keakap
06-06-2010, 03:49 AM
Observations on the use, abuse and disuse of the Carriage Stop Ring as it relates to "home" positioning of any saw blades on the 510/20. (New to me, prolly old hat to a lot of folks.)
In the process of installing my Lift-Assist I'm afraid I wasn't properly careful in all cases moving from horizontal to vertical modes, and my Carriage Stop Ring (CSR) became length-challenged. At some point it developed turtle-neck syndrome after having once too many times been the sole responsible element preventing metal-to-metal contact between the carriage and headstock upon transitioning the ways from horizontal to vertical orientation while the motor housing was essentially untethered to the ways except by gravity.
The heroic little plastic bagel did subsequently recover somewhat from the narrowing experience, but the event did leave him forever a changed band.
This became obvious when I was trying to cut a zero clearance insert (and some other zero-clearance items) and could not get repeatable "home" position for the saw blade(s) using the CSR only.
Then, whether because of the damage or just the imprecise nature of the setup, I realized I needed, or wanted, more accuracy (OhNo!).
Now, when I need it, upon a change of ZCI(Item) I slide headstock & carriage together as normal, but before trying to install the ZCI measure the blade position in the throat, from blade-side to throat edge. With caliper it is a snap to tap one side or tother in or out to get THE perfect reading (now known) to .001", lock everything down, finished.
Easy, no 'trial-n-error', sure, fast, and my Zero Clearance Items-- Inserts and Miter Express-- are staying ZC.
And the old way still works fine for non ZC setups.
Note on the caliper: using it I need only one measurement check- from the blade plate to the throat edge. It will always be the same per blade.
In the process of installing my Lift-Assist I'm afraid I wasn't properly careful in all cases moving from horizontal to vertical modes, and my Carriage Stop Ring (CSR) became length-challenged. At some point it developed turtle-neck syndrome after having once too many times been the sole responsible element preventing metal-to-metal contact between the carriage and headstock upon transitioning the ways from horizontal to vertical orientation while the motor housing was essentially untethered to the ways except by gravity.
The heroic little plastic bagel did subsequently recover somewhat from the narrowing experience, but the event did leave him forever a changed band.
This became obvious when I was trying to cut a zero clearance insert (and some other zero-clearance items) and could not get repeatable "home" position for the saw blade(s) using the CSR only.
Then, whether because of the damage or just the imprecise nature of the setup, I realized I needed, or wanted, more accuracy (OhNo!).
Now, when I need it, upon a change of ZCI(Item) I slide headstock & carriage together as normal, but before trying to install the ZCI measure the blade position in the throat, from blade-side to throat edge. With caliper it is a snap to tap one side or tother in or out to get THE perfect reading (now known) to .001", lock everything down, finished.
Easy, no 'trial-n-error', sure, fast, and my Zero Clearance Items-- Inserts and Miter Express-- are staying ZC.
And the old way still works fine for non ZC setups.
Note on the caliper: using it I need only one measurement check- from the blade plate to the throat edge. It will always be the same per blade.