Review of redline x point setup tool

[Porkdog]

Hi all,

I recently bought the redline x point setup tool for use in aligning my home shop machines and wanted to share some observations.

Overall, it sucks. There is very little that is good about the unit except for the plastic carrying case. After spending half an evening aligning my table saw with the unit I have some specific observations. Some notes:

Almost all the machined threads were poorly cut requiring me to chase them before assembly and useage.

The base extrusion was anything but flat and left marks in my tablesaw table.

The camming mechanism to remove slop between the bearings and miter slot loosened every pass up and back down the miter slot requiring me to retighten it for each measurement run.

The styluses provided for the dial indicator did not seat flush to the end of the indicator shaft making precision absolute measurement completely impossible. Which makes any attempt to measure any angle completely worthless.

When completely extended, the plunger on the dial indicator read .01" short of 1". This could be fixed with a shim on the back side screw if I were so inclined.

The finish of the extrusions and machined parts is really poor. Lots of stray tooling marks and edges with burrs.

With lots of patience and the help of a machinists plate I was able to align my blade to the miter slot to within .002" (the tolerance of my flat plate).

After my miserable experience trying to use the unit I did a google search and found a review of the unit at:

reading the review I can assure you that all the defects the review found were consistant with what I saw on my unit.

In short, the thing is almost completely worthless. I'd have saved myself lots of time and trouble if I'd just bought a dial indicator and made my own alignment fixtures. Buyer beware. And for what it's worth, I have no affiliation to any company selling anything, woodworking or otherwise.

Hope this helps, Brian

[CW]

With the plunger fully extended, the indicator should not read zero. You should have to compress the plunger a short distance (.010 is about right) to zero it.

[Ed Bennett]

It's true. Most dial indicators will have a bit of extra travel at each end of the travel limits. So, a 1" dial indicator should really have more than 1" of total travel. Usually it's about 0.020" to

0.030" (between 10 and 15 thousandths on each end). I'm not sure from Brian's description if he is seeing less than 1" total travel or if he is just noticing this typical overtravel.

I bought one of these "Redline X Point" things too (for the review, of course!). I can truely empathize with Brian's remorse. Most of the competitive tools I buy have some redeeming qualities. I think that the case and the manual are the best aspects of this product. With regard to it's alignment capabilities, Brian is right: the "dial indicator on a stick" solution is far superior. He sent me an email the day before posting his review to express his frustration. I suggested he try to get his money back. I don't know how that is going.

Ed Bennett [e-mail]

of the TS-Aligner