Fixing a Tablesaw Fence

This post might be really boring to you, if you're not into tools. Wait - what are you doing reading this blog if you're not into tools? Seriously!

The fence on my SawStop has been giving me headaches. It had more dips and valleys than - well, fill in the blank here. When I would try to cut a board, you could literally see all the humps on the fence, and the cuts weren't all that accurate.

Here's the offender - so I removed that white laminated piece on the left, to see what the actual fence frame looked like.

When I put a straightedge up against it - I could see daylight. It's bent? Really?

A feeler gauge slips right into that gap

and determines that the fence is bowed .018 of an inch.

Now I'll say this - SawStop is very good about covering their saws. VERY. I've had three different models in my school, and their technicians have never failed to get me the parts I need to fix things.

But - this repair was a little different. First - this saw is out of warranty, and second - I suspect that the fence was bent through some sort of user error. When you have 20 or 30 people using your tools each week, things are bound to take some abuse.

One of the things I really preach to my students is about learning to fix things yourself. Channel your inner McGuyver, it will save you money, and you'll actually learn how your tool works, from the inside out.

In this case, I knew I needed to shim out the fence a little bit. I tried to use a couple of small pieces of plastic laminate, but they ended up being too thick, so it sent the fence bowing too much in the opposite direction.

Then - of course - Danny to the rescue!

He suggested using some plastic laminate backer paper, which is thin and strong. He even had a piece of it that I could use.

I cut a few small strips,

and marked the hollow spots on the fence with a couple of dots of blue tape. That indicates the area that needs shimming.

As I located the low areas with a dial indicator (thanks for the loan, Eric!), I placed a shim of the backer paper between the metal frame and the fence, thus bringing the fence into a flat plane.

If I put the dial indicator against the fence and zero it out,

and then move it to a different position, it will show me where there is a hollow spot, or a bulge.

In this case - those shims really did the trick! The indicator proved that the fence was flat all along the face of it, within just a few thousandths of an inch. Sweet.

Now toward the back end of your fence, you'll want to adjust it so that it is very slightly tapering away from your blade. You do that so the wood doesn't get bound between the fence and the blade. There is a very simple adjustment on all fences that allow that - so if your wood is burning toward the end of your cuts, you may want to check that out and make an adjustment. I tweaked mine with an allen wrench, and all was right in the (woodworking) world again.

All this fence manipulation can sometimes ruin the calibration on your fence, so the last thing to do was re-set it. It couldn't be more simple!

Just bring the fence right up against the blade - as close as you can get it. (It's not turned on, by the way.)

Then look down at the fence ruler - it should read absolute 0. You can see here that the calibration is off by about 1/16th of an inch.

No problema, chica! Loosen the screws, and readjust your pointer until it reads a perfect 0. And that's it - you've just flattened your fence and calibrated everything, in a matter of minutes.

Don't hurt yourself patting yourself on the back! Get back to work!

Another Air Force Retirement Gift - part two

As much as I'd like to say I finished the Air Force project I last wrote about - things kept cropping up, and I couldn't scrape together the time necessary to complete it.

Good news is - I've used these no-mortise hinges so many times, I could probably install them in my sleep. I like everything about them - the color, their low profile, and the ease in which they install.

But - even though technically, a mortise isn't needed for these, I chose to cut a small, shallow ones, so that the lid would sit perfectly flush with the bottom. If I didn't, the lid and the box bottom would have a small gap in between them.

Who can live with that?

I roughed the mortise out on my tablesaw, using the fence to cut it an equal distance from each end of the box.

And then cleaned up the surface with a chisel

and a sanding block.

When the mortise was clean, I used a vix bit to pre-drill some holes. There's nothing worse than getting everything laid out and then drilling your screw holes off-center. So a vix-bit helps drill a perfectly centered hole.

