General 650 setup help needed (table/riving knife).

[Clisby Clark]

Initial setup questions:

Any tips on aligning the riving knife? I can get it square, but it's nowhere near centered over the blade. When I get it centered on the blade it's not square. I'm trying to follow the directions included, but not having much luck.

How do I attach the tabletop? No instructions whatsoever. I've got the legs attched to the rails but I can't figure out how to attach the top? I could notch the plywood "apron" to fit over the leg bracket but the top would still need to be counterbored from the bottom to allow the top to be parallel with the cast iron top.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[John Ricci]

Clisby, congrats on the new saw:cool:. Shall we start with the table? You got no instructions at all with the saw? The table instructions are in the box that the fence came in and you would find them on page 9 if you have them. The legs mount on the inside of the table apron. You have to clamp the table in place and when you have it flush with the saw top, you drill though the holes in the fence rails and the table apron to locate the legs so the table ends up sandwiched between the legs and the rail. Here is a link to the pdf manual for the fence/table...

http://www.general.ca/manuel/F42T50-AN.pdf

J.R.

[Clisby Clark]

I got no instructions for the fence at all. I also did not get the square jig for setting the rail. The saw looks great, I can't wait to use it. Any advise on the knife? Thanks

[John Ricci]

The link to the fence manual shows the distance from the top of the saw table to the top of the rail (2 27/32") so the jig they supply isn't absolutely essential. When I took delivery of my 650R they sent me a 650 manual with an additional page covering the riving knife. I found a more complete manual for the 650R here...

http://www.general.ca/manuel/650R-T50_EN.pdf

See if that helps a bit.

Can you post any pics of how the riving knife is set up right now? It cold make things a bit clearer as to what is wrong.

J.R.

[Clisby Clark]

I did get that manual with the saw. I used a combination square for the rail so no big deal on the jig. When I first checked the knife it was not square to the table so I started adjusting the allen screws until I got it square. When it was square, I noticed the top of the knife was almost 1/8 inch to the left of the center of the blade. I fixed that and it's not square again. I tried using the straightedge like they suggest and I'm not really close. Shouldn't the knife be narrower than the blade? According to the picture in the manual, measuring the gap at the blade implies that the knife is wider than the blade. Coincidently, while Christmas shopping today, I picked up FWW's Tools and Shops which rates the adjustment on this kinife as very good. Unless I'm just unlucky or not good with machines, I'm not seeing it. Thanks for your help.

[David Eisan]

Did you open the fence body box? That is where the fence manual is, along with the hockey stick.

David.

[Clisby Clark]

The bag w/hockey stick was taped to the back of a packing baffle that was thrown to a corner of the shop. After reading other posts about how much a PITA the riving knife adjustments are, I tinkered with the knife yesterday until I got it to the point where I think it will work. Thanks