PM2000 fence

[Eric Bong]

All,
I am the new owner of a PM2000. Unfortunately I am not getting the cut quality that I thought I would. There are definate and distinct blade marks on the cut. My old contractors saw did a better job.

Here is the setup process that I have followed so far.

1. Blade to miter slot alignment is within 0.001

2. Fence to miter slot alignment. The fence cants away from the blade 0.004"

3. Square the fence to the table. (Perfect)

4. Measured runout at the edge of the blade. It is less than 0.002". I have tried two different Forrest WWII blades with the same result.

5. Measure the flatness of the fence along the length. hhhm. In my fence there is about 0.01 to 0.02 indententaions in the fence where ever the mounting bolts attach it to the steel tube.

Does anyone use the UHMW fence sides that came with the saw? How close to flat should I expect? I would assume much closer to 0.005. I need to pickup some Baltic Birch tomorrow and make my own fence sides and try it tomorrow.

Any other suggestions?

[john tomljenovic]

does your blade hold the same measurements when lowered? mine does not, heeling a little over .005" from max height to a average working height. and yes I am avoiding hitting the stops. this does result in blade marks for me.

I just received my pm2000 a couple weeks ago and found the pivot and arbor are not parallel to each other. WMH is sending someone to look at the situation thursday, will see what happens. I hate those plastic faces to the fence too, I get the wavyness where ever the attachment bolts are as well. gonna mill up some proper faces soon.

[Frank Snyder]

Eric - Remove your UHMW sub fences and compare the locations of their t-slots on them to their respective holes on the Accufence. I believe you will notice that they do NOT line up exactly. The result is that the UHMW "bulges" between these bolt locations when tightened.

To correct, I elongated the holes on the Accufence horizontally using my Dremel and a grinding wheel. Once reinstalled, the bulges disappear and the UHMW sub fence lies flat like it should. Also, try not to over tighten the nuts which can cause the UHMW to deform. Snug is all you need here.

Hope this helps.

P.S. Take note of the location for the metal shims Powermatic may use between the subfence and the fence, so that they can be reinstalled in the same location again.

[glenn bradley]

I'm not satisfied with my WWII so I would try a different blade before going further. I know you already tried two of them but, so did I. I have not yet sent the blade in to be taken care of and have hopes that I'll love it when it comes back.

I don't cant my fence but know many folks do. the UHMW is cool but not as flat as I like a fence face. Sounds like Frank has a good suggestion on this. Let us know how it goes.

[Eric Bong]

Thanks for the replies. Frank, I will try and take off the sub fences and look at the slot alignment. Thanks for the tip on the shims.

I'll post an update tomorrow. I am going out for an anniversary dinner with the LOML tonight. She probably won't want to talk about UHMW or sub fences. :D

[Tom Henderson2]

Bummer! I hope it all gets worked out.

Other than the cut quality, how do you like it? I've been eyeing the PM2000 for a while so any thoughts you have would be appreciated.

For example, how well do the internal wheels work? Can you easily lower them? Some of the early reviews hinted that they can be difficult to lower, but that a design change was coming soon to resolve that.

Thanks in advance! I'm sure you will get the cut quality issues resoved soon.

[Tom Henderson2]

One more question....

Do you see the same blade marks on both sides of the cut? Do you see the same problems when using the miter gage? Are the blade marks even over the entire face, or worse at the top/bottom etc?

Just wondering. Hopefully you can isolate and identify the root cause.

-Tom H. Ventura, CA

[Eric Bong]

Thanks to everyone for the input. I did file out the edges of the t slots on the UHMW sub fence. That made a world of difference. There were no shims under my sub fence. The fence is still not perfectly flat but my cut quality has improved dramatically. There is still a "flare" at the very beginning of the fence. Thanks again for the tip Frank. I still plan on making replacement sub fences, I just don't like UHMW that well.

Tom, I have no other gripes with the PM2000. The adjustment wheels move smoothly. The internal mobile casters are easy enough to raise and lower, they just require lots of turns to get there.

I am very happy with this saw. I am looking forward to many years of good use.:D

[Yuchol Kim]

When you move the arbor (blade) up and down, the arbor pivots on a big rod at the front. The arbor can move side to side and PM put a big set set screw/lock nut to keeping it doing so. On my PM 2000, I was having problems of uneven cuts and inconsistent width. AAlso when I moved the arbor up/down, the distance between the blade and the fence changed. After few days of troubleshooting, I found that set screw/nut loose, allowing the arbor to move side to side. I put some loctite on, retightened the screw, it worked like charm. Be sure to check the screw before you go too far in troubleshooting. Hope this helps.

[Frank Snyder]

Eric - Glad this fix worked for you. I actually meant elongate the steel holes on the Accufence, not the slots on the UHMW. As long as you left enough material for the bolt heads to grab, then you should be fine. Sorry for the confusion.

The flare at the start of the fence may be the result of having the first bolt too tight. Try loosening it just a bit to see if it'll lie down for you.

At first I didn't like the UHMW fence either and I replaced it with Phenolic faced Baltic Birch. But what I found, at least with the piece I had, was that it was not consistent in thickness and there were a few bulges in it. If you take your calipers to the UHMW, you'll notice that it is consistent in its thickness throughout, which was not the case with the plywood I had. Once I figured out what the problem was with the UHMW and the holes not lining up, I reinstalled the UHMW and it performed like it should. Solid phenolic would probably be a better choice here...I just don't know where to find it.

Enjoy your PM2000. It's a great saw.