I was thinking…could i not check my mitre saw and adjust it the same way. I make five cut determine who far of 90 the angle is and adjust the mitre detent accordingly. I am assuming that the saw manufacture place the detents properly in relation to each other. So if I make sure the 90 degree detent is bang on .001 inch perfect everything else should be golden. Right???
Disclaimer. I am a rookie wood worker trying to have accurate tools right from the start to avoid early frustration.
not necessarily. there are far more adjustments than just the fence/detents on a miter saw to get it to work properly.
First, for good tool setup invest in a good set of machinist squares. Get one 90 and one 45. They aree set to much better tolerances than something like a Starret square.
Second - do you have a good way to joint your test piece - you need at least one good registered edge to calibrate your cut. 45 detents are usually not adjustable, so you need to do some checks to see if both sides machined properly.
I have a good pdf from Fine Woodworking - PM me with an e-mail address to send it to.
Did some more digging around - page 24 of the manual here - http://www.festoolusa.com/media/pdf/kapex-ks120-supplemental-manual.pdf - describes how to do it on a miter saw. I will note that they bring up the very valid point that if you are trying to get to 0.001 degree you are way below factory tolerances, and it may not be achievable, and given the nature of working with wood, not even required. It is way more critical in long rip cuts where the error can magnify over the length than doing a bit of trim molding.
I will note that they bring up the very valid point that if you are trying to get to 0.001 degree you are way below factory tolerances, and it may not be achievable, and given the nature of working with wood, not even required.
.001 of a degree? That’s .00001745 of an inch per inch. I’d say that’s a bit overboard for wood
Kinda my point - now if you were butt jointing several long boards together (think cedar strip canoe/kayak construction) - you definitely want tolerances as low as possible - but for a miter saw and the usual 2-5" cuts - not so much.
OK - - not a big issue - but your out of the box setup is pretty accurate these days. Definitely make sure you bed is flat, you fence is flat and square tot he blade - but you can do that with the simple gap test your video describes rather than going to the 4 cut method.
I am assuming you are not trying to rip the rails and stiles - so your biggest accuracy point is going to be getting lengths equal.
How do you plan on doing the mortise and tenon? If you are going to mess anything up - that will be the thing. I have done both machined and hand and they take practice.
Kinda my point - now if you were butt jointing several long boards together (think cedar strip canoe/kayak construction) - you definitely want tolerances as low as possible
I understand that but for wood working .00001745" of an inch is probably way closer then possible. I have a fairly expensive piece of equipment that has glass scales, is kept in a fairly temperature controlled room and is constructed of granite and large aluminum castings. We just had it calibrated by a 17025 laboratory that used fancy lasers and NIST certified blocks and it is certified to measure to .00045 inches over it’s 22" travel. That’s larger then the tolerance you’re talking about by about 17%. IOW the machine I have can’t reliably measure the tolerances you’re talking about…so I’m guessing there’s no wood working shop in the world that can machine to those tolerances.
Look at it this way. The average human hair is ~.003" thick. If you could hold those tolerances you could cut a piece of wood ~172" long and only be off by the width of a human hair.
Not disagreeing, which is why I said as low as possible.
The 4 or 5 cut method FTDA references can determine issues down to about 0.001 inch - probably I mis-cited saying degree. Anyhow, a lot of people fret WAY too much about these things when working in wood. Now things like arbor runout and wobble can have a real effect but this degree of squareness is for the most part not critical. And it is not that hard to true up by hand. More important to practice technique than doing a huge tuneup on a new machine, unless it shows something really obvious.
I don’t bother with much more than a couple of machinist squares and a runout dial for my setups, and probably only check them once every 6 months if I am in the shop most weekends.
Not disagreeing, which is why I said as low as possible.
The 4 or 5 cut method FTDA references can determine issues down to about 0.001 inch - probably I mis-cited saying degree.
I think I was leaning more towards this…
I don’t bother with much more than a couple of machinist squares and a runout dial for my setups, and probably only check them once every 6 months if I am in the shop most weekends.
Even if it is possible to hit something in wood to .001" it would seem to me to be largely a waste of time as the material itself is so malleable. Sure you don’t want things WAY off but I’m not sure you’re going to see any real benefit between .01" and .001" and probably spend 10X the amount of time trying to get to that point. You should be able to get close to .01" with a decent square. I’m speaking cuts being off, not spindle runout as .01" spindle runout is an issue…but that’s not a wood or wood product issue but a machine issue.
Okay. But you do realize that the router will give you a round ended mortise, while the saw will give a square tenon. You need to plan to either square up the mortise or round off the tenon. I would square the mortise.
