True. And the blade can only touch the wood over whatever length is engaged. So a couple thou', regardless of what the travel is. You set your crosscut fence to that, and parallel guides if you have them.
As a perfect example of the effect, consider a sliding table on a router table. Makes no difference what direction it's pointing if it only engages line contact, vertical, with a round cutter.
On the table saw, you'd get a cove shape to the cut if you ran it at an angle. But it would be straight along the length of travel. Of course, a thru cut would be a problem with the blade getting bound up in there. And that's what you're trying to avoid by aligning the table to the blade.
A dead straight edge on the table will read zero on the indicator no matter what the angle of travel is. You want it referenced to the blade.
An extreme example. Your indicator will tell you that's 'straight'.table_align.JPG
What you need to do is this:t_align_2.JPG
The indicator goes on the sliding table.
More.
Sorry ;-)
This is the opposite of a conventional saw. Conventional, you have to align the blade to the miter gauge slot. Unless you have the ability to put your finger in it and pull it over like Popeye moving a knothole so he could see the construction project ;-)
The sliding saw, in effect, has a moveable 'miter gauge slot'. Both the table and the fence get set off the blade.