Setup and calibration disc for setting up various saws

[Bill Dufour]

Excellent point...

That method assumes the disk is flat and parallel. It is more accurate to use a flat bar and clock it around the arbor several times. That eliminates concerns about flatness and parallelism. Of course the retightening of the arbor nut without a torque wrench would defeat the advantages. To each his own and I am sure decently made flat disk is plenty accurate for wood work.
Bill

[Jim Becker]

Bill, these disks a being discussed re designed specifically for the setup work...

[Mike Kees]

Yeah, but it's easy to do with just a piece of BB plywood. This method was stolen from John White's book "Care and Repair of Shop Machines." Take a piece of 1/2" BB plywood, about 2 inches wide, and ten inches long. Then mark a center line down it's length. Near one end on the center line, bore a hole to match the arbor on your saw. Mount on saw arbor, then in the forward position, mark a spot where your dial indicator (mounted in miter slot) touches it. Then rotate to rear, and check DI against same spot. Once you get this spot "zeroed in," reset plywood to another location, and check again. It should remain the same as before, unless you have arbor run out. You can set arbor for 45 degree bevel,and raise it up, to upper most position, and rest DI tip on flange washer to check run out.

This. John White's book is my go to for machine set up. I too have used the baltic birch rectangle for quite a few years. I thought about the disk idea until I realized I owned about 15 of them. (mine all have carbide teeth attached)

[Bobby Robbinett]

Bill, you're correct that the shape doesn't matter, but it has to be precisely flat for the purposes it would be used, such as aligning the blade plane to the miter slots and then the fence to the blade.

This is not only for aligning tops using a miter slot dial indicator. I plan to use it to setup the fences on our two upcut saws, and the fences on our ras and slider. It’s nice to have a flat point of reference on one side using a long square. If you use a saw blade the square won’t go flat against the blade surface as the carbide teeth get in the way.

[Tom M King]

I use the Master Plate. I bought it at the end of a year when I needed to spend some money on tools, thinking it was a splurge, but I've been glad I have it since then.

[Jim Becker]

This is not only for aligning tops using a miter slot dial indicator. I plan to use it to setup the fences on our two upcut saws, and the fences on our ras and slider. It’s nice to have a flat point of reference on one side using a long square. If you use a saw blade the square won’t go flat against the blade surface as the carbide teeth get in the way.

Yes, I should have indicated I was describing just a few of the many tasks these setup devices are used for.