AcworthWW Posted December 4, 2016 Report Share Posted December 4, 2016 Good evening. I am having an issue with my miter gauge. I have an Incra 1000 HD that I cannot get square with the blade of my saw. I have a Saw Stop and have checked the squareness of the miter slots to the blade. They are within .001 on both slots. I used an engineers square to try and square the miter gauge fence with the blade. The attached photo has some shadows, but the blade and fence appear to be square to my eye. When I make a test cut, the result is no where near square. I am at a loss as to what can be the problem. I appreciate any input or ideas that you guys have. Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Immortan D Posted December 4, 2016 Report Share Posted December 4, 2016 First step you need to be sure that your miter slot is perfectly parallel to the blade. Something like the woodpeckers saw gauge is very useful for that purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post treeslayer Posted December 4, 2016 Popular Post Report Share Posted December 4, 2016 5 minutes ago, Immortan D said: First step you need to be sure that your miter slot is perfectly parallel to the blade agree to the first step, i have and Incra and they can be a little tricky to set up, make sure all the bolts, screws are tight, no slop in the miter track, read the instructions a couple more times, you'll get it, just takes some time and once done check for tightness of all screws every so often. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AcworthWW Posted December 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2016 49 minutes ago, Immortan D said: First step you need to be sure that your miter slot is perfectly parallel to the blade. Something like the woodpeckers saw gauge is very useful for that purpose. Thanks for the replies. The first thing that I did was check the squareness of the miter slot to the blade. The gauge fluctuated between .001 and .0005. I do not think that I can get it much better than that. I made sure that all of the screws were tight and no slop in the miter slot. That is why I am at such a loss. I am not sure what else I can check or tighten. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted December 4, 2016 Report Share Posted December 4, 2016 When you say that the cut is off are you checking the corners of you cut with a square or are you going by the line you struck on the piece you cut and if so are you sure the line is accurate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeslayer Posted December 4, 2016 Report Share Posted December 4, 2016 i'm a little confused (happens more when you get older) in your first post you said miter slots were within .001 and on the last you stated that its .001 to .005 and you can't get it better than that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AcworthWW Posted December 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2016 25 minutes ago, Chet K said: When you say that the cut is off are you checking the corners of you cut with a square or are you going by the line you struck on the piece you cut and if so are you sure the line is accurate? I am checking the cuts with a Starrett combo square. I also used that same square to strike the line. 24 minutes ago, treeslayer said: i'm a little confused (happens more when you get older) in your first post you said miter slots were within .001 and on the last you stated that its .001 to .005 and you can't get it better than that. No worries. I went back and checked to make sure that I wrote the correct number. It is within .001 and *.0005*. The digital dial fluctuates between those two numbers. That is the limit of the dial's sensitivity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpt life Posted December 5, 2016 Report Share Posted December 5, 2016 Sometimes test cuts reveal a drift of the cut or some other inconsistency. What you want is a dependable variation. If you are dependably off, then bump correct no matter what your square says. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davewyo Posted December 5, 2016 Report Share Posted December 5, 2016 Did you check your square? I know it's a Starrett, but something is wonky so it's best to check everything you can. Is your sac fence flat across its entire length? I see that it is where you are showing the square, but... I'm just grasping at straws, throwing out some ideas. I would be interested in what it is when you find out. Could it be that there is run-out in the arbor of your saw? Maybe it looks good when not under power but kicks over a hair when powered up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bleedinblue Posted December 5, 2016 Report Share Posted December 5, 2016 I'm going to be a lot of help and suggest that thing-a-ma-jig the guys have been talking about on the podcast. Anyone know what it is called? Marc and Matt just got these things to try out and Matt said it works beautifully to calibrate the miter gauge... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodenskye Posted December 5, 2016 Report Share Posted December 5, 2016 Take the plywood off the miter gauge, recut, if that is square your answer will be the plywood fence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davewyo Posted December 5, 2016 Report Share Posted December 5, 2016 18 hours ago, bleedinblue said: I'm going to be a lot of help and suggest that thing-a-ma-jig the guys have been talking about on the podcast. Anyone know what it is called? Marc and Matt just got these things to try out and Matt said it works beautifully to calibrate the miter gauge... Miterset? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drzaius Posted December 5, 2016 Report Share Posted December 5, 2016 I have one of those & it wasn't quite right. the fence was not perpendicular to the table & not quite square to the blade. I shimmed the fence to get it right with the table, & then it was square with the blade as well. Don't know what one had to do with the other, but that's how it worked out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minorhero Posted December 5, 2016 Report Share Posted December 5, 2016 Do you have a bigger square then that engineering square ? You should be using something with more reference area then a couple of inches. This assumes your miter gauge is setup correctly for your miter slots such that there is zero sideways slip when moving your gauge in the miter slot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AcworthWW Posted December 5, 2016 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2016 18 minutes ago, minorhero said: Do you have a bigger square then that engineering square ? You should be using something with more reference area then a couple of inches. This assumes your miter gauge is setup correctly for your miter slots such that there is zero sideways slip when moving your gauge in the miter slot. I checked it with a 12" combo square using the ruler against the miter gauge. That smaller square is just what I had handy at the time. I did readjust the nylon inserts to make sure there was no play in the slots. I will try removing the sacrificial fence and see if that helps. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronn W Posted December 6, 2016 Report Share Posted December 6, 2016 Are your cuts consistently off by the same amount. I it varies you have a technique problem, If you are consistent then you need to loosen the 4 or 5 bolts along the back of the the miter gauge and adjust the squareness to the miter slot. When tightening, tighten each bolt ust a little and work your way around gradually tightening them all. Sldo check your fence with a straight edge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gee-dub Posted December 6, 2016 Report Share Posted December 6, 2016 I do not believe the HD requires the little black hex bolts to be loosened. This is the case on my V-27 but the manual for the 1000 series shows a 'fence mounting bracket' as the piece adjusted to obtain square. It is not specifically mentioned in the posts but, I assume AcworthWW has followed the sequence of adjusting the bar to fit the slot FIRST (step 2 in the manual) and then adjusting the gauge head for square to the blade (step 5 in the manual). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpt life Posted December 6, 2016 Report Share Posted December 6, 2016 Ok, I am going to challenge the picture. Don't square off the saw plate. Verify that your miter gauge is square to the blade by marking a few teeth. Measure from one tooth at a time at both places where it disappears below the table. Then square your miter gauge to the slot and not the saw plate. If your plate ripples at all, you'll be off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unknown craftsman Posted December 6, 2016 Report Share Posted December 6, 2016 Why not just use the five cut method.Its really accurate Aj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gee-dub Posted December 6, 2016 Report Share Posted December 6, 2016 1 hour ago, Aj3 said: Why not just use the five cut method.Its really accurate Aj Here, here. This is what I do and the 1000 is sooo much easier to adjust than the V-27. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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