Shopsmith Forums

JPG40504 wrote:Excellent 'check'! However methinks you need to adjust the table half the way to 'aligning' to the back of the blade.

This indicates the squareness of the miter gauge face to the blade. For table/fence aligning, it would only be valid if the miter gauge is correct.

Keep in mind all these things interact - table/trunion/miter gauge slot, blade/table, slot/miter gauge.

When 'aligning', keep the adjustments to only two things(do not 'depend' upon something not DIRECTLY affecting the adjustment). That being said, it is 'handy' to use something 'square' as an indicator such as square or miter gauge, but recognize if they ain't square, ya ain't gonna get the result you are seeking.

Pictures please. I am not following your logic.

dusty wrote:Pictures please. I am not following your logic.

Later or Tomorrow!

To illustrate the "half' adjustment, set the miter gauge off by say 5 °. Make that first cut. Flip the workpiece, align the blade to the cut by readjusting the miter gauge. When you do the miter gauge will be set 5° the OTHER side of 90°. Hence the proper amount of 'adjusting' is half the initial 'error'.

Do I need to 'illustrate' the only two dependency topic?

No need for pictures, JPG. I went back and read the thread very carefully and come to realize that we are discussing two or three different bandsaw alignment issues and I was not making the distinction.

The initial discussion is, IMO, a discussion about band saw drift. This is a characteristic brought about by the blade and will likely change when the blade is changed.

Then there was a discussion that seemed to me to be a table tilt issue. Your trick works here wa2crk.

Then there was a discussion regarding the physical alignment of the table to the blade (squaring the table to the blade) which I see as more work than it is worth. I use the bandsaw mostly to free hand cuts or to resaw.

Then the last discussion involving the miter gauge.

mjjnorman, do you have your bandsaw assembled and aligned now so that it works for you?

dusty wrote:No need for pictures, JPG. I went back and read the thread very carefully and come to realize that we are discussing two or three different bandsaw alignment issues and I was not making the distinction.

The initial discussion is, IMO, a discussion about band saw drift. This is a characteristic brought about by the blade and will likely change when the blade is changed.

Then there was a discussion that seemed to me to be a table tilt issue. Your trick works here wa2crk.

Then there was a discussion regarding the physical alignment of the table to the blade (squaring the table to the blade) which I see as more work than it is worth. I use the bandsaw mostly to free hand cuts or to resaw.

Then the last discussion involving the miter gauge.

mjjnorman, do you have your bandsaw assembled and aligned now so that it works for you?

I believe you are correct re more than one axis of perpendicularity.

This thread began as a 'blade drift' subject. It is my opinion that the drift can be affected by table/blade alignment as well as blade idiosyncracies.

You have pointed out that WA2CRK's procedure was relevent to table tilt, not blade to table rotation. The third axis is determined by the wheel tilt.

I was thinking of it as a table/rotation check.

Reconsidering it as a tilt check, the procedure is to not only flip end to end, but to also rotate 180° so as to place the cut against the back side of the blade. This also indicates twice the amount of adjustment needed to correct(same geometry).

It has been my (limited) experience that blade drift is minimized when all the other things are properly aligned! This means if not properly aligned, blade drift is 'enhanced'!

My additional discussion re independent dependencies are 'exampled' below.

The Fence to miter gauge slot is adjusted by moving the fence relative to its mounting. However the rail to miter slot angle is an independant thing that can affect the adjustment. Both should be set correctly, by setting the rail to slot first!

The blade to table slot(NOT tilt) can be affected by either the miter gauge or the accuracy of the square or both. Thus when utilizing either or both of them, if they are not accurate, the results will be inaccurate. The square can be off not only in the tongue/body angle, but also the angle across the end.

BTW, The method for checking 90° miter gauge angle on table saw also works as well on the band saw. i.e. Cut a wide board through and flip one half over and butt the just cut ends together. This places the top of one half facing up and the other half with the bottom facing up. If the cut is 90°, then the sides will be straight. If not, the angle formed is 2x what the angular error is.