Precision Saw Setup With MasterPlate
By Benjamen Johnson
If you’re looking to tune your table saw, referencing from a blade isn’t the most precise way — the blade could be warped or dirty, and those sharp teeth can get in the way. To combat this problem and give you the most precise alignment possible MasterGage sells their MasterPlate, a solid 6″ by 10″ by 3/8″ aluminum plate that replaces the blade while you tune your saw.
MasterGage machines the MasterPlate to within thousandths of an inch. Depending on which way you mount the MasterPlate it gives you 10″ of parallel surface or 7″ of vertical surface with which to square the table and the fence. Not only does it work on table saws with 5/8″ and 1″ arbors, it can also help align your radial arm saw or miter saw.
If you’re looking for the most accurate setup you can get, you could do worse than spend the $50 for the MasterPlate.
MasterPlate [MasterGage]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]
January 15th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Still seems like you should allign the fence to the thing that cuts your wood, not the thing that disappears when it’s time to get to work. If your blade is dorked up, what good is a tuned up fence?
January 16th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Matt, if your blade is dorked up, why would you use it? You might have a misaligned tooth, but if the plate of the blade is bent or off so you’re getting wobble and thus an inconsistent distance to the fence, I sure wouldn’t. At best, you’ll burn the wood.
January 16th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Why not run a bit of timber through and then adjust according to the angle that is actually being produced.
April 30th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
[...] a full inch of travel. You can measure the saw blade itself or a Master Plate made by Grizzly or someone else — the gauge’ll measure other tools as [...]