Thread: Saw blade alignment

Pete,
No expert, but mine is slighly off centre, thus what you describe might be normal. You may want use something to hold back your saw guard, ie rubber band or a piece of metal packing strap shaped to hold it back permantly.
Cheers, Steve

Thanks for the reply.

By the way, by saw guard I meant the one on top of the table, not the guard on the saw itself.

I am a bit concerned that my job will get caught on the support guard as it passes past the blade. I was thinking about centering the blade in the slot, aligning it to the fence in that position and just ignoring the calibrations and setting the fence accurately by measuring the cut with a piece of scrap.

Actually, I'll play devil's advocate and say- no, not normal. With the calibrations on the fence set to zero, the saw should be pretty much in the middle of the slot.

Few things to check, apologies if you have already tried them, or they seem too basic.

1. With you standing at the end of the table with the start switch, the top of the saw should be rotating towards you, and the fence should be on the left hand side of the saw blade. The holes for the crosscut fence should be on the far side of the blade from you.

2. Check to make sure that your blade is perfectly vertical (ie at 90 degrees to the table top) If this is out by even a little, you will have clearance problems. Check from both sides of the blade. If one side is different from the other, be sure to look at point 3!

3. Check your square is square! Many are not. Using a (perfectly) straight edge on a board, butt the square against it, and draw a line. Flip the square over, and using the same straight edge, draw another line next to the first. The should be perfectly parallel. If not, your square is not 90 degrees!

4. Check that your blade is parallel to the fence. Even a little out can cause a problem with the cut wood clearing the guard, and also recut with the back of the blade (this is clearly heard as the wood clears the back of the blade).

Originally posted by stuart_lees:
Actually, I'll play devil's advocate and say- no, not normal. With the calibrations on the fence set to zero, the saw should be pretty much in the middle of the slot.

Few things to check, apologies if you have already tried them, or they seem too basic.

1. With you standing at the end of the table with the start switch, the top of the saw should be rotating towards you, and the fence should be on the left hand side of the saw blade. The holes for the crosscut fence should be on the far side of the blade from you.


>no problems here.


2. Check to make sure that your blade is perfectly vertical (ie at 90 degrees to the table top) If this is out by even a little, you will have clearance problems. Check from both sides of the blade. If one side is different from the other, be sure to look at point 3!


>hmm, I only used the fence to check for vertical. I'll check with a square tonight.


3. Check your square is square! Many are not. Using a (perfectly) straight edge on a board, butt the square against it, and draw a line. Flip the square over, and using the same straight edge, draw another line next to the first. The should be perfectly parallel. If not, your square is not 90 degrees!


> no problems here - should be ok when I check with my square.


4. Check that your blade is parallel to the fence. Even a little out can cause a problem with the cut wood clearing the guard, and also recut with the back of the blade (this is clearly heard as the wood clears the back of the blade).


> definitely parallel. I spent quite a while on this.

My only other suspicion is that when I aligned to the fence, my interpretation of 'just rubbing' is different to the designers. I'll try setting the blade up in the middle of the fence and see what the clearance is with the fence set to zero.

Thanks for the help.

Cheers,

Pete

My mistake, I was thinking of under the table and how the saw guard just gets past the mounting plate.
Tip when getting the saw blade sqare: remove the fence, have the table top on and use a sqare - blade to table, then put the fence back on to get it zeroed.
Steve

FYI, I've checked blade squareness - was a fraction off vertical but not drastically. I re-adjusted the balde to the fence making sure that the blade just touches the fence at both ends.

This resulted in a slightly more centred blade, but still offset to one side. Probably won't interfere with the guard support, but I'd certainly rather that they were a little more in line.

Any other recommendations (possibly including 'stop wasting your time - it doesn't make any difference anyway')?

Cheers,

Pete

Hi Pete,
No, you're correct in getting this sorted out. You don't what to be running a workpeice thru your workcentre and have it stopped by the guard support. Which usually causes the tell-tale arc-burn. I hate it when that happens.

My rule of thumb is to centre the fence on the 0 marking. Then Zero the blade to the fence. Then centre the guard support to the blade.

Zero the Fence, Zero the Blade, Zero the Support.

After deliberate use of moving the guard support on and off. I often find the fin of the guard support to be leaning left or right. With the power saw unplugged I just reach over and physically centre the fin by hand.

Check that your table top does not rock left and right when applying weight to the left or right side. At one time the table tops were tilting. But Triton sorted this out a number of months ago.

Also make sure the Table Latches are fully extended. As in - no red showing. And the table sits square with the stand. And does not shift.


The instruction which came with the Triton shows how to check for square on your work piece. I use the work piece squareness as my final guide.

Don't forget the Triton Precision Power Saw has very fine adjustments for just this purpose.

The kerf of the Triton saw is 2.7mm and as I recall the kerf of the fin on the guard support is 2mm leaving .35mm of clearance on each side.

So as long as the fin of the guard support doesn't stop the work piece then 'close' is clearance enough.

------------------
Thanks,
Barry G. Sumpter
Proud Tritoneer
Triton Woodworkers Club Holmesglen

[This message has been edited by barrysumpter (edited 29 November 2002).]

Check that your table top does not rock left and right when applying weight to the left or right side. At one time the table tops were tilting. But Triton sorted this out a number of months ago.

Barry, what do you mean by this? I had a problem with my fence not being square to the table, Triton sent me a new one. Although it is little better it's still not square. Also when I place a stright edge on top it shows that the table has high points at each of the protractor guides and the saw guides which makes the timber rock.

Barry

Originally posted by barrysumpter:


Check that your table top does not rock left and right when applying weight to the left or right side. At one time the table tops were tilting. But Triton sorted this out a number of months ago.
[/B]

Barry could you please advise me of the fix for the above problem.

