Shopsmith Forums

Hello everyone I have a table saw question. I am trying to square my tabletop. I have a mark five 500 upgraded to the 520. Can anyone provide some insight or techniques on how to square up my table. Can this tabletop becomr accurate or do I need to invest into another table saw?

Thank you for your time,
Rob

Your 520 can be a very accurate table saw but it requires proper alignment. I take it you do not have the manuals. The idea is to first align the table's miter slots to the blade There is a video on the Shopsmith site which shows how to do this using a dial indicator. http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/SS_Archives/SS101/SS101_Alignment.htm Even if you don't have a dial indicator, watch the video and substitute an allen wrench through the base of the miter gauge for the dial indicator.

Once the slots are aligned to the blade, you align the fence to the slots. Again, a dial indicator can be handy but the allen-wrench through the base of the miter gauge trick works here, too.

If, after watching the above video, you have questions about how to proceed, post here and we will answer.

Do not 'miss' the detail to lock the table tilt prior to securing the trunions to the table. (with or without the $20 bill).

Robster941 wrote:Hello everyone I have a table saw question. I am trying to square my tabletop. I have a mark five 500 upgraded to the 520. Can anyone provide some insight or techniques on how to square up my table. Can this tabletop becomr accurate or do I need to invest into another table saw?

Thank you for your time,
Rob

By "squaring the table" I assume that you mean setting the table so that the miter slots are parallel to the blade.

The link that you have been provided is probably the best online instruction of this task that you will find for the Shopsmith Mark V. Follow those instructions carefully and you will be fine.

You can easily verify whether or not your table is out of alignment with the blade by simply measuring the distance from a miter slot edge to the blade. Since the two are to be parallel to one another, the distance should at all points be equal.

Thisis an easy and accurate way to verify parallelism between the blade and the fence without measuring anything.

With the 520 table, you must rotate the table off of zero degrees in order to tighten the last 2 bolts. So locking the first 2 at 0 regs, unlocking tilt, tilting the table then to get access to the last 2 bolts.

Unless you have an most unusual hex wrench, that is!

Frustrated me for a while since the trunnions do interfere with the 2 bolts at 0 degrees.

Forrest

forrestb wrote:With the 520 table, you must rotate the table off of zero degrees in order to tighten the last 2 bolts. So locking the first 2 at 0 regs, unlocking tilt, tilting the table then to get access to the last 2 bolts.

Unless you have an most unusual hex wrench, that is!

Frustrated me for a while since the trunnions do interfere with the 2 bolts at 0 degrees.

Forrest

And if you are trying to get the table dead-on be prepared to do this a couple times or three or four. I have settled for an alignment standard of within .005" for this process.

Remember! When doing the alignments, the locks (depth of cut, carriage, headstock, table tilt) must all be set. Doing an alignment with any one of those not secure will almost certainly lead to doing it all over again.

The good news is that once done correctly these alignments hold for a long time. I check frequently but seldom need to tweak the alignments.

forrestb wrote:With the 520 table, you must rotate the table off of zero degrees in order to tighten the last 2 bolts. So locking the first 2 at 0 regs, unlocking tilt, tilting the table then to get access to the last 2 bolts.

Unless you have an most unusual hex wrench, that is!

Frustrated me for a while since the trunnions do interfere with the 2 bolts at 0 degrees.

Forrest

A short(1") piece of 5/16" hex bar stock(or an allen wrench cutoff) and a 5/16" box end wrench?????