Reply by blackspring

Hey fellas -
Just thought I’d post a progress report. Canadian Tire has a sale on right now, so I picked up a digital caliper – something I’ve wanted for a while and this was a good excuse to buy one – reg $40 on for half price.

Anyway – I’ve spent the past 3 hours fine tuning things on the saw and took Lifesaver’s advice and shimmed the back of the fence. I put a 3/4” piece of hardboard in the miter gauge slot and then clamped the fence to it with a shim at the back. Tightened everything up and measured with the digital gauge. The difference between the front and rear is .064” which I think is pretty good, compared to what it was. Measuring from an arbitrary fence position to the miter slot, the front reads 5.774” and the rear, 5.789 – I can live with that!

I then got the saw blade adjusted..the difference from the front and back of the blade to the miter slot edge is .027” again, I think this is pretty good.

Thanks for all the feedback here.

Mr White – I put the anti-kickback pawls and blade guard on too… going to force myself to build good habits ;)