If it works - don't fix it!

[dusty]

I'm not going to finish this entire story now because I am too darn frustrated. I got to fooling around with the dual carriage configuration and decided that I could improve on the alignment figures.

The miter tracks were out of parallel, from one table to the other by about a 1/16" (there abouts).

Somehow I came to the conclusion that I needed to tweek the main table. The main table has been dead on since I finished a tuneup going into my late fall rush period. There was nothing wrong, repeat nothing, with the main table setups.

There is now and I am ticked. The more I try the worse it gets. I've quit until after Christmas.

If it works - don't fix it!

[a1gutterman]

I am truly sorry to hear of your misfortune:( . Regrettably, I have experienced similar situations. Even when something is good, sometimes we feel like we can make it better, and can be wrong:o .

[charlese]

Aahh Shucks, Dusty! Sometimes things just don't go right. To share in your misery, I'll share this - at home there is a cracked water line that brings water into our house. At least I didn't do it - the cold nights did. But discovered it when I turned off the water, before leaving home. Have to fix that as soon as we get back. I'll be digging in the mud! This message brought to you from Apache Junction, AZ. As you know it's cold here too!

[Ed in Tampa]

Dusty
That is how I get every time I decide to take the dial indicator to my Shopsmith. I can't tell the times I have screwed up a perfectly adjusted machine messing with the tool.

Like I said had to finally take a solemn oath to myself never and I repeat never to set the dial indicator anywhere near my machine.

You guys get to talking about how you have your machine within .000001" of perfect and I decide if you can I can too. I go out there and check and find I"m .001" off so decide just to loosen this one little nut just to tweak it that little tiny bit and before I know it I have the my machine half in pieces wondering why I ever touched it.

The funny thing is I have done this at least five times in the last year, and each time I have to stop, walk away, calm down, tell myself how stupid I was to trying to adjust perfection into something that only cuts wood that could care if it is .001" off and after a day or two I go out get my Shopsmith manual plus the procedure Nick wrote on main table alignment and I get it back in shape. Tighten everything down, make a test cut, declare it doesn't get any better than this and my world is right again.

Then I read how somebody adjusted his Shopsmith to perfection and out I go and start the whole mess over again.

Dusty it is a disease!

It's called "Icanmakeitbetter". I'm convinced that dial indicators around woodworking machines react creating a disease that attacks the rational thinking of the SS owner. He then immediately loosens a bolt and before long is crying that he just screwed up a perfectly adjusted SS once more. Antidote for the disease, long walks and talking to the yourself repeating the words I will never do this again.
Prevention of the disease. Don't bring dial indicators into close proximity of woodworking machines.
Ed

[jimthej]

One of the things I found out the hard way was to follow the instructions Rick gave at the Traveling Academy:
When adjusting the table to bring the miter gauge slots parallel to the blade was to loosen all 4 bolts that hold the trunion to the table, but leave them snug so movement is difficult. Then leave one more snug than the rest and use it for a pivot. Took me a couple of tries to realize that I needed to not just leave any random bolt. I needed to leave the tightest one to be the corner where the table is closest to correct.

Dusty
That is how I get every time I decide to take the dial indicator to my Shopsmith. I can't tell the times I have screwed up a perfectly adjusted machine messing with the tool.

L
Ed

[nuhobby]

Hi All,

A few months ago I got my 510 main carriage table aligned "just so" and it's been fine ever since. I used the miter-extension 1/4"-diameter bar for setting the table square to the saw-blade. Later on, I even put the 1/4"-dia. bar in the drill-chuck and made sure it would pass all the way through the miter-gage holes as it sat in the table slot. That was a nice warm feeling, however accurate or not it might be.

A couple days ago I realized I really should get the post-mounted extension table to be coplanar with the main table. It didn't take long but I could see myself (obsessively) revisiting this every few months.

There did seem to be a side benefit today. I seldom use the extension table for large table-sawing jobs, but I had used it with the disc-sander Sharpening guide. Lo and behold, after the table was adjusted more level, I was getting better-situated facets on my lathe chisels that I was sharpening this morning.

