Help with powermatic 66 tilt mechanism

[Gary Sostrin]

I noticed my pm 66 was not cutting exactly square. I almost followed what the manual showed see attached. I put the square to the right of the blade and not the left. Move the 0 deg stop alot by adjusting the stop screw and didnt reduce the slight angle gap between the square and the blade. Then look at the manual and put the square on the left side and it showed no gap. Any suggestions.

[David Buchhauser]

Hi Gary,
I would think that if the saw blade is adjusted square to the table (90 degrees as measured with a square) then it should not matter which side of the blade you put the square to do the measurement. I would be concerned that maybe the blade insert is not flush with the surrounding table surface. Perhaps it is either too low or too high (with respect to the table surface) and is causing your square to tilt slightly such that the bottom edge of the square is not actually parallel to the table surface. You might try removing the blade insert and using a larger square to do the measurement, so the you know that the bottom edge of the square is actually resting flush with the table surface.
David

[Robert Hazelwood]

Agree with David, something funny is going on with the table surface and its probably due to the insert. The cast aluminum inserts often aren't flat and so can't be adjusted to be perfectly flush with the table. In practice you'll set it so it doesn't stick up and snag anything, but then there will be low spots that the square might be referencing on. So try removing the insert and referencing the square directly on the table. Another possibility is that your square isn't square- if that's the case then you will never get the same reading on both sides of the blade even if the table surface is perfect. A final possibility is that the table isn't very flat.

The final check should be to do test cuts. To test the right side, rip a nice flat piece of wood or plywood and check the edge for square. To test the left side, use a miter gauge or sled to crosscut a flat piece of wood, and then place the cut ends together with the reference edge facing down on the table. If there is any gap between the cut ends, that represents twice your error from square.