Shopsmith Forums

Re: the 45 corners. Do you have a 'combination' square? That is yer 'reference', not the table indicator.

Another possible gremlin, is the miter gauge square?

Dusty 'discovered' a quick(and likely reasonably accurate) way to check table alignment. Rotate the table to its 90 degree position, lower the table until it touches the way tubes. The table should contact both way tubes simultaneously. If not, loosening the table mounting screws and allowing the table to rest on the way tubes will rough in the alignment(tighten the screws).

The saw blade tooth/miter gauge/wrench or rod will be the way to fine tune it.

This alignment must be done first as all that follows depends upon it.

The fence should be parallel to the miter gauge slot.

The miter gauge should be square the the slot. All three miter gauge stops need to be set.

The table tilt stops as well.

A combination square makes these adjustments possible(there are other ways).


Unless ALL these adjustments are done correctly(alignment is good), no end of frustrating outcomes will occur.

Satisfaction comes when a cut is made and the blade tracks right against a layout line(Line must be accurate also;)).

I agree totally that proper alignment is the most important ingredient. I also enjoyed the posting of the current special in this post. Another tool I invested in that has made 45 or for that matter any special degree cut really simple is the Shopsmith/Incra miter-sled. I use mine often and have never had it fail me. I have included a link below. Jim

http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/cata ... ersled.htm

Okay, just got a response back about the table. here is my uncles response.

"Top is about 35x19. Stone tile is 12x12. Top frame is about 1" thick. The base is about 34 inches high. I did not work from a plan, but I built a cardboard mockup to get approximate dimensions. Tools used were a cabinet saw, jointer, planer, mortiser, drill press, router, Festool domino, and various hand planes."

Again, I never knew that he was into woodworking, so I was really surprised. Now I have someone I can hopefully share some woodworking info with.

Nathan

stickthrower wrote:Okay, just got a response back about the table. here is my uncles response.

"Top is about 35x19. Stone tile is 12x12. Top frame is about 1" thick. The base is about 34 inches high. I did not work from a plan, but I built a cardboard mockup to get approximate dimensions. Tools used were a cabinet saw, jointer, planer, mortiser, drill press, router, Festool domino, and various hand planes."

Again, I never knew that he was into woodworking, so I was really surprised. Now I have someone I can hopefully share some woodworking info with.

Nathan

If ya make this, measure the '12 x 12' tiles first including the 'nubs'.

Alignment is, in my opinion, the most important single activity you can engage in to improve your Mark V wood working experience. The Mark V, because of its multi function characteristics, is a complex machine. It is easy to use, easy to learn and easy to align but the user must understand the interactions of everything that is adjustable.

The pay off has been, for me at least, that once done completely and correctly these adjustments hold well. Even moving the Mark V around the shop does not adversely effect them. This has not always been my opinion but I now believe that.

Kickbacks and binding are both byproducts of improper alignment. If you experience either, it is time to get out you tools and perform a detailed alignment.

JPG- No, I don't have a combination square. looks like I have another tool to pick up. I was trying to work from tilting the table 45 degrees. The cut I was making was to make the corner of the box. But was having miserable luck.

i have been using my SS primarily for lathe work, but I need to change it back over to do cuts, so I will do the alignment check on the table when I swap it out.

Who wants to break the news to the wife for me that I need to go spend some more money!

Thanks Dusty JPG and Gdale!

Nathan

stickthrower wrote:JPG- No, I don't have a combination square. looks like I have another tool to pick up. I was trying to work from tilting the table 45 degrees. The cut I was making was to make the corner of the box. But was having miserable luck.

i have been using my SS primarily for lathe work, but I need to change it back over to do cuts, so I will do the alignment check on the table when I swap it out.

Who wants to break the news to the wife for me that I need to go spend some more money!

Thanks Dusty JPG and Gdale!

Nathan

There is a lesson to learn here. The cost of the combination square (and most other tools) are best justified as "items needed to complete her project". In this case the side table.

dusty wrote:There is a lesson to learn here. The cost of the combination square (and most other tools) are best justified as "items needed to complete her project". In this case the side table.

That is how I 'justified' a RAS(I already had the SS).

Needed it to cut rafters with compound cuts for a hip roof.

Methinks a 'skill saw' would have worked as well(maybe better) Shhhh!

A combination square is not too expensive(unless it says 'Starrett' on the side).

You only need the one slide(90/45).

BTW What do you use to check 'squareness'?

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.

When I got my used Shopsmith, it came complete with an official owner/operator manual in a three ring binder. This binder has all the alignment procedures that I will ever need. I have watched a lot of Nick Engler Videos on the SS alignment procedures in the Saw Dust Sessions. The videos just go through what the manual already covers.

With that being said, I like SS dial indicator. When I was in China, I bought one at a tool market, and I should have just gotten one from Shopsmith. It is a great price, and has all the fittings that I had to make, or are missing. It is a confidence builder to say "My blade is aligned within 2 thousandths." The manual shows a method using the long allen wrench secured to the miter gage.

Now, I like reading directions, but I hate manufacturers that write one general manual for all of there products, then demand that I sift through unnecessary information to get the applicable information that applies to my product.

Whereas Stihl is pretty bad about this My Shopsmith manual from the 1990's is outstanding. I think they have a few too many warnings and cautions, but my Mark V 520 does not have a single reference to the 500 or the 510 table. I have a parts diagram for the 520 table, and 520 fence, but no diagrams for the other non-applicable models. (Praise the Lord)

Shopsmith will sell you a new manual for $29.99. I suppose one could be found on line cheaper, but that 30 bucks is money I would spend in a heart beat.