Thread: The ongoing saga of the ML392

Always happy to stand corrected but after taking of the fence and laying it flat on both the tables then the table saw top then the most flat surface the old kitchen bench it rocks quite happyly wit 1/2-1mm gap on the ends.

After mucking about again with my machine on the weekend I think I have found my main problem, my fence is slightly cupped in cross section. It's a suffiently visible when jointing pieces that are about half the thickness of the fence (see picture). I was thinking of replacing the Ally fence face completely or mabe just adding a piece of MDF to the front of the fence - anyone else seen this problem?

The trouble Meerkat is your fence is warped.

I know they are pretty crappy, ut I didn't know a lot of them had various undocumented features.

I'd say that the warping occured at the cutting stage during manufacture. There is no way I could try to bend it back, it would just get worse.

Contacted Timbecon and we'll see where we go from there.

Originally Posted by BobL

anyone else seen this problem?

Just about everyone?

Ok checked the blades were right and they had changed so went to sort that out and one thing led to another then started to recheck the tables were set right and found that I could get one side of the outfeed pretty much right then the other would go out.

Went from side to side and found that it didn't help. Then when I unwound the outfeed all the way out then wound it in and then there was a sudden realignment between the tables.

After looking around I found that the little bar that prevents you from lifting the infeed before the outfeed was being forced out its little cavity (see pictures).

Does this look right ? Or do I have a longer one than other people ?

Unless it's supposed to do this I'm going to shorten it so it doesnt affect the table(s) when wound up

Originally Posted by meerkat

Does this look right ? Or do I have a longer one than other people ?

Unless it's supposed to do this I'm going to shorten it so it doesnt affect the table(s) when wound up

Looks wrong. Looks like its been installed too far across.

Bit more info.

The first pic is the position of the bar as it is fixed to the table.

The second is the length.

MK If no one beats me to it I will measure up tonight. Cheers BobL

Hi Bob and BigPop,
That's pretty disappointing to find bearings collapse in such short time! Either made of mild steel instead of the proper stuff, or installed incorrectly (out of alignment or distorted housing). Makes you think its worth pulling the machines down straight away and going for SKF equivalent.
As for bearings ex-Brisbane, in all my years of trade related work, everything is quoted as ex-Sydney, as everyone knows its the centre of the world !!

Good luck with it, but now I'm nervous about the life of my wee Ryobi thicknesser.

Cheers

Ok got an answer back from Timbecon. They are kindly replacing the warped fence.

They also suggested that I put 19mm MDF on the front of it to prevent it from warping in the future.

The question that I have is will that be enough ?

Originally Posted by meerkat

Ok got an answer back from Timbecon. They are kindly replacing the warped fence.

They also suggested that I put 19mm MDF on the front of it to prevent it from warping in the future.

The question that I have is will that be enough ?

Umm, if the fence is floppy enough that 19mm MDF is enough to hold it straight, well you might be better off building a new one out of empty beer cans. I think the bloke you spoke to either:
1) didn't think before opening his mouth
2) did think, but that's all he could come up with.

Either way, it's not very confidence inspiring.

Mick

Put MDF on a jointer fence to keep it straight- ? Tell the guy the jointer needs to straighten wood, not the other way around.

A bowed fence is not that big a deal when doing normal cuts at 90 degrees. As soon as you tilt the fence to, say, 45 degrees, that is where the horror takes over. You will get a noticeable bow in the workpiece.

Originally Posted by meerkat

Went from side to side and found that it didn't help. Then when I unwound the outfeed all the way out then wound it in and then there was a sudden realignment between the tables.

After looking around I found that the little bar that prevents you from lifting the infeed before the outfeed was being forced out its little cavity (see pictures).

Does this look right ? Or do I have a longer one than other people ?

Unless it's supposed to do this I'm going to shorten it so it doesnt affect the table(s) when wound up

MK, The little bar on my machine is also 14.5cm long so it it looks like there is nothing wrong with the length of your bar. It looks like your RH table is displaced about a cm too far left. Look at my picture. Your image is embedded on top of mine. I would try to shift the table before cutting the bar.

I thought I'd also post a picture of the current bow of my fence. The maximum gap was about 0.5 mm but I removed the fence and then it was less than 0.1 mm. When I put it back on, The gap went back to 0.25mm - it must be the order I am tensioning the T-track bolts or something - I just think the fence is too flimsy or am I being too fussy?