Double tilt upgrade from my perspective

reible · Post by **reible** » Sun Jul 15, 2012 11:26 pm

One question that has been on my mind was about alignments using the new hardware.

I have an old belt sander with the straight legs and an old jig saw also with straight legs. On my older shopsmith the alignment was done by setting the height via the setscrews on the belt sander, and the adjustment screw on the headrest shoulder. The new double tilt has no adjustment.

My concern was if these old legs don't work then I'm most likely looking at replacing them with the off-set versions. That is an additional to be added in to the equation.

I am now in a position to be able to test this. I have mounted the belt sander and found the shafts to be pretty close and perhaps even usable. The only adjustment I had was the height so I raised the sander on the legs by about 1/16". This then had them matched in that direction, the side to side is slightly off by maybe a 1/32" or even less. This is well within the required adjustment. Good news!

This of course means that it might not fit right on the other machines, that will be tested another day. I do have the option of maladjustment for all cases if it stays to say with the 1/32".

For now I'm satisfied with those results.

Within the next few days I will test the jig saw to see if I get similar results.

I have also done a realignment of an extension table from scratch, it was mounted to the right. I move it to the left side and well I'm almost afraid to do the testing. I have round bar that I use for this but it is hidden from view at this point so results will be coming in a few day.

One other thing that never occurred to me, mostly cause that is not how I do things but I know some of you like to leave say the jointer/bandsaw on the left side on a semi permanent bases.... that will NOT work with the double tilt if you want to go to say the drill press mode. Even when I saw this at a show it did not occur to me until I had hands on. So if this is important to you then this upgrade may not be for you.

Ed

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Sun Jul 15, 2012 11:50 pm

The method I would use to align the SPT shafts to the headstock shaft would be to rotate the end casting on the bench tubes. With the double tilt, the way tubes would also need to be loose when doing that.

The jointer itself can be adjusted to align with the idler shaft(which varies with belt tensioning) front to rear.

The eccentric mounting tubes provide another means of shaft alignment.

reible · Post by **reible** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 8:50 pm

A little later in the week then I expected, too many hot days to be doing too much.

My next test was the old jig saw. The height was just a little off but within the capture range. I could fix this but it is really not worth the effort for such a small change. This is not the case for the horizontal offset, at least an 1/8" off. I have no way of adjusting this. The old jig saw has straight legs and they are tall. Off hand I can't think of another SPT I could steal the legs off of to get a set of offset ones.... Have to think some more about this.

Now the news that some of you have been waiting for. I have aligned one of my extension tables to the right side. This time it was off by .002" which is well within my tolerance.

I did this from ground up as they say, the extension table was the one that I had in place with my episode of bending one of my 5 foot tubes happened. Not only was the tube bent but the front rail on the extension table was also taken out of alignment. I checked and at least nothing was bent on the table.

Moving the extension table to the left end as never worked out well for me to the extent I purchased a second extension table for both of my 520's which I assigned to be left tables.

Today I got back to my testing and measure the blade tip to rip fence on the left side. I was shocked to find it at .002"! The two vary by which direction the off set is which makes total since.

After my elation I had this nagging feeling I might be missing something. Just to be sure that nothing had transpired over the last few days I moved the extension table back to the right side to see what it was reading. Wow, .002"!!!! It appears I'm not dreaming.

The next exciting adventure is to take my left only extension table and give that an adjustment to see if it is repeatable.

Hope I can sleep tonight.

Ed

algale · Post by **algale** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 9:21 pm

Sounds good! What test set up did you use to measure the offset when the fence was on the extension table? Obviously a dial indicator but mounted to what and measured from the fence to where?

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 9:58 pm

reible wrote:A little later in the week then I expected, too many hot days to be doing too much.

My next test was the old jig saw. The height was just a little off but within the capture range. I could fix this but it is really not worth the effort for such a small change. This is not the case for the horizontal offset, at least an 1/8" off. I have no way of adjusting this. The old jig saw has straight legs and they are tall. Off hand I can't think of another SPT I could steal the legs off of to get a set of offset ones.... Have to think some more about this.

Now the news that some of you have been waiting for. I have aligned one of my extension tables to the right side. This time it was off by .002" which is well within my tolerance.

I did this from ground up as they say, the extension table was the one that I had in place with my episode of bending one of my 5 foot tubes happened. Not only was the tube bent but the front rail on the extension table was also taken out of alignment. I checked and at least nothing was bent on the table.

Moving the extension table to the left end as never worked out well for me to the extent I purchased a second extension table for both of my 520's which I assigned to be left tables.

Today I got back to my testing and measure the blade tip to rip fence on the left side. I was shocked to find it at .002"! The two vary by which direction the off set is which makes total since.

After my elation I had this nagging feeling I might be missing something. Just to be sure that nothing had transpired over the last few days I moved the extension table back to the right side to see what it was reading. Wow, .002"!!!! It appears I'm not dreaming.

