What's up everyone? Welcome to The Durbin Compound! If we're meeting for the first time,
my name is Devin Durbin. So today we are going to talk about tuning your table saw.
So, we're not talking about intake and exhaust, and chipping it, to make it go fast.
We're talking about making sure that your cuts are 100% right on the money,
every single time, whether you have a brand new saw that you are getting out of the box,
setting up. Or you have a job site table saw like this, that you just want to check periodically.
I'm going to show you some tips and tricks on how to do it. I mean, that's what this
channel is all about. I'm here to make you more self-sufficient. Let's get down to it!
All right guys! I brought you in here for a little up close and personal.
So, a couple items that we want are some reference material. So, if you're messing with a simple job site
table saw like this, I don't really care about the absolute of 100% preciseness. So, a simple square
like this, or a machinist square, will work for something like this. And eyeballing it
is not going to be a deal breaker on a job site saw. If you're setting up a brand new cabinet saw,
you might want to get yourself a dial indicator. And really set it up because you're going to want
that cabinet saw to be within, you know, a hundred thousands, you know, or a hundred--not a hundred thousands,
within a hundredths, or a thousandths, of an inch to make it, you know, as precise as it can be.
But this job site table saw is really used for hardwoods and laminates and cutting...
ripping boards, and stuff like that. So I really don't care about the preciseness, but i'm showing you here.
So first we're going to talk about the angle of the blade coming out of the actual table.
So I'm going to move this. And I moved you on camera just a little bit, but I want to get
the best bird's eye view for this procedure here. So, we are going to look right down the blade here.
I'm going to bring it up to its maximum height--so--raise your blade.
All right, now we're nice and close here. Now we're going to take our square here
and we're going to set it against the blade. So, I don't know if you can see that on camera or not,
but it's not perfectly up and down. So, it is out a little bit at the bottom,
and it...Wow! I have paint on my finger still. It is a little out from the bottom and
it touches the top of the blade before the bottom of the blade. So what we want to do is, we want to
make sure that we have had our saw all the way up to the 90 degree mark here. Let me unlock it
and reset it here and tighten it back down.
And, okay, now it seems to be perfect. I just literally had it at the wrong spot. It wasn't
all the way locked down. So, if you were moving this from site to site and you banked on that
being a 100% perfect...well guess what? It wasn't! So all right, our next measurement is going to be here
with the relationship of the fence to the blade. You want them to be 100% parallel.
Now what I always do here is, I take a metal ruler, just like this, like a machinist rule.
And the reason why I do this is because these are 100% static. They are not a tape measure.
There's a difference between every single tape measure on the market. No matter how little of a difference--
there is a difference--with every tape measure. So, what you can do here is set it up with a tooth
and you can measure the exact distance. And what I like to do is, when I'm setting this up, I will look down at it.
And I will set it to an even number. So I will move my machinist rule over and
you're going to want to line it up on one of the teeth that is facing the fence.
On a blade like this, every other tooth-- one is facing left, one is facing the right. So one sticks out
on the left. The next one sticks out on the right. The next one sticks out on the left.
The next one sticks out on the right. So, we're looking at one that sticks out this way, towards the fence.
And I have it set on...right on four centimeters. So we'll go ahead and lock our fence down here.
Okay? Now we want to verify that it's still right on four centimeters. Now you can actually slide it
in between the blade. And let me see if I can zoom you in a little tighter here
and get you an up close and personal here. So, I have it set here. I actually put it underneath the blade.
The blade can come down on it and I'm right at four centimeters. Same thing goes back here
at the back end of the blade. So, since I have a riving knife, it's a little bit more difficult.
I have to zoom you back out. But since I have a riving knife, it is a little bit more difficult.
You can always take out the riving knife to do this. But now we are looking at the same side
of the blade. And it looks to be good enough for government work is what I'll call it.
It's pretty much dead on the money. Right where I want it to be. So, if you had a dial indicator, you could set your
dial indicator up. Obviously your fence would be further away from your blade. But you could
set up your dial indicator. And then you could reference a point here, and reference a point here,
and you can figure out that...Boom! I've got a difference or I'm right on the money and
I have no difference. So, that's another one that you can do. Now, I know a lot of guys...
