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"Building Up" Tablesaw Top?
(Dave G) wrote in message . com...
Folks,
Need some advice here. First, a disclaimer. I hereby acknowledge
that the best solution is to replace the item in question with a new
(or used) PM/Jet/Grizzly/Delta/whatever. Not an option. So rest your
itchy trigger fingers, and save the bandwidth.
On to the problem. I have a Craftsman tablesaw (NO, I cannot
replace it). The top is "dished" towards the center. The lowest spot
seems to be just ahead of the throat--it's about 0.04" lower than the
sides. In his book, "Mastering Woodworking Machines," Mark Duginske
mentions filling low spots with epoxy paint. I've also thought of
filling with some kind of auto-body filler.
So my questions--is this enough of a flaw to be worth correcting
for a properly tuned saw? Otherwise, it's in excellent shape--arbor
runout 0.002, miter gauges parallel to each other to within 0.001,
blade dead-parallel to miter gauges. On the other hand, how can I get
the blade perpendicular to the top when the top's not flat? And has
anybody done this, and what material would you suggest? I'm thinking
of building a "dike" around the throat and miter slots, then flooding
the top with something that'll self-level, letting it harden, then
gluing sandpaper to a sheet of glass and sanding the top flat.
Comments?
Sounds like overkill to flood the whole top -- you'll probably sand
off 90% of what you put on. Typicl paint film thicknesses are
measured in mil's and your dished-ness is only 40 mil. You'll also
probably want something harder than paint. I wouldn't go with body
filler. And a final note: you might want to sand blast the low spot
to get better adhesion of any material you apply. Blasting can raise
the surface a few thousandths on it's own.
hex
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