stickthrower wrote:JPG- when doing square/straight cuts, I have been squaring up the fence to the blade and the table. I use my tape measure. It is how I would do it before when working on my regular table saw.
Measure the cut, move the fence over, then I would measure the front end from fence to end of table and back to end of table to make sure they were the same, and i would also measure from the front of the blade to the back of the blade to make sure those were the same as well.
i can almost feel a few of you cringing out there.
Cringing? no. Gaining understanding of your 'issues'? Yes.
Just for elucidation, try the following(fence parallel test):
Set the rip fence for ripping, but stop after barely nibbling the work piece. While keeping the edge of the work piece against the fence, move it upward and back to the rear of the fence/blade(turn de saw off first!)
IF the fence IS parallel to the blade, the nibbled kerf will match up to the back of the saw blade.
And this(miter gauge square):
Set the miter gauge to 0. place a work piece against the miter gauge face and mark that edge that abuts the gauge face. Use a wide board at least a foot long.
Cut the work piece completely through at the center. Notice if the blade nibbles the work piece at the rear of the blade. If nibbling occurs, the miter gauge slots are not parallel to the blade. This applies to both miter gauge slots so try it on both sides.
Now take those two halves of the workpiece just cut, set them 'on end'(the ends just cut) with the marked edges adjacent. IF the gauge IS square, the marked edges will be parallel.
Twould be interesting to perform the same 'tests' on yer TS.