I always check with a steel rule.The plastic thingy on the fence can move and you would'nt know.Also changing between saw blades, thin kerf and regular kerf changes the distance. I don't trust any of the scales on the saw.I measure witrh known good scales and angles. I use a ruler as little as I can, I do most cuts by fit and feel. Its just my way of doing things, it works for me.
Wayne
.......Also changing between saw blades, thin kerf and regular kerf changes the distance. ..................Wayne
i've always used the 'rail scale' as it has been dead-on accurate ever since i set it up. occasionally, i'll do a double-check, but so far i've never had to adjust.
i have a question re waynes point of thin-kerf vs regular kerf blades and measurement. if the spacers on the arbour stay the same, why would the rip scale measurement change? wouldn't the distance from the right edge of the blade, thin or regular, be exactly the same? i only use reg kerf anyway, but i don't see how it should make any difference.
I never trust the rip scale for anything but getting the fence in the general area. Years ago, I formed the habit of measuring the distance from the closest tooth (i.e., the tooth pitched toward the fence) to the rip fence. I notice that Norm Abrams does about the same thing.
i have a question re waynes point of thin-kerf vs regular kerf blades and measurement. if the spacers on the arbour stay the same, why would the rip scale measurement change? wouldn't the distance from the right edge of the blade, thin or regular, be exactly the same?
Right. That is one of the pluses of a right tilt saw??
I use the rip scale on the saw to do rough set up and then use which ever measuring tool I am going to use on the whole project to do the final set. I have, on occasion gotten into a little trouble switching measuring instruments in the middle of a project. Seems that some companies use a different inch than others.
Dennis K Howard
www.geocities.com/dennishoward
"An elephant is nothing more than a mouse built to government specifications." Robert A Heinlein
I use mine a lot of the time. I reset it after moving the rails,using a Starret rule, and it is good to go unless I change the blade or move the rails again.
Don, aka Pappy,
Wise men talk because they have something to say,
Fools because they have to say something.
Plato
...
i have a question re waynes point of thin-kerf vs regular kerf blades and measurement. if the spacers on the arbour stay the same, why would the rip scale measurement change? wouldn't the distance from the right edge of the blade, thin or regular, be exactly the same? i only use reg kerf anyway, but i don't see how it should make any difference.
I think changing any blade may make a difference.
There are several thicknesses involved.
One is the actual kerf, the thickness of the carbide tips, usually 3/32 or 1/8" (thin or regular kerf) but also there is the body thickness which is the thickness of the plae that the blade is fashioned from. It may not even be uniform thickness all the way to the tips (I think most actually have some taper) but the important measure is the thickness of the body at the arbor (where it meets the arbor spacers). If this varies from blade to blade and I'm sure it must, then there will be an additional offset, half of the Kerf minus body thickness, for each saw blade.
Resetting the zero is easy for me, I would set it after a blade or rail change.
When I had the BT I never moved the rails. I had the tape set precisely and trusted it. I did check it with a machinist scale periodically.
Now with the Ridgid, it's the same. It's dead on accurate. As with the BT, I verify it a couple of times a week.
k
i've always used the 'rail scale' as it has been dead-on accurate ever since i set it up. occasionally, i'll do a double-check, but so far i've never had to adjust.
i have a question re waynes point of thin-kerf vs regular kerf blades and measurement. if the spacers on the arbour stay the same, why would the rip scale measurement change? wouldn't the distance from the right edge of the blade, thin or regular, be exactly the same? i only use reg kerf anyway, but i don't see how it should make any difference.
Rick,
I never gave it a thought but my saw is not a BT3. The difference is the way the blades are mounted.. On the BT the blade nut is on the left side of the blade, mine is on the right. My saw is a craftsman, the one they discontinued when they came out with the hibred (zip code ) saws.With a thin blade it moves away from the fence, it wouldnt matter on the BT.
Wayne
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