Help with Dewalt adjustments.

[owler]

I need to stack cut three pieces of wood for a total of 1 1/4" thickness. When I tested the saw alignment I discovered that the bottom of the blade is set back slightly from the top (top of the blade is angled towards the front of the table). How do I adjust the blade to be perpendicular to the table?

[Rolf]

Buy an RBI hawk G4.
It depends on the saw, the front to back motion on my Delta SS350 is almost 1/8 inch and no way to adjust it out. That is one of the reasons that I bought my G4 it is adjustable if you need to. I believe the Eclipse is absolutely perpendicular and the Hegnars are close. I don't know about the Dewalts, having never used one.

[PuzzledMoose]

Working on the principle that you haven't taken up Rolf's suggestion and rushed out and bought a Hawk yet ...

Have you tried looking at Rick Hutcheson's site www.scrollsaws.com? There's a lot of stuff on there about "tuning"the DW788.


Know this doesn't help much but the blade holders on mine appear to be in line...

Ian

[owler]

Ian,

I have looked the Rick's site but unless I missed something I only see how to adjust the blade holders left and right, not back and forth.

[BobD (Archive)]

Steve Malavolta suggests puting a small shim behind the blade to make the saw have a more parallel stroke, as he puts it...

Some saws are adjustable, but some aren't...

Bob

[Marsha]

I have never found away to adjust the DW blade holders, front to back. My line up pretty straight. Just push the blade back into the top holder as far as it goes, and the bottom of the blade should drop into the bottom holder as far as it goes, and you should not have any problems. I cut 1 1/2" thick blocks when I compound cut and I've never noticed a problem.
Just my 2¢ worth
Marsha
QUOTE=BobD]Steve Malavolta suggests puting a small shim behind the blade to make the saw have a more parallel stroke, as he puts it...

Some saws are adjustable, but some aren't...

Bob[/QUOTE]
That would need to be one very tiny shim.
Marsha

[William Young (SE BC)]

Dan;
There is no adjustment on the back to front movement of the blade on a DeWalt saw. It is a non adjustable 30 thou (thousands of inch) movement throughout its stroke. It is the way the saw is made and is just something you have to get used to.
As a comparison, I have my adjustable P-20 set to 7 thou. Some claim that they can get their Hegners as low as 6 thou.
I couldn't believe how much better the lower back to front movement was for fretwork after I replaced my worn out DeWalt with my Delta P-20 . You can just spin the wood around with accuracy instead of always being aware of and adjusting sawing habits for the overcutting that you are probably experiencing. But of course like me and many others you never know the difference unless you have owned both so the 30 thou movement didn't bother me before I changed to the P-20 but I would never want to go back to any saw that could not be adjusted to my satisfaction...
W.Y.

[owler]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I will just have to compensate. I am not going to go out and buy a new saw now. I think if I limit my thickness to less than an inch I will be ok. I just don't have that option for this project.

[William Young (SE BC)]

Dan;
That is a good idea to keep your thickness down. I am in no way trying to discredit anybody's Dewalt saw . Simply stating facts. The main reason mine wore out was that I was doing a lot of thick stack sawing in hardwoods and putting way more hours on my saw in a month than most do in a year. That was the reason I upgraded to a more industrial quality saw that can handle it .
Not everyone is as production oriented as I have been over the years.
You have a good saw there that should last you a long time if just used for normal hobby type scrolling as long as you don't do a lot of deep stack sawing with it on a regular basis..
W.Y.

[BobD (Archive)]

You might be able to shim it with tiny strips of masking tape...just brainstorming here...

[Rolf]

I agree with W.Y. I didnt realize how agressive my Delta was until I used it last week for the first time in about a year. I had gotten used to the stroke on my RBI. I had a heck of a time following a line in 3/8 material. I used to cut very detailed stuff with it.

It just demonstrates how we get used to and comfortable with our own tools and defend them the way we do.

[William Young (SE BC)]

Hi Rolf.
Just out of curiosity have you ever measured the front to back blade measurement on your new model RBI with a dial guage to see just how much it has. ? The previous model RBI's have lots of front to back movement but it is the newer one like yours that claims to have less.
I know they advertise (or at least to) that their saw blade travels straight up and down but we all know that is misleading advertising because any saw with a parralel arm system like yours and P-20's and Hegners and many others makes it impossible to have zero front to back movement because the sheer design of it won't allow it as it creates varying degrees of an arc (depending on the make and model) as the blade travels up and down.
I have never seen it posted anywhere yet just excatly what the front to back movement is on that saw when set to its smallest setting if indeed it is adjustable..
W.Y.

[Rolf]

W.Y.
This thread has made me think about my saw. As soon as I get a chance I will put an indicator on the back of my blade on the RBI and post the info..
That would allow me to optimize it. It can be easily adjusted with an allen wrench.

I also agree that they can only get close not perfect. The Eclipse has the best mechanics for that.

The Delta SS350 was almost 1/8.

[lucky788scroller]

Adding a shim to get the blade to travel perfectly straight? Im sorry, but that seems like kind of a dumb idea to me. Although I dont use my saw as my business, and it is only hobby sawing for me, and my 4H group, The front/back movement has never caused me any grief. Industrial stack sawing excessive amounts of wood, and quite possibly rushing the saw to get more done in a certain time frame then the saw is designed to do can, and will cause anyone grief, and undo wear on a machine, I dont care what machine it is. Although cutting 1 1/4 inch thick hardwoods is definatly doable, it needs to be done with common sense.Let the blade cut the wood, take your time. Unless your saw has some problem mine do not have, you should be able to cut that without any noticeable diffrences between top and bottom piece. Like Marsha said, cutting 1 1/2 inch thick wood 3d chess pieces of hardwood CAN be done (even in purpleheart), so 1 1/4th can be to. Just remember, do it sensibly. Dale

[BobD (Archive)]

Don't hold back, Dale...tell me what you really think <GRIN>.

I can see your point, though; I was having a bad communication day yesterday. I should have elaborated: I was talking about if the top and bottom holders didn't line up exactly.

Point taken, though!

Bob