Dial indicator

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a1gutterman
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Post by a1gutterman »

keakap wrote:...

[Trivia Quiz: whence the spoken phrase "Dirty Ernie hates clams." ?] :)
Is this what you are asking about?
Tim

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keakap
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Post by keakap »

a1gutterman wrote:Is this what you are asking about?
Nope. But I would bet my ShopSmith that the reference there is to the one to which I refer.

It goes 'way back. I'm guessing '60s.
Mark V 520, Power-Pro!; Speed Reducer; B/S; Jointer; ShopMate DCS; SS Tenon Master; Rip-Strate; Incra; BCTW; DW734; var. SS sanding systems; Wood River;
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JPG
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Post by JPG »

keakap wrote:Nope. But I would bet my ShopSmith that the reference there is to the one to which I refer.

It goes 'way back. I'm guessing '60s.
FWIW (0) I do not recall ever hearing that 'expression'.:confused:
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keakap
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Post by keakap »

An olde episode of Dragnet.
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heathicus
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Post by heathicus »

After my kickback incident a few days ago, I decided to re-check everything on my table saw (an old Craftsman). Not that I think that had anything whatsoever to do with my kickback, but I just felt like I should do it.

On my previous calibration, I took it for granted that the two miter slots would be parallel with each other, but I found out they are not. With the blade dead on parallel with the right miter slot, the left miter slot was out of alignment with the blade by almost .01". I thought it must be user error, but I used different points on the blade, reconfigured how the dial indicator was attached to the miter gauge, pushed the miter bar to either side of the miter slot to try to eliminate the slop there, etc. Every measurement came out the same.

Another thing I discovered was that my fence has a slight bow in it. Not much - maybe within .007" IIRC. I added a 3/4" thick MDF auxiliary fence to the side facing the blade (the fence will only mount to the right of the blade on this model table saw) using bolts through the pre-drilled holes in the fence. By adjusting the tension of the bolts, I was able to eliminate that bow. I plan on adding another piece of MDF to the other side of the fence for added stability, but didn't have long enough bolts on hand at the time.

Without the dial indicator, I would not have known that the miter slots were not parallel and might not have known about the bow in the fence. I'm certain some of you with your knowledge and experience would have would have found that out without the dial indicator, but it's the tool that worked for me.
Heath
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dusty
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Dial Indicator

Post by dusty »

Heath, I am pleased to hear that there has been some good come out of all of this.

Hopefully one of those miter slots is parallel to the blade when the saw has been tuned and also parallel to the rip fence.

Parallelism to within .007" is "close enough" for some but I consider that a bit on the "sloppy" side. That is about the thickness of two crisp dollar bills which is not all that much - most of the time but when appearance of a joint is important it is "huge".

I don't think that is enough to create a bind when ripping but I don't know and am unwilling to perform any tests to determine how much it would need to be to kickback.
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