Unisaw Help

[Ron Robinson]

Hello all,

I recently purchased a Unisaw to replace my ancient contractor's saw. WOW! What a difference! I love everything about the saw, that is until yesterday.

I was cutting bevels on 1/4" thick 1/2" wide material and noticed the cut depth seemed to vary along the length of the piece. I looked at the set-up carefully and noticed the blade insert was not flush in the center. I laid a straight edge on the insert (out of the saw) end to end and found a 0.060" gap in the center. Edge to edge the gap is 0.030".

My question is... Is this common? I cannot get the insert completely flush with the opening. I have a zero clearance insert for my dado set but put off buying one for a standard blade. I guess I expected better quality from Delta. Are my expectations unreal?


Thanks,

Ron

[Rick Shelton]

That's kinda iffy, cutting bevels on pieces that small. Probably better suited for a router table. Otherwise, you need to be using a zero insert when cutting small pieces. Problem is, you'll have to have an insert for every angle you hope to cut on the tablesaw.

At the very least, use feather boards to secure the stock while cutting.

[Larry Fox]

1/4" thick and 1/2" wide with the blade tilted - wow, that sounds kinda terrifying to me. Could it be that the stock is deflecting as it approaches the blade due to it's thickness? My experience with my Uni is that the throat plate is fairly sloppy in it's fit and I don't believe it is intended to be a precision piece. I have also observed that sawdust builds up under the feet of the plate and causes it to have high spots and "rock" in-place. I would advise making a ZCI and see if the problem persists.

[Rick Shelton]

At the very least, use feather boards to secure the stock while cutting.

[Ron Robinson]

Some more info on the cut.

I had the fence to the left of the blade on my left tilt saw. The blade was tilted at 24.5 degrees and raised so the highest point was 1/4" above the table. The blade was buried in a sacrificial fence so the outermost egde of the teeth was flush with the face of the fence. This was not a through cut.

Ron

[Tom Jones III]

I think you got the variance in the cuts because the wood was cringing ... either because it expected at any second to get splattered with finger chunks or to be impaled in your groin/gut depending on how tall you are.

In my experience, that piece is just too small to do a good job on a TS.

[Byron Trantham]

Way too dangerous! I am speaking from experience. I nailed my left thumb and six weeks later my left index finger trying to cut small pieces on a TS [a uni at that]. There is just too much opportunity for the blade to get you when you are that close to it.

When I bought my uni it came with the standard metal insert. I bought a phenolic zero clearance and Delta's metal dato insert. I hate both Delta inserts but they do the job. My phenolic insert is great. One of these days I am going to replace the dato insert with a phenolic.

I use my router table now to do small parts. It's slower but safer.

[Alan Turner]

I won't comment on the cut you are trying to make, but would recommend that you make one, or a bunch, of zero clearance inserts. I too have a Uni, and make mine from 12mm BB ply. I usually make several at a time, and it doesn't take too long. Be sure to leave the "finger" on the rear, and carve out the top. Final shaping is pretty quick on an edge sander, or with a disk sander. The 12mm BB will be a bit thin, which permits you to use the socket head screws from the original plate to fully level it. The 12mm BB will take the threads just fine. Give it a quick coat of rubbed on shellac, and wax it up.

[Jamie Buxton]

To directly answer your question, that much out-of-flatness is not good. I don't know what's typical nowadays for Delta, but I'd call that insert useless. Like Alan says, make or buy a flatter one.

[Ron Robinson]

To all who have commented on the cut and not the question:

I explained the cut in my second post of this thread. I made a push block out of dimensional lumber with a 1/4" rabbet along one edge to "contain" the piece. As I stated before this was a blind cut and my fingers were never close to the blade.

A router table for this cut would have involved a jig to angle the piece or a custom made chamfer bit.

Ron

[Sam Blasco]

I've always made my own zero clearance inserts, when I had my cabinet saw and for my slider now. You will always be able to do a better job. I've used baltic birch and phenolic with terrific results. You could buy some aftermarket ones, but that adds up. Think about this. It is just as easy to make 20 as it is to make one. Whenever I do this, I do a mini production run, with lots of blanks ready to step in for anything peculiar I might decide to try. If my home internet situation ever gets up again, I'll post some pics of the ones I did for the cabinet saw, with homemade removeable splitters, too.

[Dan Forman]

Alan---Just curious, what do you mean by "carve out the top"?

Ron---If you make your own inserts, because the Unisaw blade doesn't drop below the level of the table, you will need to either rout a narrow groove most of the way through the insert to make room for the blade before it can pierce the top of the insert, or use a smaller diameter blade to cut the slot, or most of it. Some can use the outside blade of a dado stack, unfortunately the Freud Dial dado uses wider teeth on both outside blades, so that won't work for me.

Dan

[Alan Turner]

Dan
The configuration of the Uni insert has a finger, of sorts, at the rear bottom. So, make the piece big enough to include the finger, and the remove or carve, the top away, leaving the correct finger.

[Dan Forman]

Thanks for clarifying, Alan.

[Richard Wolf]

I would like to point out to be careful with to much downward pressure on most inserts will cause them to flex. This will usually show up mostly on bevel and plough cuts with small pieces of wood.

Richard

[Allen Bookout]

Alan,

I suppose that the "finger" on the insert is to keep the insert from kicking up if the blade binds. I have made several for my uni out of hardwood planned to the exact thickness but did not include the finger and have not had any problems but may be I should reconsider. If it is really necessary I think that I could just install a small screw into the end. Allen

[Allen Bookout]

Alan,

I suppose that the "finger" on the insert is to keep the insert from kicking up if the blade binds. I have made several for my uni out of hardwood planned to the exact thickness but did not include the finger and have not had any problems but may be I should reconsider. If it is really necessary I think that I could just install a small screw into the end. Allen