Squaring miter saw

[Pat Meyer]

Hello guys,

I have a 12" SCMS from harbor freight(i know this is probably my biggest issue) but ever since i got its made nice square cuts but i noticed that the saw blade doesn't sit parallel to the kerf plate. It runs perpendicular to the fence as you slide it front to back but it slides along at an angle. I hope this makes sense.

The best way to describe it is these characters right here |/|. Since it runs perpendicular to the fence in makes nice 90° cuts but the side effect is i have more saw waste due to the blade traveling at an angle through the wood and when i put it at a full 45 bevel the blade is able to hit the kerf plate

I couldnt find an obvious way to adjust that angle so any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[Randy Viellenave]

Sounds like the motor/blade unit and slide are not perpendicular to each other. Best course of action is to return the saw to HFT and try to get another one (or save up and get a higher quality tool). If that fails, try to see how the motor/blade and slide are connected, look for a means to shim one side out so that they are perpendicular to each other. Since the 90 deg cut is perpendicular, the slides and fence should be ok to each other.

[Pat Meyer]

Sounds like the motor/blade unit and slide are not perpendicular to each other. Best course of action is to return the saw to HFT and try to get another one (or save up and get a higher quality tool). If that fails, try to see how the motor/blade and slide are connected, look for a means to shim one side out so that they are perpendicular to each other. Since the 90 deg cut is perpendicular, the slides and fence should be ok to each other.

I may be out of the warranty period so ill have to check but i guess thats what i was thinking too. i found where the slide rods go into the blade assembly and they have a set screws on each rod and i loosened them and tried moving one of the rods out and shimming but where the rods go into the bore are either glued or loctited so i couldnt move them is there some where else where the blade head angel is usually adjustable?

[Randy Viellenave]

I have never seen one adjustable, they are usually one piece. Thought maybe since yours was skewed it might be more. Can you upload a few close up pix of it? Maybe another eyeball will notice something.

[Pat Meyer]

http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/b538/Rammstein1224/20160217_205041_zpshdapvkai.jpg (http://s1290.photobucket.com/user/Rammstein1224/media/20160217_205041_zpshdapvkai.jpg.html)
http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/b538/Rammstein1224/20160217_204520_zpscegshx6u.jpg (http://s1290.photobucket.com/user/Rammstein1224/media/20160217_204520_zpscegshx6u.jpg.html)
http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/b538/Rammstein1224/20160217_204557_zps9eofr1p6.jpg (http://s1290.photobucket.com/user/Rammstein1224/media/20160217_204557_zps9eofr1p6.jpg.html)
http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/b538/Rammstein1224/20160217_204539_zpso46ssf8b.jpg (http://s1290.photobucket.com/user/Rammstein1224/media/20160217_204539_zpso46ssf8b.jpg.html)
http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/b538/Rammstein1224/20160217_204628_zpsjcov4jaa.jpg (http://s1290.photobucket.com/user/Rammstein1224/media/20160217_204628_zpsjcov4jaa.jpg.html)

[Randy Viellenave]

Well, I don't see any intentional adjustments there, and only have a couple thoughts. Where the tube goes in to the set screws you may be able to stuff a shim in there to cause a little bit of angle on the motor/blade assembly if it will come off. You could also try to file down the end of one tube. Those still may not be effective depending on the amount of clearance between the tube and the casting. You could also use a rotary sander and remove a tiny bit of material to add clearance so it would be able to swivel a bit, but then would need to epoxy (JB Weld) it in place if you were able to get it square. Most likely the casting warped at some point, I had a Delta miter where the fence warped after about a year. It was a simple design defect that left uneven stress within the aluminum that caused movement over time. Whatever you do, make sure you don't affect the parallelism of the slides, that would make it real tough to use.

[Pat Meyer]

Well, I don't see any intentional adjustments there, and only have a couple thoughts. Where the tube goes in to the set screws you may be able to stuff a shim in there to cause a little bit of angle on the motor/blade assembly if it will come off. You could also try to file down the end of one tube. Those still may not be effective depending on the amount of clearance between the tube and the casting. You could also use a rotary sander and remove a tiny bit of material to add clearance so it would be able to swivel a bit, but then would need to epoxy (JB Weld) it in place if you were able to get it square. Most likely the casting warped at some point, I had a Delta miter where the fence warped after about a year. It was a simple design defect that left uneven stress within the aluminum that caused movement over time. Whatever you do, make sure you don't affect the parallelism of the slides, that would make it real tough to use.

Yea thats what i was referring to in my first post that i loosened those set screws and it was glued in with something so short of that i think im SOL. It still works fine it just would impact the kerf plate at full bevel. Now about that would it be the end of the world if it shaved off a bit of the plastic kerf plate?

[John TenEyck]

Hard to imagine you can actually get a square cut on both sides of the blade if it is skewed. I don't see any obvious way of adjusting it either. My recommendation is that if it's important for you to be able to cut square parts (and isn't it for everyone?) then I would sell that saw for whatever you can get for it and move up to higher quality saw. Plenty of good ones to choose from. Life is short. Why suffer with poor tools?

John

[Pat Meyer]

Hard to imagine you can actually get a square cut on both sides of the blade if it is skewed. I don't see any obvious way of adjusting it either. My recommendation is that if it's important for you to be able to cut square parts (and isn't it for everyone?) then I would sell that saw for whatever you can get for it and move up to higher quality saw. Plenty of good ones to choose from. Life is short. Why suffer with poor tools?

John

It cuts pretty straight due to the fact it slides perfectly perpendicular in relation to the fence but it just cuts through at an angle in effect making more waste(relatively). Its not a huge deal ive made several things with it with little to no problem i just would like to fix it if i can.