ZCI, by leescraft, question

[Jason Scott]

Hey guys,

So I got my ZCI today, it is the leescraft for the 64A ts, and everything went fine with running the kerf in...Question I have, is the blade now makes a lot of noise, like it is just barely, I mean barley touching it...This very well could be a "yeah duh" question, but I thought that once you ran the kerf through the insert it was just as quiet as it was without the insert, am I mistaken on this? I guess I am worried maybe my sawblade is warped or the zci is vibrating or something in there, but it doesn't look like it...Please let me know...Thanks,

Jason

[James Hart]

Jason,

I posted this same question here a couple of months back and got some great advice. Several people responded with things that all probably would have fixed this.

The one I tried first, putting layers of duct tape on the back of the ZCI to dampen the high pitched vibrations, worked like a charm.

Try a search on ZCI if you'd like to see the previous thread.

Jim

[Jason Scott]

James, thanks man! So the noise is normal then unless you fix it?

Thanks again,

Jason

[John Thompson]

I may be the odd man out here Jason, but I approach it a little different. I have the Leecraft and it is probably the finest insert I have ever used. But... I find all inserts I have tried to make the noise and came to a conclussion years ago.

You have let the blade cut a path in an insert when you raise it. Great.. but do you have .000 (zero) run out with your arbor? Probably not I would guess. So... the blade will scrape the side of the insert with run-out and it is worse after you hit the kill switch and it starts the slow down.

I am not overly happy with sharp carbide teeth riding phenolic. Try cutting phenolic with a router straight bit and watch it smoke. It is very dense and hard and not something I want to do every time I turn my TS on.

So.. I trim off about 1-1/2 mm on each side of the blade to avoid that situation. Yep.. at that point you don't have true zero clearance.. but you don't have expensive carbide teeth riding a phenolic plate at any point begging to be dulled sooner than they will be cutting stock.

Good luck...

Sarge..

[Mike Marcade]

One thing I noticed on mine is that if the screw in the side of the insert is not adjust just right, it will put the blade in a bind. I usually don't make the insert so tight in its recess because the blade has some left to right movement as you adjust the height (at least on my fairly cheap contractors saw) with the screw loose it lets the insert center on the blade.