Thread: alignement or something else ? urgent help

If it is a new saw it shouldn't have any end float but if you get hold of the centre arbor and push and pull on it it shouldn't move.

If it moves in and out that is end float.

It may worth putting a Triton blade in the saw then you will know the kerf is right.

If you are just doing ripping with saw and not cross cutting you need a 40 tooth blade.

If you are also doing crosscutting you are better with a 60 tooth blade, but perhaps one of your other blades is a 60 tooth and that would fine even if it is a thin kerf provided you are using the saw with Table under the saw and the saw turned over.

The saw I have was bought in september last year so it is almost brand new
It's got less than 30 hours
So I would say it is unlikely to have an end -float

The 60 teeth blade I have is also an Irwin one but with a large kerf if I remember correctly

As I said if it is new it really shouldn't have any end float. If it has maybe you can get it fixed under warranty.

The only thing using a 60 tooth blade for ripping you may find it may not clear the saw dust fast eneough a tend to make the blade over heat and burn the timber and that has other implications of warping the blade, but if you feed the timber slower it maybe ok.

But certainly I think the thin kerf blade will give you problems with the riving knife in the work centre as I experienced when I was using it in my Makita fixed to the Work Centre.

That's what I have noticed too
I tried different feeding rate with a 60 teeths and I always and burnt marks

I guess I will try to make all these measurments this weekend but if I can have it fixed, either I return the workcenter or sell it for a proper table saw
it will cost me a bit of extra but I am used to since I have invested in the WC2000

1) I would be surprised if you have end-float in a new bewalt, but it is not impossible- just test the saws on display at Bunnies and you will find some exhibit this even though they have never been used.

2) I would not recommend using the thin kerf blade in the setup for a couple of reasons.

a. They flex laterally if a load is applied- result is a non-straight cut.

b. The kerf you create is not enough to bridge the width of the riving knife- some have actually had the work jamb on the riving knife partway through a cut because of this- very dangerous. Is the tiny amount of wood saved each cut worth the hassle anyway?

3) I use a 60 tooth triple cut blade for both ripping and cross cutting. It is perfectly satisfactory in both modes- I just rip a bit slower to compensate, and it results in a bettr finish anyway. So I'd suggest before throwing it all in, just try changing the blade to the 60 tooth 3mm kerf, and see if some of the issues are resolved.

4) Wood from any supplier (Bunnies or otherwise) even DAR (dressed all round) has no guarantees of being straight, being the correct thickness, being dry enough etc etc.

The last load of DAR pine I bought came looking reasonably straight (to the eyechrometer), but did have a slight curve in some boards, some were 1/2 - 1mm thicker than others, and one in particular when ripped warped dramatically (as mentioned in my previous posts)

5) You don't say where you are located, but if in Melbourne, come along to our club meeting this Sunday, and bring the saw & workbench, and we'll definitely have a look, and a solution. Between us, we must have successfully set up at least 80 Triton Workbenches, so there is a wealth of experience available. If you are not Melbourne, approach your local Triton Users group, and they should be happy to do the same. Or, contact your local Bunnings who typically have a Triton expert on staff (often an official Triton demonstrator), who are typically very happy to help sort out problems.

6) If your brand new DeWalt is the unlikely source of the problem- get it repaired / replaced under warranty- a company producing professional tools such as DeWalt will not be happy if one of their saws is exhibiting such a cheap product fault as end or arbour float!

Burn marks? Either too slow a feed rate, or the saw and fence are not parallel, and the work is being forced onto the blade- creating the friction which is burning the wood. If you look closely at the teeth, the outside edge of the TCT (tungsten carbide tip) is wider than the meat of the disk, so in theory, once cut, the wood shouldn't actually rub on the disk. In practice is does lightly, but it shouldn't be heating up to burn temperatures.

The only thing is what you get for the gear that you have and and then fork out the extra for the table saw you probaly could get a Triton Saw for less and you would never have to touch the saw in the work centre and use the Dewalt like I do.

I don't know where you are but Gasweld are sayingin their current Catalouge ask for our special price on the Triton Saw so you maybe able to do the Bunnings thing again.

