C. Face Plate | D. Miter Bar |
The Shop Fox® is a precision right angle fixture and should be exactly perpendicular to your table surface.
To check the accuracy of the Face Plate:
1.Place the Shop Fox® in an appropriate miter slot and place a high quality machinist’s square against the table and face plate. Figure 5.
2.If the face plate is not 90° to the table surface, determine whether it is pitching toward or away from the table surface.
3.Loosen the six (6) cap screws that secure the two hand holds to the sliding table. Pitch the face plate in the desired direction by the degree necessary for a perfect 90° angle. Do not loosen the face plate screws. Keep the hand hold and face plate screwed tightly together so no compounding errors occur.
4.Shim accordingly and
5.Recheck with a machinist’s square.
Figure 5. Checking for square.
The miter bar is made to fit standard 3/8" x 3/4" miter slots. Some machine manufacturers will deviate from this standard, however, and some slight modification of either the bar or the slot will be necessary.
1.Fit the miter bar in the miter slots of each of your machines. For each machine, note whether the fit is tight or loose. Hint: make modifications to your miter bar or slots only after you have tested each one. If, for example, the bar fits into 3 of your machines perfectly, but it is too tight in the fourth machine, then you should modify the width of the fourth miter slot. It would be counterproductive to alter the bar to fit the fourth slot because then it would no longer fit in the other three slots. You will only know this after testing all the relevant machines.
2.If the bar feels loose:
a.Measure the clearance with a 0.005" feeler gauge.
b.If the feeler gauge will fit between the bar and the slot, make a series of light punch marks along the side of the bar or the slot, depending on which you have decided to alter.
c.If the resulting fit is too tight, brush the punch marks lightly with emery cloth or fine file. This should fine-tune the fit of the bar.
3.If the bar is too tight or does not fit at all:
a.Use a fine file to make sure there are no dings or burrs on the bar or in the slot.
b.If the bar still binds, remove more material either from the bar or the miter slot.
Shop Fox® |