Matt Day
04-28-2013, 5:35 PM
After my TS began suddenly squealing very loudly, I knew it was due time to replace the arbor bearings. Since I had to order the bearings and don't get the amount of time in the shop I used to since my daughter was born, it's taken me about a month.
In addition to the arbor bearing replacement, I wanted to make some new ZCI's out of some Corian I have, and make sure the saw was setup and aligned properly.
When I bought the saw it didn't come with the stock blade insert, only a beat up wood insert that was cracked. I made my other ZCI's using it as a template, but they never worked well - gaps caused slop which I had to make up with some set screws. So while I had the TS top off, I traced the opening onto 1/4" MDF and made a template. Here's the final product and it came out great I think - no slop and a perfect fit. I think the biggest benefit is that the Corian is inert and won't change size seasonaly like the Oak ones I used to have.
261135261134
Next up was to align the miter slot to the blade and miter slot to fence. I have one of those magnetic base dial gauges, but it can be clumsy for things like this. I saw some shop made miter slot/dial indicator jigs for alignment, but I didn't think I had to do that. So instead I came up with this modification to my miter sled which worked great.
261132261133
After aligning it to about .003" or there abouts and using the corian ZCI, cuts are smoother and plywood isn't chipping out on the bottom of the cut like it used to.
In addition to the arbor bearing replacement, I wanted to make some new ZCI's out of some Corian I have, and make sure the saw was setup and aligned properly.
When I bought the saw it didn't come with the stock blade insert, only a beat up wood insert that was cracked. I made my other ZCI's using it as a template, but they never worked well - gaps caused slop which I had to make up with some set screws. So while I had the TS top off, I traced the opening onto 1/4" MDF and made a template. Here's the final product and it came out great I think - no slop and a perfect fit. I think the biggest benefit is that the Corian is inert and won't change size seasonaly like the Oak ones I used to have.
261135261134
Next up was to align the miter slot to the blade and miter slot to fence. I have one of those magnetic base dial gauges, but it can be clumsy for things like this. I saw some shop made miter slot/dial indicator jigs for alignment, but I didn't think I had to do that. So instead I came up with this modification to my miter sled which worked great.
261132261133
After aligning it to about .003" or there abouts and using the corian ZCI, cuts are smoother and plywood isn't chipping out on the bottom of the cut like it used to.