The following came from our discussion list. A very good article.
John -- I'm very, very concerned about the fact that your
tablesaw makes a lot of noise while cuttting and then the edge is rough and not
always square.
This sounds dangerous to me and that you might be exposed to the chance of a
serious kickback.
Very often, a cut is rough to complete because the fence is not parallel to the
blade and most likely the back or far end of the fence is angled slightly
towards the blade. This means that once the workpiece moves through the front of
the blade, the fence is then pushing it into the back of the blade. If
it's tight enough the rotation up of the back of the blade will grap the edge of
the workpiece and hurl it up and back at the operator.
Sometimes, some woodworkers will angle the back or far end of the fence away
from the blade about 1/64 inch just to give a little more clearnance so there's
less chance that a workpiece will be grabbed by the blade.
When you cut a board, especially a board of about 2 feet or longer, measure the
width of the board at the front and at the back end. Are they the same?
If not, that's a result of the fence not being parallel and squeezing the board
after it goes through the front cuttting edge of the blade.
First check to see if the fence lines up perfectly along the righthand miter
slot. Adjust and lock the fence so that the front of the fence nearest you
is exactly smooth with the side face of the miter slot. Now check the back of
the fence. It should be just as smoothly even with the face of the miter
slot there. If not, adjust as required to get it perfect. Now you have the fence
square to the sawtable.
Next, you need to check that the blade is turning flat and exacttly parallel to
the fence. It's very important that you get a very accurate measurement
of the distance between the blade and the fence. This must be done both at the
front and at the back of the blade. First disconnect the power cord. Then
select a blade tooth at the front and mark that tooth. Measure the distance from
the marked tooth to the fence. Now rotate that marked tooth to the back
of the blade and measure the distance from the tooth to the fence.
If there is a difference in the measurements, then you have some run-out on the
blade. The first adjustment is to take the blade off and re-install it to
be sure it was done corrrecttly to begin with. Remeasurre. If there is still a
difference, then further adjustment is necessary. The method will depend
on the ttype of tablesaw you have.
Let me know if any of this helps, or if it does not, what needs clarification.
Larry Martin