SMT Wont Cut Straight

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  • ScrewChamp
    Handtools only
    • Feb 2006
    • 4
    #1

    SMT Wont Cut Straight

    I am having a terrible problem squaring my SMT to the blade. It is off about 1/8 of an inch. I put a square on the blade and make my alignment prior to the cut and it still ends up off. There is an uneven gap between the SMT and the Miter slots. I am about fed up and ready to scrap this saw. I have followed all the suggestions for aligning the SMT on this site and in the book and nothing has worked. This all of a sudden started about a month ago. Cuts square against the rip fence but it will not cross cut square.

    Suggestions.
    Tags: None
    • leehljp
      The Full Monte
      • Dec 2002
      • 8796
      • Tunica, MS
      • BT3000/3100
      #2
      First, to me there is not enough specific information.

      "followed all the suggestions for aligning"

      • Have you checked to see if any of the guides are broken? You said it started suddenly. That usually is the problem behind "suddenly".

      • You can see an "uneven gap" between the SMT and the miter slots - but then say that you "square it up" before a cut. If it is square before the cut, then when does the uneven gap occur? Again, this suggests broken glides/guides.

      But if you have broken guides, it would be hard to go through the procedure of aligning.

      • 1/8 inch gap is a lot. I not sure that I can understand how you can through the alignment process and wind up with 1/8 inch off. Is the base of the SMT aligned to the blade? You can check this easily enough. Place the long leg of a carpenters square against the blade and measure the distance from the back side to the base (bottom that locks on the rails) of the SMT. Then do the same for the front. The numbers should be the same. If not, no alignment of the upper SMT will help until the clamped down base is parallel to the blade.

      For the most part, this is not a problem. But on a few occasions some people clamp the SMT onto the rails in the wrong sequence. Clamp the end close to you first. Clamp the back side second. There have been a couple or three times that someone had some clamping problems. Are all of the clamps tight? Does one clamp seem too tight or pull the table base out of alignment with the blade?

      • After this, then go with alignment of the SMT.
      Hank Lee

      Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted!

        Comment

        • ScrewChamp
          Handtools only
          • Feb 2006
          • 4
          #3
          I searched the forums before I posed, that is where I got all the suggestions.

          -Clamp order is correct.
          -I will check for a broken guide, I have yet to do that.
          -I can not get the measurements to match up from the front of the blade to the back on the SMT. So this leads me to believe that the SMT is out of alligment.
          -If a guide is not broken I will go through the allignment process one more time.

          Thanks for your assistance!

          Sorry for the aggrivated tone, in the middle of a project and it is causing me grief.

            Comment

            • sailor55330
              Established Member
              • Jan 2010
              • 494
              #4
              Screwchamp,

              I feel your pain, I really do.

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