Art Davis
07-09-2008, 12:25 PM
I have a Delta contractor's saw and am trying to align it.
Problem 1: The standard ww mag/ts book instructions tell me to first align the blade to the miter slot as follows: chalk a tooth at the input side of the blade, set my dial micrometer to zero, rotate the blade until the chalked tooth is at the output side, and then use my micrometer to read the variation.
The problem here is that if I move the contact on my dial micrometer around on the tooth (yes, I am measuring the carbide tooth portion) I get several thousandths variation. I am using a WWII blade, so I don't think it is a quality of blade issue. The teeth look clean, so I don't think it is due to residue buildup. Anyway, this means that I can get a very imprecise reading when I do the actual measurement by not being able to reposition the micrometer to EXACTLY the same spot.
What do you guys do to solve this problem?
I get a consistent reading when I use the flat of the blade, rather than a tooth, but it is hard to get a reading all the way across because the expansion slots on the blade cause "glitches" in the reading.
Problem 2: This one concerns the fence, which is a Biesemeyer. When I mike along the fence, it starts by going away from the miter slot, then comes nearer! In other words, I don't have a consistent trend away or toward the miter slot. I guess this means my fence is warped? This isn't trivial, maybe seven or eight thousandths.
I have seen folks talk a lot on this forum and others about setting the fence one or two-thousandths further away at the back of the blade than at the front to reduce the danger of kickback, but honestly I can't really get to anywhere near that kind of accuracy.
Probably I am doing something drastically wrong, but until I can align my saw I will never get the kind of accuracy needed for me to advance my ww skills.
Can anyone help?
Thanks.
Art
Problem 1: The standard ww mag/ts book instructions tell me to first align the blade to the miter slot as follows: chalk a tooth at the input side of the blade, set my dial micrometer to zero, rotate the blade until the chalked tooth is at the output side, and then use my micrometer to read the variation.
The problem here is that if I move the contact on my dial micrometer around on the tooth (yes, I am measuring the carbide tooth portion) I get several thousandths variation. I am using a WWII blade, so I don't think it is a quality of blade issue. The teeth look clean, so I don't think it is due to residue buildup. Anyway, this means that I can get a very imprecise reading when I do the actual measurement by not being able to reposition the micrometer to EXACTLY the same spot.
What do you guys do to solve this problem?
I get a consistent reading when I use the flat of the blade, rather than a tooth, but it is hard to get a reading all the way across because the expansion slots on the blade cause "glitches" in the reading.
Problem 2: This one concerns the fence, which is a Biesemeyer. When I mike along the fence, it starts by going away from the miter slot, then comes nearer! In other words, I don't have a consistent trend away or toward the miter slot. I guess this means my fence is warped? This isn't trivial, maybe seven or eight thousandths.
I have seen folks talk a lot on this forum and others about setting the fence one or two-thousandths further away at the back of the blade than at the front to reduce the danger of kickback, but honestly I can't really get to anywhere near that kind of accuracy.
Probably I am doing something drastically wrong, but until I can align my saw I will never get the kind of accuracy needed for me to advance my ww skills.
Can anyone help?
Thanks.
Art