more time tuning and checking, not that I mind it thank you, than I do making some projects. .008 is not a bad cut as I am imagining that real wood could change that much in 48". The best way, I think anyway, is to use a stable product like MDF and make all cuts and adjustments using it.
I'm an idiot at times using a dial calipers to check dimensions when I should be using a story stick or a tape measurer. It would save me about 1/2hr each evening of precious shop time.

[Norman Hitt]

What are some signs that your table saw is tuned correctly? I trued mine up with the master bar and found my blade off by about .05. I corrected this and then trued up the fence to dead even, but I still had burn marks and a ringing when the stock passed the back of the blade.:( When I toed out the fence more, and I mean like .015, the burn marks went away and the stock felt alot smoother going through. When I checked dimensions, the width was within .008 on a four foot board. I think it measured 7.592 inches on the front and 7.584 inches on the rear.Is there any way my mitre guage slot is not parallel? Wood movement makes this irrelevent right? I am thinking that .008 is not a big deal, but I could be wrong.I have a Bridgewood contractors saw, not a uni, but not a ryobi.

Silas, first a question; When checking the blade to the mitre slot, Did you mark one tooth, and then measure it at the front, and rotate the blade back and measure the Same tooth again? If you did it this way and it is exactly the same measurement, make a test cut to see if it is still ringing, BUT, don't use the fence, either clamp or hold a 4" wide piece tight against the mitre guage and cut off about 1/2". If you are still getting the ringing as the wood passes the back of the blade, then your blade is either warped, or the arbor face nut is not running out true, OR, there may be some sawdust or other Crud on the arbor shaft & the arbor face nut that is not allowing the blade to fit up flat against the arbor face nut. What Blade are you using? Check these items again to make Sure the blade is exactly parallel to the mitre slot, and there is no Wobble in the blade caused by Warping or the other items mentioned, before you Even think about the fence, and it's set up.

Lots of ways to check/set a fence, but I find it easy to wedge a 4" x 28" (for my saw) length of MDF into the mitre slot, check it for vertical with a drafting triangle, and then carefully ease the fence up to touch the MDF and lock it.

Now you can see how the fence mates up to the MDF all the way from the front to back and tell if the fence is straight all the way across. If it is not parallel to the MDF, then loosen the adjustment bolts/screws, unlock the fence and again move the fence up against the MDF so it touches at both the front and back of the saw, lock the fence down, recheck both pieces touching at front and back, and tighten the adjust ment screws. Now unlock the fence, move it away and then ease it back up to the MDF again, lock it down and check to be sure it didn't slip while tightening the screws. Now make a test cut, Using the fence and see if the ringing has gone away. If there is still ringing, NOW check the Splitter to see that it's not guiding the cut piece back into the blade at the back, as this is a common ailment on some saw/splitter arrangements. (my buddy's Rigid had this problem and is a PITA that we're still working on as it keeps shifting because the metal is too light)

The above method allows you to Visually See if the fence itself is warped and the face needs to be shimed or other measures need to be taken so it will be straight and parallel to the blade as the piece passes through the cut along the full length of the fence.

Hope this helps. Let us know what you find, and for sure, check that blade for warpage.