My dial gauge came last week. It really did make it easier to align the table against the blade. I was using Harbor Freight digital calipers before and it was just subject to too much error of not holding it square between the miter slot and the blade. I had also tried clamping something into the miter gauge and moving it along the miter slot to check alignment, but the dial gauge is just so much easier. That's how I would sum up the dial gauge - yes, you can align without it, but it makes life so much easier.
As far as aligning the rip fence to the miter slot, I found I could could actually do just as good a job by hand (no really!) as with the gauge. I just:
slid the fence so it's flush with the miter slot channel
locked the front
loosened the four adjustment screws
aligned the fence so that if I ran my thumb in the slot against both the slot edge and the fence, I could feel that they were identically flush across the length (one didn't protrude out at one end but not the other)
locked down the back
tightened the adjustment screws in cross-wise fashion
I aligned the fence this way, then slid the fence away from the miter and checked it with the dial gauge. It was nicely aligned.
Next I plan to dig up my engineer's square (I have it somewhere) and check/align the miter gauge.
Way to go Chris! When you find your engineer's square, remember to touch three teeth of the saw with the thick part of the square.
More un-requested advice: Once you get the Mark V all aligned, put the dial indicator away and don't try to perfect anything that doesn't need perfecting. It'll drive you nuts, besides taking away a lot of sawdust time!
Octogenarian's have an earned right to be a curmudgeon.
Chuck in Lancaster, CA
charlese wrote:More un-requested advice: Once you get the Mark V all aligned, put the dial indicator away and don't try to perfect anything that doesn't need perfecting. It'll drive you nuts, besides taking away a lot of sawdust time!
Hi Chuck,
You hit the nail on the head! With the dial gauge, I can spend a small amount of time getting it very good, and put the gauge back on the shelf and not worry about it. With the Harbor Freight calipers, I spent a lot of time trying to measure it properly and repeatedly, only to achieve a result I felt less sure about and kept checking occasionally. As mentioned by another forum member, it's more fun making sawdust than aligning things.
My upgrade to the 520 arrived today.
I luv boxes of goodies.
Linda and Stan at SS and Nick have been a huge help in the past several months with questions that I had about the order. My 5" tubes are still on back order, but I can get the main work table and extension on ,so now I can get back to some projects since school is done for the semester. (The timing on arrival couldn't have been better) The Pro fence...remember the Abominable Snowman from Bugs Bunny cartoons?
Well, I want to hug it and squeeze it, and pet it, and call it George.
I think it'll be a late night tonight.
John, aka. Pinkie. 1-520, 1-510 & a Shorty, OPR. 520 upgrade, Band Saw, Jig Saw, scroll saw, Jointer, Jointech Saw Train. Delta Benchtop planer, Makita LS1016L 10" sliding compound miter saw, Trojan manf. (US Made)Miter saw work center, MiniMax MM16 bandsaw.
Squire of the Shopsmith. ...hmmmm, maybe knave, pawn, or wretch would be more appropriate for me.
If you find that you absolutely need 5" tubes, don't let your back order hold up progress. A length of 3/4" EMT from any good hardware store or electrical parts outlet will keep you going.
"Making Sawdust Safely" Dusty
Sent from my Dell XPS using Firefox.
chris there ia a incra miter express up for bids on e- bay
jim bandy lafayette alabama 79 model 500 /80 model 500/94model 510 mini/ planer/dc3300/bandsaw/jointer/ lathe duplicator/ router table with a porter cablerouter.
Also on a full sled you make the initial cut into the sled on your saw, so the kerf in sled shows you exactly where the blade is going to cut. Making it easy to align the piece of wood you want to cut.
Good thread and interesting reading. Just a comment on the above post and a comment on sliding tables in general. It's been my experience that using the kerf on the sliding table as a reference greatly reduces the accuracy of the cut over time. Even the best made jigs flex somewhat, combined with the inherent flex of the Shopsmith table mounts, elongates the kerf over time, making the reference line inaccurate. May not be a big issue for general cutting but could make a big difference for finer work.
You are absolutely correct. The kerf line gets distorted with use. Therefore, it becomes necessary to either measure for the precise cut or renew the kerf line.
This problem also exists if you use the edge of the table as your kerf/reference line.
The ability to replace a portion of the sliding table with a new segment and thus a new kerf line would be a valuable upgrade.
"Making Sawdust Safely" Dusty
Sent from my Dell XPS using Firefox.
Delta Benchtop planer, Makita LS1016L 10" sliding compound miter saw, Trojan manf. (US Made)Miter saw work center, MiniMax MM16 bandsaw.