The next exciting adventure is to take my left only extension table and give that an adjustment to see if it is repeatable.

Hope I can sleep tonight.

Ed

Shhhhh! Do not tell Dusty!

IIWM, I would consider that setup a good reference and set ALL spts to it and tweak all other machines to them.

reible · Post by **reible** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 6:19 pm

algale wrote:Sounds good! What test set up did you use to measure the offset when the fence was on the extension table? Obviously a dial indicator but mounted to what and measured from the fence to where?

All measurements are from the tip of a tooth on an Infinity 50 tooth combo blade to the fence. The main table is taken out of the process because for now I am interested only in the extension table mounted to the right for alignment.

I used a framing square against the fence to insure the measurements were at a right angle, ie shortest distance. The finial part of the measurements were done with a feeler gauge. My marking a left tooth and the square and using the marks on both sides of the blade keeps things about as consistence a way of doing this as I know about. With the blade at maximum exposure I think you have about 8" or so between measurement points.

Once the extension table is adjusted I then move to the left side and repeat but finding a left tooth as reference.

I think that about explains it.

Ed

reible · Post by **reible** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 6:43 pm

Today I got out my previous left side extension table. Before I began the adjustments I did a right side test of alignment. This doesn't really prove anything but just for grins I found the table off by .017". Like I said this doesn't really mean anything as that was on the old system. I seem to recall it being off by about .012" so maybe I don't remember so well or the new double tilt add a few fractions to things???

I'll spare you the details except things did not go as smoothly today. All due to dumb things I was doing.

So now I have a second extension table that fits either left or right. I think this is very significant as before I was unable to do this and now to do it twice seems pretty wonderful. At least at this point in my testing I'm impressed with the new double tilt.

Just for the sake of viewing new additions to your shopsmith this seems like a lot of money for this upgrade (I got mine before the big price increase). If you were to go how I did, getting a second extension table that is a pretty good chunk of change too. When I check last they sold for $255.19. When I got my double tilt it was $260.10. (However if you afford it I would go with both additions.)

I have only a couple more short term tests I'm planning on running. I have to say so far so good. How will it do in another 36 years, don't think I'll be around to do a report by then. I will be happy it works out for the 15 years, I might make that.

Ed

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 7:19 pm

reible wrote:Today I got out my previous left side extension table. Before I began the adjustments I did a right side test of alignment. This doesn't really prove anything but just for grins I found the table off by .017". Like I said this doesn't really mean anything as that was on the old system. I seem to recall it being off by about .012" so maybe I don't remember so well or the new double tilt add a few fractions to things???

I'll spare you the details except things did not go as smoothly today. All due to dumb things I was doing.

So now I have a second extension table that fits either left or right. I think this is very significant as before I was unable to do this and now to do it twice seems pretty wonderful. At least at this point in my testing I'm impressed with the new double tilt.

Just for the sake of viewing new additions to your shopsmith this seems like a lot of money for this upgrade (I got mine before the big price increase). If you were to go how I did, getting a second extension table that is a pretty good chunk of change too. When I check last they sold for $255.19. When I got my double tilt it was $260.10. (However if you afford it I would go with both additions.)

I have only a couple more short term tests I'm planning on running. I have to say so far so good. How will it do in another 36 years, don't think I'll be around to do a report by then. I will be happy it works out for the 15 years, I might make that.

Ed

I want to make certain of what you are reporting. Have you just told me that an extension table aligned for one end seems to work reasonably well at the other end.

Meaning that if I was set up with 5' tubes and two extension tables, I could move the rip fence and extension table from one end to the other without sacrificing parallelism of the rip fence to the blade.

algale · Post by **algale** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 7:28 pm

Has anybody else with the double tilt upgrade noticed an improvement in maintaining alignment when moving the extension table from one end to the other?

Also, what is the working theory on why the double-tilt upgrade allows the extension table to align better in either end versus the standard headrest/base arm configuration??

Al

reible · Post by **reible** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 7:59 pm

dusty wrote:I want to make certain of what you are reporting. Have you just told me that an extension table aligned for one end seems to work reasonably well at the other end.

Meaning that if I was set up with 5' tubes and two extension tables, I could move the rip fence and extension table from one end to the other without sacrificing parallelism of the rip fence to the blade.

That is almost what I'm saying.

At this point in the testing I have two extension tables that are within .005" no mater which side of the machine they mount on. Both extension tables were aligned on the right side using the tubes on that side. Now for the testing I removed the tubes. The extension tables are I know for sure going work to the right side as they were adjusted to that side. Early testing on one of the extension tables showed the tubes being capable of fitting to the left but no measurements were taken to see if the tubes caused any problems.

The additional testing I have to do is with the tubes to the left side and then if that works reasonably well I'll go for extension tables with the main table between. If that works then I added a floating table to each side and see what happens. At this time I do not know how far I will get and when. Baby steps at this point.

Ed