Now, as the other posting reminds us, there is more to Christmas than nice tools and hyper-analyzing... but nonetheless I enjoy hearing all your tales.

Best Regards,

[eldyfig]

dang nap it!

Now when I get off work, I am going to have to go out to the workshop and see how parallel my miter slots run to the blade. Good thing I don't use a dial indicator though. Just a scale that reads to 64ths and a square for me.

What I get from all this though is there is comfort in the fact that when you have something going not the way you want it...there are plenty of others who have gone through the same thing. I though perfectionism was a disease. I see some light now.

Tony

[mtobey]

This is as good a thread for my accuracy comments as any. I do need two thousandths accuracy from my machine. I have found it easy to get that on my 1983 SS 500. I have probably half a dozen DI's around here. I sometimes have the same battles with them. So, for my slots/table to blade set up I used a 4" standard from my Starrett micrometer. Along with it are some 1-2-3 blocks-what I did told me about my miter slots and about my quill- the quill extension and return are quite consistent.( in all of this, I am dealing with inherent runout in the blade- this Freud glue line only has about .002 runout)which is very good. Having that little tweak is a testament to the blade arbors. The quill is crucial to using fixed references and feeler guages.I put an accessory miter bar on edge at the right side of the slot- set a 1-2-3 against it, added the standard to it and set the quill to touch. I picked a tooth, marked it and then just slid to front and back of the blade anduse feeler gauges. I did the one bolt pivot deal and I think I have about .0025. error,max.

I mention all of this because I needed very precise cuts for thickness on the wood infills on this prototype plane. I fastened a 3/4" BB face to my rip fence, then did a buried cut with the teeth flush. By carefully using the quill, I can use the TS configuration like a jointer. I actually get controlled cuts to consistent .002.

After all of this, I am hesitant to install the two bearing quill I bought.mt

[eldyfig]

Just checked. Seems my miter slots are off by a little hair. I am gonna have to line it up soon enough. Probably the same day I do maintenance on my DC

[dusty]

This seems like a pretty good philosophy - If I could just learn to abide by it.

Before I took off to cold country, I tried to tweek my main table even though it didn't need tweeking. What I ended up doing was completely tearing down the system and rebuilding with pains-taking realignment at each and every step.

When I got all done with that process, the alignment was no better than when I began the tear down.

To make this story a bit easier to read I'm going to abbreviate.

Everything is back where I want it to be. Alignment is as close as I have ever had it. The dial gauge even indicates the same condition. Incidently, I did not use the dial gauge to make the alignments.

What I did to alleviate the problem that caused all this grief was "change out the blade and arbor". Don't ask me why but with the new blade and arbor everything is right on. I have put back the original blade and arbor no less than three times to reaffirm the before and after results.

The original blade and arbor result in unsquare cross cuts (using the same two miter gauges without changing settings). When I put a square against the "defective blade" it checks perfect. Using a feeler gauge between the square and the blade, I find .003"-005" gap. The gap is no better with the "good blade/arbor". Yet one blade cuts square and the other does not.

I am at a lose to explain what I know has happened.

All of this started because I had incorporated a 2nd carriage and table into my setup. In other words, I have two adjustable tables; one on either side of the headstock. It seems to work and I'm going to maintain this configuration until it proves to be more trouble than it is worth.

The only difference in alignment procedures is point of reference. The main table is aligned with reference to the arbor/blade as always. The auxillary table is aligned with reference to the other table. They both work equally well for both ripping and cross cutting. With the miter gauge on the auxillary table, an extended miter fence is a must. The blade is too far away from the gauge, otherwise, to make a safe cut.

My avatar will change soon. The new avatar will be a shot of this "more than adequate" table top on a plain and simple old Shopsmith. A Shopsmith so often falsely accused of being too small.

It's so good to be in warmer country. Montana was cold for Christmas. It's almost 30 degress here this morning.