BTW I agree with everything Stuart says and there is too many Triton setups out in the market place not to be able to get it right at at the cheapest way possible.

Shouldn't have to replace the saw- the DeWalt should be perfectly adequate, so long as the blade is up to the task.

I do agree a second saw is extremely useful, but for that purpose, I use a $50 GMC to cut sheets etc down to a size that I can safely handle and feed into the workcentre for the final accurate cuts.

@Stuart: I am in Melbourne, doncaster to be more precise. Where is the meeting this saturday ?
I don't know if I can come this saturday but if not, are they weekly, monthly meetings ?

The blade and the saw is parralel to the fence according to my reading

Cool The meeting is this Sunday starting at 9am (actual meeting starts at 9:30) and goes through to appr 12pm

We meet the third Sunday of each month (except Jan)

Head over to our website
http://www.tritonwoodworkers.org.au
to see a map of Holmesglen Tafe and where we meet.

Defintely bring your workcentre & saw (yup- a pain I know), but we'll get this sorted! Brian does a vast majority of our workshop sessions and is a fully fledged Triton Demonstrator (and in fact designs quite a number of the projects that appears in the Triton Times) What he doesn't know about setting up workbenches is...uh... there isn't anything I can think of that he doesn't know about setting them up!

Problem solved

Next

Well !
The problem is not solved yet but I think I have a clear idea of what's going on.

First apologize to Stuart but I was busy saturday morning and I could not come to the meeting
Sunday I decided to start from scratch the alignement of the blade, following the triton guide once again and all your advices you have posted
I made the blade perpendicular to the table, then ensurec the fence was perpendicular to the table as well.
Then I aligned the blade.
I checked it was set to 0 of the scales and it was to my understanding
Then I set the scales to 20cm and measured the distance between the fence and the blade at the entry and exit point
Entry point: 19.95cm
Exit point: 19.95cm
Also set to 20cm, I am willing to accept 0.5mm difference as long as the difference is identical on both sides

Then I cut a sheet of mdf. Not a very thick one, just 3mm
And then the same problem appeared
The entry point was ok but as soon as the sheet passed the exit point , it started to shift away to the right

The this is what I did because I had a suspiscion with the blade guard
I lowered the blade to the point it was completly down and not visible on the table
Then I reinserted the blade guard+guide, locked it with the rear lever on the guard.
I moved the fence and locked it to 0 on each side.
To my understanding - experts correct me if I am wrong - the guide should touch the fence because for my the guide should be in the middle and aligned with the 0 marking.
As I said correct me if I am wrong but if I am explain me what !
anyway if I am right, the guide was not touching the fence at all
There was a gap of 1mm at the top of the fence and 1.5 at the botton near the table
So then I removed the fence, raised the blade the its max and put the fence back to 0.
The blade was touching the fence
I removed the fence and visually checked that the blade and the guide were aligned
And as discovered before with the fence, I could clearly see that when looking from the switch end of the table, the guide was out on the left by 1mm.
This would explain why the boards I cut are only shifted on the right passed the exit point
so could anybody confirm that theory ?
Stuart ?

Thanks

Emistral, don't forget that when you aligned the fence to the blade you were touching the blade's maximum kerf and not the blade body, ie, the blade's teeth are generally wider than the blade to some degree.
When you measured the distance of the entry and exit points at the 20mm setting I'm assuming you had the ruler against the blade's body? If your blade's kerf is larger than the body then you should see a larger gap when you remeasured, if your blade's kerf is the same as the blade body then disregard this.
The same would apply for the guard blade, it shouldn't touch the fence because of the blade kerf/fence setting.
On my setup the guard blade is slightly to the right but it doesn't pull the wood away because the kerf of the blade removes enough excess to prevent binding. I would go for a larger kerf blade if you don't have one and prevent any hiccups with guard blade irregularities.
Also if you haven't done this, could you check the gap from your fence and blade at minimum and maximum height to see if there is any change? Just a thought.

Pity you were busy on Saturday, because our meetings are on Sundays.......