Jet Bandsaw Table Flatness- Not

[Bill Splaine]

I've had a Jet 14" bandsaw for about 20 years now and have never used it for anything precision.. It, at the time, didn't come with a miter gauge.. or if it did, I put it away for safe keeping and can't find it.. I've never needed it.

That said, I'd like to get one and incorporate a sled on the saw. I borrowed a miter gauge off another saw that fits properly.. but, when I use it, I notice the gauge hangs up on the slot in the saw table. The alignment pin is installed and tapped home but there iis a slight mismatch between sides of the slot.

So the grand question is.. how do I fix this..? I know I can have the table top re-machined which would be pretty costly, I'm guessing... but, might there be other solutions I'm not thinking of?

Thanks for any advice.

[Charlie Hinton]

Depending on whether the table will affect the cuts you are wanting to do the easiest fix would be to bevel the leading edges of the miter bar and the sled so it will "glide"past the blade slot ?
If that's unacceptable try to find out if the table is not flat or if the trunnions are pulling it out of flat.
Loosen the tilt locks and see if the problem is still there.
You may need to loosen more bolts on the table but you get the idea.
If it goes away you can probably shim something on the trunnion assembly to get the table flat and square in all directions to the blade.
My Jet bandsaw has several thicknesses of card stock between the the back trunnions / chassis mount to bring the table square measured to the back side of the blade.

[lowell holmes]

You might explore grinding the miter gage.

[glenn bradley]

I'm with Charlie and Lowell. Dad's saw table looks great with a straight edge on it but his miter gauge and sleds always gave a little snag at the slot. He cut a thin strip of hardwood that he friction fits into the slot. He also beveled the leading edge that was catching on the gauge and sleds; we are talking micro-bevel here. That's all it took.