charlese
09-11-2007, 11:41 PM
Today started on a good note (Temperature). It was 50 degrees when I got outside at 6:30. Got a few hours in on MH polishing. Then at noon it was too hot and the sun was brutal. (about 95) After lunch - What to do? Thought I'd go hide in the shop and mess around.
Turned on the A/C and opened up my brand new SS Dial indicator. (Just couldn't resist the sale!!) As I was hiding from more chores, I decided to stay a while and check the alignment of the Mark V. First tried the table set up with a rip blade, then a combo, then the flat sanding disk (on the outside rim of the disk adjacent to the Velcro hooks), then the outside of the conical disk (just outside of the sandpaper). All of these turned out the same. Only .001" out of alignment. The back of the blade/disk is a little closer to the right. Really the back of the table is off to the right. NO Problem! This is essentially "right on". When using a blade from the center I tried from both miter slots. Same results! Good table!!
So-- how about the 510 fence? Here I found it to be .020 off with a bend in the left side of .003. The right side had a wow (bow) of the same amount. Don't know if this was the way it was made or the result of dropping it. I suspect the second.
Not wanting to loosen screws and mess with the alignment, I decided to manually adjust this small amount. So I loosened the back clamp, keeping the front tight to the tube, and pushed the tail of the fence. I over corrected a little and had to push it back. (all of this movement was only a force of about a quarter inch one way and the other)
This is not a recommended operation, but it works for me. The results of this "bending the shaft" wound up as a fence that is off to the left by .0125". This to me is also "right on". However I noticed that the fence was right on when the back clamp was loose. (Only the slight curvature of the fence was a variance.) When I tightened the back clamp, the fence moved to the right .0125".
It was a fun couple of hours out of the Sun and gave me a new found assurance that the "SS recommended method" of using an Allen wrench in the miter gauge is a pretty darn good way to set up the Shopsmith!
Also, referring to one of last week's Threads about difficulties in adjusting the 510 fence - Once close, - pushing the back of the fence works for fine adjustments.
Turned on the A/C and opened up my brand new SS Dial indicator. (Just couldn't resist the sale!!) As I was hiding from more chores, I decided to stay a while and check the alignment of the Mark V. First tried the table set up with a rip blade, then a combo, then the flat sanding disk (on the outside rim of the disk adjacent to the Velcro hooks), then the outside of the conical disk (just outside of the sandpaper). All of these turned out the same. Only .001" out of alignment. The back of the blade/disk is a little closer to the right. Really the back of the table is off to the right. NO Problem! This is essentially "right on". When using a blade from the center I tried from both miter slots. Same results! Good table!!
So-- how about the 510 fence? Here I found it to be .020 off with a bend in the left side of .003. The right side had a wow (bow) of the same amount. Don't know if this was the way it was made or the result of dropping it. I suspect the second.
Not wanting to loosen screws and mess with the alignment, I decided to manually adjust this small amount. So I loosened the back clamp, keeping the front tight to the tube, and pushed the tail of the fence. I over corrected a little and had to push it back. (all of this movement was only a force of about a quarter inch one way and the other)
This is not a recommended operation, but it works for me. The results of this "bending the shaft" wound up as a fence that is off to the left by .0125". This to me is also "right on". However I noticed that the fence was right on when the back clamp was loose. (Only the slight curvature of the fence was a variance.) When I tightened the back clamp, the fence moved to the right .0125".
It was a fun couple of hours out of the Sun and gave me a new found assurance that the "SS recommended method" of using an Allen wrench in the miter gauge is a pretty darn good way to set up the Shopsmith!
Also, referring to one of last week's Threads about difficulties in adjusting the 510 fence - Once close, - pushing the back of the fence works for fine adjustments.