dial indicator digital and accessories

[treesner]

Hey guys i need a dial indicator to check if my blade is square with my miter slot on my dewalt table saw and who knows what else i'll use it for. 

It's pretty overwhelming with all the price points and options. First is should i go with a digital one or a needle readout one? Next what accessories should I buy, I need something to go in the track and i'm not sure if I need the magnet arm one.. is there a kit or certain one you'd recommend? 

 

 

[21meyer]

I have a couple of the dial type indicators and they work well.  Both of them came with the stand in your lower left picture.  I find the stand cumbersome and very rarely use it.  It's very easy to customize a jig for whatever you will be using it for.  The blade to miter slot parallel jig (saw gauge) in your pictures is nice but can be made out of scraps fairly quickly and accurately.

[Pwk5017]

I have analog indicators. Not sure why you would need a readout for checking machines and it is one less battery i need to concern myself with. Ultimately, you want jig(s) to hold the indicator in a vertical orientation(setting jointer/planer knives, checking planer settings--chipbreaker, pressure bar, infeed outfeed rollers) and you want to hold it horizontally to measure parallelism of your saw blade to miter slot and fence. I dont know of one jig that does it all. I personally own the A-Line-It as i purchased the PALS kit at the same time for my contractor saw. Later on i purchased the Oneway for jointer/planer purposes. Of the two, I think you can make a miter slot jig pretty easily, but i dont know that the same can be said for the oneway. 

[Eric.]

You can check your slot parallelism with a simple combo square.  Marc's got a video somewhere in the archives.  You don't need any fancy devices for that.  Just make sure you're referencing off the same tooth front and back.

[Tom King]

Just recently, I was thinking that I should start a loaner program on this.  It's one of those things that is rarely needed, and if your tools don't get moved around to amount to anything, like mine do-not talking about in the same room, it's probably a one time thing.   My old Unisaw had been moved around multiple times, for some number of hundreds of miles to different places, including a quarter mile once in that time in the loader bucket.  When I checked it, probably the first time since 2009, it was still dead on.

I have the master plate, which is a machined flat plate that you put in place of a blade, and I think the setup in that first post picture.  I expect it's a couple of hundred dollar setup.  https://www.amazon.com/MasterGage-MP-1-MasterPlate/dp/B00006RGLC

If someone will look after the planning, I can send it to the first person, and they keep it until it needs to go to the next.   I would say that it needs to be an active member on these forums.

[Unknown craftsman]

I have the woodpecker gage your showing and a master plate like toms.

With the gage running in the miter slot I can check my fence for  humps or flatness.I also use the comb square method that was mentioned.

Aj

[wtnhighlander]

I have one of these:

 

m.harborfreight.com/1-inch-travel-machinists-dial-indicator-623.html?utm_referrer=direct%2Fnot%20provided

 

With no stand. I make a scrap wood jig to hold it for whatever task I need. Works great, and is very versatile.

They carry stands / bases, as well.

 

A dial indicator is great for checking things that rotate, like saw arbors, or pulleys.

[gee-dub]

I have the Harbor Freight dial caliper.  It is plenty accurate (for me) to show the delta between two surfaces on a woodworking machine.  I could accomplish many of the same tasks with a brass screw or the end of a combination square's rule as the "point" and skip the readout.  My point being that you don't need to run out and buy one. For $10, I thought it was worth it.  I built a little base for it out of scrap . . . 

and use it like so:

. . . and like so for the planer (poor man's Rotocator):

It doesn't take up much room and still comes out to play every now and again.

[Jean [Fr]]

My two cents :

Don't choose digital. Of course it does not matter for the table saw set up, but a dial indicator is a lifetime tool. You would probably use it all over the shop or for occasional mechanics. Digital is definitely unreadable if you try to set up a rotary tool (drill press, etc.) : numbers are changing so quickly that you cannot figure out in what range you are. The needle is less precise but it shows the amplitude of movement, and your eye is able to read an average value. The lack of precision is illusionary because the dial indicator shows values within 10 microns (1/1000mm !). It exceeds any woodworker's needs.

I use the same methods as @gee-dub. I bought also a machinist trusty block and a magnetic base for the dial indicator. The next measuring tool you will want is a machinist level which is sadly more expensive, but it's another lifetime tool...

[ben_r_]

And to throw another in your pile, IMO the best option out there is the Betterley UNA-Gauge: LINK LINK

It does more than any other and is very useful for calibrating almost every machine in the shop.