Shopsmith Forums

I need an alinement gage for my shopsmith tools which one should i buy, shopsmith, a-line, woodpecker, etc?

Rick

onevw wrote:I need an alinement gage for my shopsmith tools which one should i buy, shopsmith, a-line, woodpecker, etc?

Rick

Too broad a topic. What kind of gauge? A straight edge like a yard long measuring device, a depth gauge, a leveling device, square, etc.
You will eventually need or want all of the above plus more.
Dan

At this point a good combination square and maybe a wixey(or look alike) angle gauge.

to the comb square and Wixey, I would get a really good 4 ft. (at least) straight edge that you protect when not used.

I have a four foot and a six foot rules that I got at my local Ace Hardware store. If you have a source handy, take 2 rules and put them edge-to-edge. If you can see any daylight anywhere along the crack, try another pair. It is a tedious task, but if you find a pair with no daylight you have 1 (or 2) really handy straight edges on the cheap.

Or, for more $, do the same with levels although the flat surfaces make it hard to see 'daylight.' More money from a quality place like Starrett will get you a good straight edge.

The straight edge comes in handy leveling out tables to you main table.

Forrest

I think the poster is asking which table alignment tools should he buy
The one offered by Shopsmith or the the one by woodpecker or a-line

Each has their advantages and pros and cons.

I think someone said some were better at adjusting the gauge to the miter gauge slot. I like the Woodpecker barrel that self adjusts to the miter slot by design.

However none of these are that hard to make and all you need do is buy a dial indicator.

I was thinking of doing a copy of the woodpecker one using a 1 inch - 1/1/4 inch dowel to lay in the miter gauge slot and attach a piece of wood and mount the dial indicator on it.

Right now I have a piece of wood I attach to the SS miter gauge and holds my dial indicator. Works fine but I have to mess around attaching it to the miter gauge.

I sometimes just use the SS hex wrench held in the hole in the side of the SS Miter gauge and a feeler gauge. I sometimes believe that is more accurate for me.

Ed in Tampa wrote: . . .
I sometimes just use the SS hex wrench held in the hole in the side of the SS Miter gauge and a feeler gauge. I sometimes believe that is more accurate for me.

My point exactly.

Ed in Tampa wrote:I sometimes just use the SS hex wrench held in the hole in the side of the SS Miter gauge and a feeler gauge. I sometimes believe that is more accurate for me.

I agree but I'll go one step farther... Why a feeler gauge? If you use the Allen wrench but can't tell the difference between touching and not touching how is knowing exactly how much in decimal numbers it is off going to help. Nowhere on the trunions is the mounting marked off in decimals... Please note Ed that I am not just picking on you. You just mentioned the feeler gauge. Its just that some of you guys have way too much time to tinker.
Am I gonna have to repost the picture of the hatchet with a dial indicator taped to it again?
Just line the thing up the way Shopsmith said to 50 years ago and start cutting wood.
If I want to cut a miter I don't get silly with checking everything over and over. I make the basic setting then make a test cut and see if it fits right. If not I tweak it until it does... If it fits it doesn't matter what any "readings" are.
I guess some of you enjoy the battle more than the war (I would rather "just make something" and move on) and that is OK but I just worry that all of the newbies coming here will get the false impression that they have to have all of this fancy measuring crap in order to operate these machine that apparently need to be re-aligned every 5 minutes since it seems they are so crappy that you can't use them if you don't.

Excuse me now, I need to do some measuring and checking to see if this soapbox is still exactly square...

robinson46176 wrote:Excuse me now, I need to do some measuring and checking to see if this soapbox is still exactly square...

Farmer ya forgot to make sure it's 12.575003" in height along all edges and less than .0002" sag on the standing part.

onevw wrote:I need an alinement gage for my shopsmith tools which one should i buy, shopsmith, a-line, woodpecker, etc?

Rick

Rick,

You touched a nerve. Some here think a dial indicator is over-kill in a wood shop (but some will still tell you to use a feeler gauge which is arguably as much over-kill). I've tried all the methods described here and while you can get good results with all of them, the dial indicator is quick, easy, convenient and repeatable. The A-Line-It is one I use and it will adjust for the Shopsmith miter slot with zero slop.

Al

If you are looking for tight and repeatable tolerance when doing the blade to miter slot alignment, you need to deal with the miter bar slop. Once you have done that, keeping your Mark 5/V aligned to within .005" is a piece of cake.