Auxillary rip fence for saw and blade alignment question

[stryped]

x-no-archive:yes

I have some unused wood flooring. Would a 2 foot or so section be ok to use as an auxillary rip fence?

Also my saw is a cheap delta benchtop model. I got the manual out to see how to check blade alignment. It said to use a T square in the miter fence grove and measue the distance to one of the teeth. Then rotate that tooth from the back to the front and measure. I did this at least 10 times with varying degrees of sucess. (It is hard to be consistant). It looks as if the back of the saw is 1/16 inch larger gap than the front.

The manual saif to loosen 4 phillips screws on the table and then grab the blade to put it in the right position. I went to loosen these screws and they would not buge and it started to wear out the phillips head. Even after penetrating lube. Is this worth the 16th of an inch? My other thought is to turn over the saw and with vice grips from underneath loosen the bolts, maybe replacing them with allen head bolts or something.

Is there an easier way to line up the saw blade than just "grabbing it" after loossening these screws? Also, if I dont do any work with the miter fence and mainly do ripping, is it necessary to adjust it so it is perfectly parallel with the miter slot? I mean it seems easy to align the rip fence to the blade, just measure the front side of the sawblade tooth from the fence and adjust the rip fence so that the rear side of a saw blade tooth matches this number.

Also, would just a piece of angle iron clamped to the saw table suffice as a fence?

Thanks for your help!

[Pop]

Should be OK.

That depends on you. Does it cut what you need? If you don't have any problems, then it's not bothering you. Technically, if it's really 1/16, that's a lot of misalignment, but ... if it's working OK for you, then ...

Bad idea, IMO. You may cause so much damage to the screws they'd never back out. Have you tried Liquid Wrench & following th einstructions on the can? I've used vise grips that way before, but I also used a die to put the threads back so the bolt would come out without further damage to the threads it mates with. They still came out hard, but they came out without breaking or damaging the mating threads.

No idea; depends on the saw. Possibly the motor mounts?

Also, if I dont do any work with the

Technically, yes, but if you can work around it, well ...

I mean it seems easy to

That's what I would do.

Yes, but you might want a piece of sacrificial wood attached to it. If the blade ever comes in contact with it ... the steel will win.

HTH Pop

[bent]

you know what an impact driver is. You should find one for $10 or less. Why let this problem be a problem? You just hit it at the end with a hammer, and it spins the bit as it forces it into the head. Don't strip it in the first place. can get you out of that situation too.