Matt King
02-19-2006, 11:38 AM
Now, it's not much of a saw, granted, but it's what I've got for now. I've got a late 70's Craftsman contractor saw that my Dad used for years. I've added the "Align-A-Rip" fence that actually seems pretty good. Adding a 1000SE miter gauge to it, plus a link belt (on the 2HP motor that Pops added years ago) gave me a half-way decent saw, so I thought. Even though I've aligned it pretty well, it still cuts nearly 1/16 out of square over 6 inches here lately.
I put my dial indicator on the steel base of the 1000SE and marked a tooth on the blade. Starting at the front (with the blade raised basically all the way), I zeroed out the indicator. I slid the gauge back on the saw (it's got zippo slop in the miter slot, by the way) and rotated the blade so that my marked tooth is in the back. I'm .002 off of parallel - not too shabby, says I. I lowered the blade all the way, sliding the fence over next to the miter slot. Slide the miter gauge/DTI back up front, zero out on the fence, very close to the front edge of the table. Sliding it back along the fence, I get .007-.008 tail out at the back edge of the saw. A little more than ideal (.003-.004, from what I understand), I'm thinking, but not too bad and probably as good as it gets without some real futzing with the rather coarse adjustments on the fence head. I then took my 12" adjustable square and checked it against a factory MDF edge, as well as a factory plexiglass edge. Yep, it's square. So, back to the saw I go, checking the perpendicularity of the miter gauge to both the fence (just to be sure - I know not to use the fence and the miter gauge at the same time) and the blade. I can't see any gaps along the way, so I decide to run a test cut on it. I snagged a piece of pine 1x6 from the junk stack, jointed one edge, and labelled it '1'. Putting edge '1' on the fence, I make a cut, making edge '1' and '2' parallel(I assume - i'll measure with the calipers to be sure). Moving the fence out of the way and grabbing the miter gauge, I put edge '1' against the miter gauge and cut edge "3". Well, lookee there, we're out of square both from 1 to 3 and 2 to 3. Seem to me that it's the miter gauge, some how, some way, but I can't seem to find it or figure it out!!!! :confused: :( :mad:
Can y'all give me some hints, here - I'm feeling pretty ole stupid right about now!
Thanks,
Matt
I put my dial indicator on the steel base of the 1000SE and marked a tooth on the blade. Starting at the front (with the blade raised basically all the way), I zeroed out the indicator. I slid the gauge back on the saw (it's got zippo slop in the miter slot, by the way) and rotated the blade so that my marked tooth is in the back. I'm .002 off of parallel - not too shabby, says I. I lowered the blade all the way, sliding the fence over next to the miter slot. Slide the miter gauge/DTI back up front, zero out on the fence, very close to the front edge of the table. Sliding it back along the fence, I get .007-.008 tail out at the back edge of the saw. A little more than ideal (.003-.004, from what I understand), I'm thinking, but not too bad and probably as good as it gets without some real futzing with the rather coarse adjustments on the fence head. I then took my 12" adjustable square and checked it against a factory MDF edge, as well as a factory plexiglass edge. Yep, it's square. So, back to the saw I go, checking the perpendicularity of the miter gauge to both the fence (just to be sure - I know not to use the fence and the miter gauge at the same time) and the blade. I can't see any gaps along the way, so I decide to run a test cut on it. I snagged a piece of pine 1x6 from the junk stack, jointed one edge, and labelled it '1'. Putting edge '1' on the fence, I make a cut, making edge '1' and '2' parallel(I assume - i'll measure with the calipers to be sure). Moving the fence out of the way and grabbing the miter gauge, I put edge '1' against the miter gauge and cut edge "3". Well, lookee there, we're out of square both from 1 to 3 and 2 to 3. Seem to me that it's the miter gauge, some how, some way, but I can't seem to find it or figure it out!!!! :confused: :( :mad:
Can y'all give me some hints, here - I'm feeling pretty ole stupid right about now!
Thanks,
Matt