Hi Charlie, hope all is going well.

otforme (Charlie Self) wrote in message ...

You want to align the fence with the saw blade, which is what needs to be
aligned with the miter slot. Go back to step one, align the blade with the
slot, and THEN align the blade with the fence.

Hmmm.... Well.... Actually.... No. The saw blade just doesn't make
a good alignment reference. I would (and do) advise against this
practice as it can easily lead to a dangerous misalignment condition.
It's always better to pick a miter slot and align everything to it.

If there is any difference, make sure it is to the rear, with the distance
opening up at the rear of the blade. This prevents pinching which can cause
kickback.

This is a great practice for those who use the traditional (and
subjective) "feel the rub" or "hear the scrape" alignment methods
because of the high degree of uncertainty involved. The idea is that
it's better to err on the safe side. However, if you use a dial
indicator jig (like the TS-Aligner Jr. mentioned) then there is no
significant uncertainty - align everything parallel to the slot.

If you do decide to open up the alignment in the rear of the blade,
don't do it by changing the blade alignnment. Doing so will screw it
up for cross cuts. The blade should always be aligned parallel to the
slot. The best practice is to modify the fence alignment (with
respect to the miter slot) so that only rip cuts are affected.

Measure from the miter slot on the side on which you are making your cuts. The
miter slots should be very, very close to parallel, but I don't recall what the
specs are for Delta's saws right now. I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time
worrying about .003", though.

Absolutely correct, 0.003" misalignment (especially on your cross
cuts) is not going to make any difference in the quality or safety of
your cuts. Even when using a low clearance angle blade (like the
Forrest WW series) on a burn-prone wood (like cherry) you won't see
any problems below 0.005" in either direction (0.010" total).

Hope it helps. Questions and comments are welcome!

Thanks,
Ed Bennett