TS extension wings

[Matt Ellis]

Hi fellas! I've been lurking for a few weeks, and finally have a post of my very own to make. Hope I can get some guidance, as there seems to be a lot of talented and intelligent people here.

My first saw (a grizzly 1023) came in last Friday. I have been slowly putting it together since then, trying to make sure everything is set up as it should be. I've cut a few half laps on it, and it seems to do a pretty decent job...especially considering the economy dewalt blade I currently have installed. It passes the nickel test with flying colors.

Anyway, I've read several posts where guys talk about their tables being within 0.005"-0.006" flat. I have no dial indicator, but mine feels really good. The biggest problem I have is the juncture of wings and the table itself. I can't get the two any closer than about 0.030" because the only thing holding them on are a couple of bolts in vertically slotted holes, which doesn't exactly lend itself to fine adjustment. Are there any tips for getting things lined up exactly?

By the way, I've been trying to adjust it by myself, as my wife is about 8.5 months pregnant, and not really in the mood to fool around with her first boy's toys at the moment. For all I know, this actually may require two people!

Thanks for any help.

-matt

[Rod Sheridan]

Welcome to the creek Matt.

I always adjust wings by tightening the mounting bolts slightly, then using a block of wood and a hammer, or a plastic tipped hammer to adjust the wings up or down.

If you need shims to adjust them, aluminum foil, or the soft aluminum from pop cans works well.

Enjoy your new saw, the better job you do of assembly and alignment, the easier it will be to produce quality work with it in the future.

Regards, Rod.

[Bill Huber]

Welcome to the creek Matt.

I always adjust wings by tightening the mounting bolts slightly, then using a block of wood and a hammer, or a plastic tipped hammer to adjust the wings up or down.

If you need shims to adjust them, aluminum foil, or the soft aluminum from pop cans works well.

Enjoy your new saw, the better job you do of assembly and alignment, the easier it will be to produce quality work with it in the future.

Regards, Rod.

I would not use aluminum for a shim, it is very soft and will flatten out over time. I keep my old feeler gauges just for that type of thing, and it is nice that they have the thickness right on them so you known just what you are putting in for a shim.
You can also buy shim stock that is made to be used for shims or you can find cheap feeler gauges for around $4 that are very handy to have for shims.

[James Suzda]

If you have to bring the ends of the extension wings up or down, use the suggestion in the manual of using masking tape either on the top or the bottom of the wing. Having said that, I used strips of paper to adjust mine.

[Wade Lippman]

I would not use aluminum for a shim, it is very soft and will flatten out over time. I keep my old feeler gauges just for that type of thing, and it is nice that they have the thickness right on them so you known just what you are putting in for a shim.
You can also buy shim stock that is made to be used for shims or you can find cheap feeler gauges for around $4 that are very handy to have for shims.

I needed to shim my table to get it square to the blade, and required a 0.040" shim. I didn't have anything handy that size except a sheet of polyethylene. Obviously that is a horrible choice as it is way too soft for a shim!
But then I figured out I would never have more than 250 pounds (including the table) on it, and half that weight would be taken up by the unshimmed side; so maybe 150 lb max. I had 8 square inches of shim, so it would be less then 20 pounds per square inch. And that isn't going to do anything; heck 200 pounds per square inch isn't going to do anything.

In a few years I will find out if I am right about this.;)

I wouldn't be real concerned about aluminum being too soft for shims; Grizzly recommends masking tape.

[Bill Huber]

I needed to shim my table to get it square to the blade, and required a 0.040" shim. I didn't have anything handy that size except a sheet of polyethylene. Obviously that is a horrible choice as it is way too soft for a shim!
But then I figured out I would never have more than 250 pounds (including the table) on it, and half that weight would be taken up by the unshimmed side; so maybe 150 lb max. I had 8 square inches of shim, so it would be less then 20 pounds per square inch. And that isn't going to do anything; heck 200 pounds per square inch isn't going to do anything.

In a few years I will find out if I am right about this.;)

I wouldn't be real concerned about aluminum being too soft for shims; Grizzly recommends masking tape.

Paper would be better then aluminum but steel is still the best.
If you took a 2 inch thick slab of unheated aluminum and put it in a rolling mill you can roll it down to just about nothing. If you take an unheated block of steel in the same rolling mill with the same pressure nothing will happen to it.
You can use just about anything for a shim, but still the best is hardened steel.

[glenn bradley]

Is it really just two bolts per wing? I would expect at least three. My hybrid has four. At any rate, I snug the wing and use a rubber mallet to get one end of the top surface flush for a few inches. I then tighten that bolt a bit and move along. I may have to go through this a couple times. Cast iron is much more flexible than you think and can be persuaded without much effort.

