Just bought a General 650 table saw. Seems like a nice, solid saw but I'm having a few problems getting the fence installed correctly.
After I got everything together, I did some measuring. Found I had two problems.
1) far right end (as you face saw) of the square tube the fence rides on was about 1/16" lower than the far left side - as referenced from table top. 2) far right end of the tube was 3/4" away from the table, while far left end was 7/8" from the table. ( could not get all seven bolts in to bolt the square tube to the front rail - bolt on far right matched up so poorly I gave up, figuring it would not matter - first sure sign of disaster, ignoring common sense ).Spent the next few hours cursing the fates, clenching teeth, kicking the dog, blaming the public school system and sulking. For some reason, that didn't help.
Took tube off, front rail off and looked them over. Tube is dead straight and flat. I have another tube around from an old Exacta fence and they both mate up perfectly. Front rail on the other hand is bowed about 1/16" in the middle. Both on the side that touches the table saw and the side that faces the floor.
So I bolted the tube to the front rail with both off the saw. It was a lot easier to bolt together and when it was together the two far ends were the same distance from the tube. Slightly closer in the middle. Starting to look less like defective parts and more like setup errors.
I figure it dipped on the far right because you bolt the left half of the front rail on first, which I made level with the tablesaw top. I also figure the tube was different distances from the table top because I did a poor job attaching the seven bolts - six in my case.
Finally to the quesions!
Can someone please run a line along the bottom of your front rail (like snapping a chalk line ) and tell me if there is any bow? If so, how much.
I was thinking of attaching the left side of the front rail as I did before, then slightly lifting the far right end to flatten the bow before drilling into the particle board table. Did anyone do anything like that? Not real wild about introducing stress like that but there would not be much force involved - finger pressure at most.
Did you have problems lining up the holes for the seven bolts in the tube or could you spin them on with your fingers?
How did you attach the legs on the extension table? The spot I see them in the picture puts them right on top of the metal clips that hold the extension table top to the sides. I bought some 1 3/4" bolts for the two end holes so that after they are attached to the table and tightened down, about 1/2" of bolt sticks out that I can slide the legs on and bolt them on to.
Unrelated quesions: a) does your saw give a nice whump on start up? Sure hope it's harmless because I like it. Tells me this is not my dad's Oldsmobile and b) do you have a mobile base? Which one?
Thanks.