DIYbanter - View Single Post

otforme (Charlie Self) wrote in message ...
Ed Bennett responds:

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.

Only argument there is that eventually the blade has to be part of the mix.

Of course. The blade is properly aliged for both ripping and cross
cutting when it is parallel to the miter slot. The fence is properly
aligned for ripping when it is parallel to the miter slot.

As
a preference, I'd use a Freud flat disc, after checking the arbor and arbor
bearing for runout and, for the latter, flatness on its internal side.

Most people, though, are going to use the blade tips, I'll bet.

Yep, a lot of people do this. However, the sides of the teeth are
deliberately ground at an angle to prevent them from rubbing the
inside of the kerf. So, it is very difficult to obtain reliable
measurements from their surfaces.

The flat blade replacement plate works fine so long as it is really
flat. I have yet to find one commercially that is. I made one up
special for the Wood Magazine review because they were planning to use
a well advertised but particularly poor quality item for their
testing. I surface ground mine from solid 3/4" thick hot rolled low
carbon steel (A36). My goal was to guarantee 0.001" accuracy over
it's 10" width. Not exactly an easy task. And, to top it all off,
it's completely unnecessary.

The best practice is to mark a spot on the blade body. Take all your
measurements with the dial indicator stylus on that spot. Rotate the
blade as necessary to move the spot from front to rear. This spot
will always travel in a circle within the plane of the blade,
absolutely perpendicular to its rotational axis (arbor). This
technique is guaranteed to work better than any blade replacement
plate you can buy. Better than any I can make in my shop (which is
why I can't justify offering any for sale).

Still, if you're using the TSAligner, then there really isn't a whole lot of
excuse for sloppy measuring, though I don't consider .003" sloppy with
woodworking tool set-up. I see you don't, either.

Nope, it's pretty darn good. Doing better won't yield any noticable
improvements in performance or quality.

Otherwise, I'm doing pretty well for a fat old guy who has bounced around too
much in the past 3 years or so. Just got back from Atlanta Monday--not IWF, but
a press deal for Ryobi--and am fairly well determined never to go there again.
Too big, too crowded, too---much, I guess.

Considering I was born and raised just outside NYC, that's saying a lot, I
think.

Glad to hear that you are having so much fun! Yes, been to both
Atlanta and NYC. Prefer Idaho. It sounds like you are starting to
get some well earned attention for your hard work. Congrats! I wish
I had more time for the ng. Sounds like you've managed well.

Ed Bennett