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I bought this saw last fall due to downsizing my home (and my shop) and overall it has been a pretty good unit. However I noticed the miter gauge wasn't quite square to the blade and I have attempted to adjust it by loosening the three screws on the bottom, bringing it to square with the bar and retightening the screws. However it seems to pull everything back into mis-alignment when I tighten those screws. Am I missing something here or should I just bite the bullet and buy an after market gauge?
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I may be misunderstanding your issue. The miter gauge itself should not be that difficult to square. Typically, they have a big clamp handle that can lock it in at any angle. You can, and probably should, ignore the factory "pre-sets" and just square it to the blade with a good square.
That being said, I have used MANY different types and brands of miter gauges in 30 years and I use the Osborne EB3. It is accurate right out of the box and can be reliably set to any 5 degree increment between 45 left and 45 right including stops for 22.5 on both sides. When you go back to 90, you do not even need to check it, it is 90.
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You are absolutely correct that it shouldn't be that difficult to square but it has a detent for 90* and other common angles and it snaps into place but not square. It is out of alignment at all angles at about the same amount so it is an apparent constant error that occurs across the board. I used an Incra on my table saw and made the mistake of including it in the sale when I down sized.
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My first thought is that the set screws might have been over tightened at initial setup by the manufacturer creating dimples at the point of contact to the miter bar thus creating in effect detents for the set screws to seat themselves back into those dimples. I have no fix for that but it might be worth looking into.
I have an Incra miter gauge for normal use and set up my OEM Delta miter gauge (semi-permanently) set to 90* (not set using the detents, just locked in place with the knob) with a zero clearance backer.
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09-10-2016, 07:32 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-10-2016, 07:33 PM by Steve N.)
(09-10-2016, 05:56 PM)jestrada Wrote: My first thought is that the set screws might have been over tightened at initial setup by the manufacturer creating dimples at the point of contact to the miter bar thus creating in effect detents for the set screws to seat themselves back into those dimples. I have no fix for that but it might be worth looking into.
This seems to be a more modern era contractor saw as the
Owners Manual refers to the riving knife. Any Delta tools of this vintage would have been Chinese, and may not have the best machined tolerances to begin with. This can be fixed by finding center of the bar, and if it isn't where they have made the dimple either overdrill it a deeper depth, and use a longer set screw, or fill the dimple with either JB Weld, or actually weld it then file it to make it a flat bar, and just redrill the dimples.
Worst thing they can do is cook ya and eat ya
GW
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I have this saw. What I did was loosen the three screws for the detent bar. Square the fence to the blade an lock it with the handle. Then flip it over and tighten the three screws. The locking knob should keep it square while you tighten the screws. This worked for me until I got an Osborne.
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Thanks, I finally did the same thing. I'm going to see if I need an after market one but right now I'm just using the Delta and a sled. Might need to build a sled for miters if I don't go after market.
