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I mentioned in my thread about the fort ladder that I'd discovered my miter saw was not cutting square. I had some time today to try to square it up and ran into a can of worms. I am having trouble comprehending what is going on and I think I'll have difficulty explaining it, but I need to try.
The saw is cutting square front to back (miter direction?). It is in the vertical (bevel) direction that the difficulty is occurring. When I first got the saw 18 mos. ago, I checked to see if it (the blade) was square vertically, according to the manual's directions, using a square on the table looking for light cracks up & down the vertical leg, which was up against the blade. It was already square as I do not recall having to do anything to it. That squaring procedure is part of this mystery, more on that as I go.
Today, I checked it with the square, but also used one of my angle cubes (another recent thread here). It indicated the blade was not square to a readout of the cube to 0.00º, even though the square seemed to show it was. But, test cuts showed that the cuts being made on a 2x6 were NOT square - vertically. So, I figured out what the procedure is for squaring the saw and dove in to it. Setting the angle cube to 0.00º resulted in the cuts being further out of square than before. Huh?
Through quite a lot of test cuts and adjustments, I determined that - when I get the cuts to turn out square vertically, the blade is actually angled off of square by about 1º. In examining the saw more closely, it is quite evident that the blade, is angled, but seems to be coming down vertically. That is, the blade is not square to the table, but the vertical travel of the whole moving assembly is coming down squarely. A confirmatory bit of info is that the black writing on a yellow background on one side of the saw, all that is smeared, as though it is rubbing against the fixed wood section of the 2x6. Further, black writing (but no yellow background on the other side of the blade is not smeared at all.
This is where I'm having difficulty understanding what is going on. I don't understand how the blade can be canted at an angle and coming down vertically and the saw cuts are coming out square. And there is no sign of the blade rubbing on the fresh cut ends. I'm baffled and it is too late tonight for me to think about it any more tonight. I plan on calling DeWalt support tomorrow. If anyone has any thoughts on what this could be, I'm eager to hear them.
Rick
The saw is cutting square front to back (miter direction?). It is in the vertical (bevel) direction that the difficulty is occurring. When I first got the saw 18 mos. ago, I checked to see if it (the blade) was square vertically, according to the manual's directions, using a square on the table looking for light cracks up & down the vertical leg, which was up against the blade. It was already square as I do not recall having to do anything to it. That squaring procedure is part of this mystery, more on that as I go.
Today, I checked it with the square, but also used one of my angle cubes (another recent thread here). It indicated the blade was not square to a readout of the cube to 0.00º, even though the square seemed to show it was. But, test cuts showed that the cuts being made on a 2x6 were NOT square - vertically. So, I figured out what the procedure is for squaring the saw and dove in to it. Setting the angle cube to 0.00º resulted in the cuts being further out of square than before. Huh?
Through quite a lot of test cuts and adjustments, I determined that - when I get the cuts to turn out square vertically, the blade is actually angled off of square by about 1º. In examining the saw more closely, it is quite evident that the blade, is angled, but seems to be coming down vertically. That is, the blade is not square to the table, but the vertical travel of the whole moving assembly is coming down squarely. A confirmatory bit of info is that the black writing on a yellow background on one side of the saw, all that is smeared, as though it is rubbing against the fixed wood section of the 2x6. Further, black writing (but no yellow background on the other side of the blade is not smeared at all.
This is where I'm having difficulty understanding what is going on. I don't understand how the blade can be canted at an angle and coming down vertically and the saw cuts are coming out square. And there is no sign of the blade rubbing on the fresh cut ends. I'm baffled and it is too late tonight for me to think about it any more tonight. I plan on calling DeWalt support tomorrow. If anyone has any thoughts on what this could be, I'm eager to hear them.
Rick