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8th November 2011, 08:36 PM #1
A tip for easier table alignment (cabinet saw)
Hands up those of you whose table washers look like the first picture...right...that's nearly everyone
I got sick of replacing washers on my TSC-10HB and having the table move (because of the indented washers) when I tightened up the bolts after carefully aligning the blade and having to "best guess compensate" on the dial indicator for the movement, so today I made my own "washers".
They're squares of 8mm plate steel (about 25x25mm) with a hole in the middle for the bolt (duh). The squares were roughly sized so they fit in the gaps of the cabinet body under the table with still room to move around when aligning. With their shape and alignment, they provide a greater grabbing surface area than a normal washer. I also got some longer bolts to cater for the extra thickness of the new washers.
The second pic shows how I've got them set up: bolt > spring washer > flat washer > layer of grease > new washer. The grease makes the final tightening smoother and reduces any racking. Just don't get the grease on the table side of the new washer or you'll find it sliding all over the place.
The longer bolts caused a little trouble when trying to put them in. I had to lift the table up and screw the bolts in a fair way so that when I brought the table back down they weren't resting on the edges of the holes in the cabinet and I could still get a (shortened) allen key into the head.
So with my newly made dial indictor jig ready to go I gave it a quick little test...
First up I got a general alignment with all the bolts loose and made sure the new washers weren't bumping into anything and I had enough play at each corner. Then I tightened up one corner and went through the usual aligning process.
When I tightened up the bolts there was absolutely NO movement on the indicator which made me very happy.
In the past it has taken me anything from a few hours to quite literally a whole day (and then some) to get the table aligned properly. Tonight I did it in well under 10 minutes!!!! AND with a dead on 0/0 front to back measurement.
If you're anal like me and like to regularly check your machines, I'd almost guarantee that this little tweak will put a smile on your dial (indicator)
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8th November 2011, 10:27 PM #2Senior Member
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Great job, as you note it is infuriating to get the alignment spot on with a dial indicator and nip up the last bolt to have it move back! Why don't the other 3 bolts stop it moving? This looks like saving a lot of anguish.
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