Thread: Dial Indicator - where to buy

Hi Arry.

The dial indicators in the link are Measuremax, Mutitoyo and Moore and Wright, these brands (i think Measuremax is made by Mutitoyo anyway) are top shelf stuff. Very high quality, they are used in industry for their accuracy and reliability.

I guess its a case of you get what you pay for. You cant expect the same amount of accuracy from cheap stuff as you get from these instruments.

Having said that, i bought my dial indicators and magnetic bases at the local TotalTools. Can't remember what i payed as it was quite a few years back, but they were a bit more than the Carba-tec stuff.

Steven.

The innards of a dial indicator are akin to those of a mechanical watch, lots of small parts in intricate contact with on average three or four other small parts. True quality relies on every one of those contacts and parts being perfect, cut a few corners and you can save on cost, but invariably at the expense of accuracy and/or longevity.

That said, if you will only be using the unit for setting up woodworking machines, (saw, drill press, planer blades etc), the unit would get limited use and a unit with 0.1mm resolution would be adequate for the task. On the other hand, if you want to get into metal lathes and mills, an indicator would get a lot of work in setting up jobs in machines, and a higher accuracy unit would be warranted.

To set up a saw, the holder is as significant as the indicator. The most practical approach if you can access it is a quality mitre guage with an adjustable bar to tune out slop in the mitre slot, coupled with a fence setup tweeked to hold the indicator in position. I use an Incra 1000SE guage and fence setup, which includes an stop mechanism that can accomodate one of the mounting bars from my magnetic mounting stand. Lots of bits involved in the setup, but it works well and is repeatable.

If you just need to do a one off allignment, and ask around, someone might be willing to loan an indicator for a day if you can demonstrate a basic understanding of their care and use. I have offered use of mine to local people that I know only by forum name in the past, and would be willing to do so again.

Hi Arry,

Every online guide you read on how to fine-tune your tablesaw use a dial indicator.

With a bit of ingenuity, you don't need one.

If you have a set of digital calipers or a digital height gauge, you can improvise with that. I am doing a full tablesaw overhaul at the moment and do not have a dial indicator. If anything I think I will finish up with better accuracy without one (at least without a cheap one).

When you break it down to its basics and eliminate the smoke and mirrors that the manufacturers of expensive measuring devices throw at us, the basic setup requires a perfectly flat table top intersecting a perfectly flat blade at right angles. Make the mitre slots parallel to the blade and you have it made.

Most fine tuning instructions start out with checking for arbor runout with the dial indicator. You can do this with digital calipers or a digital height gauge by clamping them to the table top and either extend them to the arbor or clamp on an extension to touch the arbor. Whiel the dial indicator has a spring loaded pin, you have to provide the downward pressure yourself to keep the pressure on the arbor. Its still as accurate as the scale on the instrument you use.

Having said that, I skip that step for now anyway. I put on a new or near new blade that I know to be flat and check for squareness with the table.

Then with my Incra 1000se mitre gauge in the mitre slot I fasten the digital calipers to the mitre gauge and use the depth gauge to measure the distance to one tooth on the blade. I did this at the front of the saw where the blade goes back under the table top. Once I have established that distance, I rotate the blade and see if there is a difference form tooth to tooth. If there isn't then the blade is flat and there is no arbor runout. If they are not the same then I need to go back to step one, which I initially skipped and check for arbor runout or a sawblade that is not flat.

Now if everything is ok when this step is complete, mark an arrow on the sawplate pointing to one of the teeth and rotate the blade so the this tooth is at the opposite end of the blade slot. Move the mitre gauge to the other end of the blade slot and check whether the distance is the same. If not loosen the tablle top securing screws and move the top so that it is. Continue moving the one tooth and the mitre gauge back and forth until they match up. Then check all teeth at the back and front of the blade slot. All should be the same. If not then work out why and rectify.

Your saw should now be spot on, but dont forget to tune your fence, making it parallel to the mitre slots. Even when you tilt your blade it will remain parallel. you might just have to be careful to calibrate the angle when tilted and ensure that when wound back to 90 degrees that it is set properly again.

Even if you dont have a digital measuring instrument that can be adapted for this purpose, you can still do a modified version of steps 2 and beyond (remember I skipped step 1 unless I encounter the unlikely event I have to revert back and do it. At the start of step 2 attach a piece of timber to your mitre gauge and cut it but dont go through to the other side of the blade. turn the saw off and then match up the cut length with the teeth at the back of the blade slot. If its square all is good, if not the adjust and recut until it is. Not quite as accurate, but good enough for most applications, and no expensive equipment needed. You can just use you own mitre gauge whatever brand, I just happen to like the repeatable accuracy of the Incra

Cheers

Doug

Here is an example of a dial gauge replacement I made that worked quite well.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f153/a...-gauge-177288/