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This
fixture is one that is used almost every day. The Dial
Indicator has a long shaft that can slide forward and
back to adjust spacing from the table saw slot. This
is used to align the slot to the blade and the fence to
the slot. This use found a very noticeable wavy condition
in one of my auxiliary fences for the Unifence. This
was a after market fence that had a 1/2" thick UHMW replaceable
face. The problem was this was attached with four
countersunk screws and the UHMW was not flat. This
surface was wavy up to .015" between screws. I added
several other screws and some tape shims and now it is parallel
to the slot within .003.
I have
also found this fixture to be invaluable when trying to
make small adjustments to the fence when finessing a
cut. If you need to make the cut just slightly
smaller or larger it is sometimes difficult to release
the fence and reposition with any precision. Put
the fixture in one of the slots and adjust the indicator
back/forth till it makes contact with the fence and zero
out the indicator. Now you have a reference point
and can move the fence any increments you wish. If
you have a large cut and the indicator will not reach
the fence you can add a scrap spacer, as long as you do
not shift the spacer it can be any scrap from the wood
pile.
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This is a Squareness
Comparator, used to check squareness of small machinist
squares, do a comparison on your jointer fence.
Used on the jointer you can check for squareness of
fence to both the in-feed and out-feed table along with
any twist in the fence. The fixture has many
vertical positions to allow you to check many different
tools that require one component to be square to
another. The
Jig is simple to build, the vertical leg needs to have
3/8 dia. holes drilled at matching points that you want
to check squareness. I just went around
positioning the veridical leg against the different
tools in the shop and marked the hole locations.
Next you need to drill the 3/8 holes with a good brad
point drill or Forstner bit. They need to fit the
stem of the indicator with minimal play. The
vertical leg is now split down the center on the ban saw
or with a fine tooth saw. Find a spot between
holes near the 1/2 way point and drill and tap for a
10-32 thump screw, optional way is to drill through and
use a nut. The vertical can now be glued or
screwed to a base. The bottom of the base is
relived to provide three points on contact, two in the
front and one in the rear. Directly above the
front pads add two round head screws for vertical
reference points
The fixture is
calibrated/set by the method of rotation to eliminate
error. You do need a plate that the fixture can be
compared to. The only requirement is the plate
must be the same thickness at the contact points.
Any difference in the thickness will show up as
squareness error. The plate used here is a extra
blank Phenolic router insert from WoodPeckers that I
have measured for thickness and found to be less than
0.001. The other requirement is to have a flat
surface to use as a horizontal reference. For most
of us woodworkers we do not have a Granite Surface plate
in out shop so we must improvise and use the flattest
surface we have which for most people will be the Table
Saw. Position the Vertical plate so the reference
pads are not spanning the area were the wings attach.
With fixture in Position #1 set indicator to Zero, now
rotate to Position #2 and record indicator reading.
The actual vertical squareness error is 1/2 of the total
error observed in position #2. Set the indicator
to 1/2 the error and recheck position #1. The
indicator should show the same amount but in the
opposite direction. The squareness comparator is
now set and can be used to check other squares or
machinery. In the third picture I have used a 3/8
parallel to bridge the base contacts, the indicator was
preset at 3/8 inch when doing the original set-up. |
Position #1
Position #2
 

 
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