Since this box is made of Beech, which is extremely hard, I knew that in addition to pre-drilling the holes, I needed to lubricate the screws. Some people use soap, some use wax - I spritzed my with a shot of WD-40. Or as some people call it - Jamie's favorite perfume.

Peter Korn's - Working with Wood is one of my favorite reference books, and in it, he wrote about the value of having work surfaces of varying heights. Depending on what I'm doing, I use one of three different benches - and for sanding this box, I pulled out the lowest bench I have, to make sanding a little easier on my back.

Here is the mama bear bench on the right, and the baby bear bench on the left.

After a little more sanding, there are just two things left - add the coin ledge inside, and then oil the entire piece.

Classes start up again this week, so my time is going to be in short supply. Hopefully, I'll get an hour or two to complete this!

Another Air Force Retirement Gift

Those Air Force guys and gals get all the coolest gifts. I'm working on another retirement gift, and this one is particularly full of awesome-ness.

I made the shell of the box, as well as the top and bottom panels. Then - the top panel was sent off to be laser engraved with all the artwork.

The only way to make a box like this is to wrap the grain all the way around it, so that it matches on each corner.


This box will eventually have a coin ledge inside it, so I fabricated one, and tested the fit,

measuring carefully, so that when I eventually cut the box apart, I cut in the right location.

Here, I dry fit the box together, to make sure everything fits. If I'd spread glue and then assembled this, I would have been a world of hurt - this box didn't fit together at all! I ended up having to trim it down two times, in order to get the corners to close.

I was careful with the glue, and cleaned up the excess with a chisel before it had completely hardened.

Once dry, I marked the location of the lid

and then set the fence on the saw for the cut.

People are always surprised to see a box glued up as a solid cube, and then cut apart. But it's the best way to ensure that the grain matches, and that the top and bottom corners match perfectly.

Here, the box is re-assembled - you can't even see the seam, can you?

Now you can.

A little routing on the top and bottom softens the appearance of the box.

I love the look of this no-mortise hinge, and since I had a couple of different sizes, I set them on the edge, to decide which looked best.

Yup, this is the one.

I'll set the hinges tomorrow, and hopefully, it'll be ready for oil.

Meanwhile - speaking of the Air Force - here's a picture of an old friend that I'm very proud of - thanks for your service, Hillary! The last time I saw you, you were still in high school - now you're married and deployed - you be safe, Hilly!

Don King Artichokes

My artichokes might not be doing so well this year, but who else can claim to be growing a Don King variety?

Gorgeous colors, what a shame the aphids won the battle.

Serendipity

It has been said that serendipity accounts for one percent of the blessings we receive in life, work and love. The other 99 percent is due to our efforts.

I've had the good fortune of meeting some very generous people along the path of running my woodworking school.

A few weeks ago, Steve from Vegas Valley Business Forms noticed that the signs in the shop were looking ragged. It's true, they're right in line with the swamp cooler fan, and the breeze has shredded the corners.

Steve graciously offered to print up some new signs for me, ones that would be more durable and colorful. Who knows, someone might actually read them!

So imagine my surprise when he walked into class last week with these two new signs - printed on metal and ready for hanging. He even printed them in my favorite colors, and included my handprints - how sweet is that?

Saturday is a good day for tackling tasks around the shop, so Nikki and Eric - the two shop interns - took upon the task. First stop was to design a wooden bracket to hold each sign. Here's the small prototype they came up with - perfect!

While Eric took down the old signs,

Nikki made the four brackets we needed.

Don't mess with Eric while he's working!

(You both did a great job, BTW! Thanks!)

Speaking of serendipity, those two paper signs we took down were also a gift - from three years ago, when another student - Rob - printed them for me. Rob moved away, but I know he reads this blog regularly, so I want to thank him again for those - they served me well!

And yes - I also want to thank Steve for the very nice gift - it was unexpected, but very much appreciated. He's an all-around good guy and generous business owner - I'm always thrilled when I see his name on one of my class enrollment lists.

Serendipity, indeed!