If you're setting up a cabinet saw, you need to worry about this relationship-- your actual blade
to the groove in your saw. So this is where you would want to set your machinist rule
and bring your blade, or bring your ruler, out to your blade. And you could actually tighten it down.
Tighten it down, nice and tight, and check it in relation to
the actual groove in your table saw. Now this one's pretty darn good for a job site table saw.
If you were setting up a big cabinet saw and you wanted it to be precise-- obviously a dial indicator
is best here. But this one's right on the money. If you were needing to adjust that,
and your blade was in and out like this, there are screws underneath the table which allow the motor
and the arbor to swivel each side. But this one is darn good. So, check reference to
the actual table. Check reference to the fence. And check reference up and down. So, if you needed
to adjust that on your saw--adjust a stop--there's usually always a stop on the front of your saw,
or on the actual body of the saw here. So, I'm going to change the camera a little bit here.
All right, while we are right here, this is a good time to also check this indicator for
your ruler on the actual fence. So what I'm going to do is bring the fence in here to about two inches here.
We'll bring our blade back. Remember the tooth facing the fence is going to be our
furthest most fence cut. I have it set at two inches. And we want to make sure that this is
on two inches. If I needed to move it, I just loosen these Phillips head screws and slide my indicator to match.
So that's how you check this reference. Now something I hadn't mentioned yet in the video
is setting up your miter gauge. So, if you did want to set up your miter gauge here, or your
miter push, you know, gauge, you can always set this up with a square here and make sure it's
perpendicular to the blade. This is a fairly cheap model. I mean, this thing is literally just a thumb screw
and then this thing just haphazardly moves around. So, I've never used this. So, if you had a really
nice miter gauge, you could definitely tune one in. And make sure that it was, you know, perpendicular
to the blade at 90 degrees or whatever you wanted to set it at. You know, you can check that with
a protractor--all that fancy stuff. So, I feel like I would be doing you an injustice if I didn't show you
that you could also check 45 here and make sure that your other stop is 100% correct.
So we slide it over to the 45 stop and then you can put your gauge, or your straight edge, right in here.
Why did I say straight edge? I meant your framing square here. You can put it up underneath
the blade and that blade angle will match all the way around. So, that's how to check 45.
So...too easy!
All right! So let's talk about referencing it exactly to zero.
So, there's always usually a set screw on your indicators. And this indicator is pretty darn good to me.
I mean, it was dead on zero. If it needed moved over a little bit, we can move it over.
If you were to tip up your saw here...if you're needing to make a legitimate adjustment on your stops,
here on this saw, it has a cam washer, where you literally just adjust it in and out.
This piece slides back and forth. So, this is your cam adjustment for 45. This is your cam adjustment for
90 degrees, or straight up and down. So, if I swung the saw over to my 45, we could also check it with
the square that we were using on the table. And we could adjust this accordingly.
Mine was right on the money. But if yours needed adjusted you could go one way or the other.
It would allow the saw, the blade, to tip over more or come back. And that's a good stop there.
So, some of them have bolt stops where you actually thread in a bolt.
So you might see that. On this particular model, these two screws down here allow the entire arbor and motor
to swivel from left to right. So, there are plenty of options when it comes
to adjustment. These two slotted screws will allow the whole saw to basically
pivot one way or the other. So, this is how to set up a genuine, little, you know. job site saw.
And it doesn't necessarily have to be perfect in this instance. So, I don't have a cabinet saw to
show you guys, but it is literally the same concept. Take your time. Use the exact same
reference material. If you're using a square, use it, you know, set it up. Use the exact
same thing for all of your measurements. Keep it consistent and you'll have a great end result.
All right guys, I hope you enjoyed that video. A nice, quick, simple way to check your table saw.
There's really not a lot to it. If you have any questions or concerns put them in the comments below.
I'm getting eaten up by mosquitoes out here in the garage. So I'm about to call it a night.
So, I hope you guys enjoyed the video! Please hit that subscribe button. Give me a thumbs up.
Or a thumbs down. Whatever you guys are into! And we'll see you guys in the next video.