I do take care of leveling first and use the foil tape designed for HVAC as it stays put. Juggling the wing is bad enough without trying to keep loose shim material in position as well. The foil tape adjustments have held for over two years without a problem.

[Matt Ellis]

now that you mention, there are 3 bolts...2 connect the fence rail to the front/back of the table. i'll try whacking it with a rubber mallet when i get home. to be honest, i had thought of this, but i don't want to mar my pretty new table top!

-matt

[Mike Marcade]

I would not use aluminum for a shim, it is very soft and will flatten out over time. I keep my old feeler gauges just for that type of thing, and it is nice that they have the thickness right on them so you known just what you are putting in for a shim.
You can also buy shim stock that is made to be used for shims or you can find cheap feeler gauges for around $4 that are very handy to have for shims.

I just did a FEA calculation for an example 6061 aluminum shim 1" long X .5" tall X .005" thick. I loaded the example shim with 10,000 p.s.i. The shim will only thin around .00001" under these constraints.

In summation, I wouldn't be too worried about using pieces of aluminum as shims. :D

[alex grams]

Slow day at the office, Mike?

[Mike Golka]

I used 2 pieces of 2"x2"x1/4" angle iron clamped accross the table and wing to get things realy close before snuging things up before the final hammer adjustments. Any stiff piece of wood should work as well.

Mike

[Rob Blaustein]

Matt-welcome, and congrats on the new arrival and on the impending new arrival. Yes, 3 bolts, as you saw, and yes, it is a bit of a pain to do yourself cause the wings are pretty heavy. But it is doable. I found it easier to move a table over to right near the saw, and stacked some books so that with the wing resting on it, it was about level with the saw's table. Here's what I did (same saw BTW):
attach the bolts, tighten just enough hold the wing in place
use a rubber mallet, or a hammer on a block of wood, to gently knock the wing near the wing/table junction so that the wing and table are flush.
then check using a straight edge (or the straightest thing you have) for how level the wing is compared to the table.
if not level apply masking tape or blue painter's tape (what I used), or whatever else is handy to either the bottom part of the table edge to prop up the end of the wing, or on the top part of the edge to push it down. What's tricky here is you will need to take the wing off to do this, or loosen the bolts but have the table supported.
after applying your shim, re-tighten and re-check. You may need to apply more tape and do it all again. A bit of pain, but you will likely only need to do it once.

[Mike Marcade]

Slow day at the office, Mike?

heh heh :D:D:D Don't tell my boss.

[Wade Lippman]

I just did a FEA calculation for an example 6061 aluminum shim 1" long X .5" tall X .005" thick. I loaded the example shim with 10,000 p.s.i. The shim will only thin around .00001" under these constraints.

In summation, I wouldn't be too worried about using pieces of aluminum as shims. :D

It really didn't need a calculation; a very thin aluminum wire will hold quite a bit a weight without doing anything, so it stands to reason it would be impossible to compress it significantly.

[Bob Feeser]

I went through a lot of frustration when trying to get my cast iron wings level with the top, then arrived at what I truly believe is the ultimate answer. I used aluminum foil. Say what? :)
I loosened the 3 bolts that hold on the extension, folded aluminum foil over 4 times to get an 8 thickness piece. Then I cut it with a pair of scissors, the width equal to the distance between the attaching bolt, and a little less than the top edge of the table. (About a 1/4 inch) Then placed this shim, one on each bolt, then while holding the extension to adjust the height alignment, tightened them down. I remeasured, and then made an adjustment to how many folds/ thicknesses of aluminum foil I used. (You can get some pretty fine adjusting done, considering you are dealing with single layers of aluminum foil)
What is important to realize is that taking a flat extension wing, and grinding the mating surface to a perfect 90 requires an incredible amount of precision. The problem being that even a tiny amount of off angle, and I won't break out some kind of thousandths designation, equals a lot of variation by the time you get it out to the end of the extension wing.
So for the sake of example, a 1 thousandth variation along the seam, can equal 20 thousandths by the time you measure it to the outside edge.
That is why aluminum foil is great for the purpose. I adjusted mine that way in 2004 and it is still dead on. I think, as was mentioned earlier in this post, that if you use softer metal, and although not as soft as lead, aluminum falls in that category, I could see how any kind of thickness, as in a the thickness of a rod, could have a squashing concern. But, at the thickness of the aluminum foil, it seems to work just fine. My table is now ridiculously flat, and I started at .020 out.
Another cool thing is that the seam that I used the aluminum foil shim in is still so tight, I can not get even the tip of a new razor blade to make a dent in it. Like I said, just a tiny bit in the seam, makes a big difference by the time you get to the edge. That is why so many of them are off.