Dial Indicator Use Question

[john moorhead]

Folks -

Well, I have the aforementioned Dial Indicator set from Grizzly, and was wondering about setup for checking out TS alignment.

In checking arbor shaft/flange runout, or the runout of any rotating component, should I measure by rotating the component and allowing the tip of the indicator to ride on the thing I'm measuring or should I zero it out, then lift the tip and rotate the shaft say to 90, 180 and 270 degrees and see how far out the shaft is from concentric? I guess an easier way to put it is will I do any damage to the gauge by having a lateral force (the shaft or wheel I would rotate by hand...) acting on the measuring plunger of the dial indicator?

Also, I can't get any specs from General for any of the common alignments, such as Arbor & shaft Runout, and paralellism between the blade/miter slots and blade/rip fence. I am also wondering how to check and adjust backlash for the sector gears. I don't think I have a problem, but dammit, I want to know that everything is okay. Benchmarking if you will.

I checked the runout on the blade just under the gullets and it is at .005...

I have emailed CSR at General ( [e-mail]) and the last 4 emails have bounced back. I did get a response about parts prices, but the CSR wanted to know *WHY* I wanted the specs. Lame.

Any help y'all can give would be appreciated, I expect I'll be checking out the jointer and bandsaw next.

TIA

John Moorhead Lakeport, CA

[Bridger]

that's pretty much what I do.

probably not, unless the blade has slots, like most of mine.

ping David Eisan....

now rotate the blade relative to the arbor and map out the changes. this will give you an indication (G) of whether the runout is blade or arbor or both.

tell 'em. benchmarking your saw....

once you get playing with the dial indicator you will find yourself thinking in thousandths all over the place. do you have a drill press? use the indicator to tram the spindle to table for squareness. have a router table? use the indicator to make the fine adjustments.

Bridger

[Andy Dingley]

Depends on the shaft, and the DTI. If you have a lever attachment for the DTI, then it's considered acceptable to let it run on a shaft that you rotate by hand. If you're putting the DTI shaft down directly, then is common practice, but not good practice (it's the sort of thing that foremen have berated apprenctices for for decades) If the shaft is at all rough, or has a keyway in it, then _really_. don't do it.

Many larger workshops can repair a scratched DTI glass by swapping it from one of the boxful of bent DTIs they keep in a cupboard somewhere, after someone started the machine up when the DTI was still in place. I used to have a squashed DTI that was about 1/4" thick - it had been under the tooling of a 250 ton press !

-- Smert' spamionam