My workcentre cuts very true but after reading this post checked table top and it rocks.

Enjoy reading post to BB and learn a great deal from them

PH

Hi amack,

I've been drowning in merbau for years now. Its a hard wood and quite heavy. I couldn't figure out why my cuts were always off. Even though I spent hours adjusting it.

It was the weight of my work piece on the table with me pushing down and forward on the protractor.

Anyway, Triton corrected this in production by moving the Table Latches higher on the table. Causing the table to fit more snuggly to the stand. And it worked. Certainly minimized the rocking. Now all workcentres are manufactured with this adjustment. I hadn't thought of this before but Triton may have made other adjustments that I haven't heard about.

It was probably the fence legs(Inner Fence Tracks) that were not square with the Rip Fence. (I'll have to check mine to see if they form a 90 degree angle or not.)

I haven't head about the highpoints on the protractor and saw guides. (Again I'll have to have a closer look at mine.) Once I verify mine does NOT then I would suggest you find the model number and ring Triton with it to see if there have been any mods since its manufacture. Watch this space and I'll check ASAP.



------------------
Thanks,
Barry G. Sumpter
Proud Tritoneer
Triton Woodworkers Club Holmesglen

Hi Peter,
If your workcentre is cutting that true then you should be responding to these posts (here), giving accuracy adjustment advice (here), lecturing, writting books on the subject, and never-ever using it again so you can be safe in the knowledge that your Triton is so accurate, and you are the envy of all past, preset, and future Tritoneers.

Hail Tritoneers! Hail Tritoneers! Hail Tritoneers!

K, K, K, I'm Jelous. OK?

Seriously, don't fix it if it ain't broke.

GoodOnYaMate!

baz

I have just purchased a Triton Workcentre and have the same problem with the blade being to one side of the slot, but in my case the guard support definitely DOES get in the way of the path of the wood. I am still in the process of setting up the whole thing, so I haven't actually turned on the saw yet, but after checking that everything is square and aligned, the saw blade is to the left of the slot and the guard support protrudes about 1.5mm to the right of the kerf. Meaning that the wood will ALWAYS hit the guard support. Not good at all.

Yes, you COULD adjust the saw so that the blade is central to the support, but then the (currently perfectly accurate) measurement scale would be out by about 2mm. This, on an $800 saw bench, is just not on. If I'd bought it at a garage sale for $50, well hey, you'd live with it. But it's brand new and cost me $800. There HAS to be a fix for this. I haven't contacted Triton yet, but I certainly plan to.

Another problem is that the guard support itself is rather loose in its track. When you lock it down with the little lever on the back, you can still rock it sideways without very much force. The book says to bend it with your hand or a block of wood to make it approximately vertical. But I can't see why you would use a block of wood when simply bumping the guard with your hand or the wood that you just cut would knock the whole thing sideways and obstruct the wood on your next cut. I also noticed that the centre aluminium insert was loose in the table top at the rear rivet, so I had to punch the rivet down to tighten it up. Perhaps this indicates some sort of defect in the table top? I can't really see that it would have anything to do with it. It's just as though the whole aluminium insert is two millimetres too far to the right. Or they printed the measurement scale 2mm out. Either way, something isn't right.

As it is, I cannot use the Workcentre until this problem is sorted out, without stuffing up the alignment of the saw and manually adding 2mm to the measurement on every cut. I could understand this if I had fitted a cheapie blade in a cheapie "Bargain Warehouse" brand saw or something, but this is a Triton blade in a Triton saw. Surely it would be perfect out of the box...

This is a rather disappointing hiccup, as I've been very impressed with all the Triton gear so far.

I have just purchased a Triton Workcentre and have the same problem with the blade being to one side of the slot, but in my case the guard support definitely DOES get in the way of the path of the wood. I am still in the process of setting up the whole thing, so I haven't actually turned on the saw yet, but after checking that everything is square and aligned, the saw blade is to the left of the slot and the guard support protrudes about 1.5mm to the right of the kerf. Meaning that the wood will ALWAYS hit the guard support. Not good at all.

Yes, you COULD adjust the saw so that the blade is central to the support, but then the (currently perfectly accurate) measurement scale would be out by about 2mm. This, on an $800 saw bench, is just not on. If I'd bought it at a garage sale for $50, well hey, you'd live with it. But it's brand new and cost me $800. There HAS to be a fix for this. I haven't contacted Triton yet, but I certainly plan to.

Another problem is that the guard support itself is rather loose in its track. When you lock it down with the little lever on the back, you can still rock it sideways without very much force. The book says to bend it with your hand or a block of wood to make it approximately vertical. But I can't see why you would use a block of wood when simply bumping the guard with your hand or the wood that you just cut would knock the whole thing sideways and obstruct the wood on your next cut. I also noticed that the centre aluminium insert was loose in the table top at the rear rivet, so I had to punch the rivet down to tighten it up. Perhaps this indicates some sort of defect in the table top? I can't really see that it would have anything to do with it. It's just as though the whole aluminium insert is two millimetres too far to the right. Or they printed the measurement scale 2mm out. Either way, something isn't right.

As it is, I cannot use the Workcentre until this problem is sorted out, without stuffing up the alignment of the saw and manually adding 2mm to the measurement on every cut. I could understand this if I had fitted a cheapie blade in a cheapie "Bargain Warehouse" brand saw or something, but this is a Triton blade in a Triton saw. Surely it would be perfect out of the box...

This is a rather dissapointing hiccup, as I've been very impressed with all the Triton gear so far.

Chris,

I had the same problem with a guard which "wobbled" whenever I attached the dust extractor hose. Triton replaced it, but that only partially fixed the problem, so they sent me a new channel and that seemed to do the trick.

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