Tile saw not cutting a straight line

[jim simmons]

I have a Chicago electric (harbor freight) tile saw that I have been using for some time now to cut small pieces of pattern bars. I just made a long (14 ") cut of a kiln shelf and found that the cut is bowed. looks like the rim of a very large circle. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this problem? It allmost seems like the rail that the table slides on is bent.

Thanks Jim

[charlie]

I have a Chicago electric (harbor freight) tile saw that I have been using for some time now to cut small pieces of pattern bars. I just made a long (14 ") cut of a kiln shelf and found that the cut is bowed. looks like the rim of a very large circle. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this problem? It allmost seems like the rail that the table slides on is bent.

Thanks Jim

your material moved.

if the rail was bent, it wouldn't slide all the way since it's pretty fairly tight tolerances between the size of the rail and the sleeve on the bottom of the table. if the rail's were toed in or out (non-parallel), then it would bind somewhere. if the rails were skewed, it'd cut a non-square line across the material. the only way to explain a bent line is that the material moved.

it could be your technique. you should be holding material down, and not using any sideways force on the material into the blade.

just take another small slice off of the bent side, although this may be hard to do.

[jim simmons]

I have a Chicago electric (harbor freight) tile saw that I have been using for some time now to cut small pieces of pattern bars. I just made a long (14 ") cut of a kiln shelf and found that the cut is bowed. looks like the rim of a very large circle. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this problem? It allmost seems like the rail that the table slides on is bent.

Thanks Jim

your material moved.

if the rail was bent, it wouldn't slide all the way since it's pretty fairly tight tolerances between the size of the rail and the sleeve on the bottom of the table. if the rail's were toed in or out (non-parallel), then it would bind somewhere. if the rails were skewed, it'd cut a non-square line across the material. the only way to explain a bent line is that the material moved.

it could be your technique. you should be holding material down, and not using any sideways force on the material into the blade.

just take another small slice off of the bent side, although this may be hard to do.

Thought of that and so I clamped the piece down with two c clamps. Same thing exactly.


Jim

[Ron Coleman]

Ok Jim, try this. Set the blade for as deep a cut as it will make and hold a block of wood on the sliding table right next to the blade. You need a fairly tall piece of wood like a piece of 2x4. Slide the wood over so it just lightly touches the side of the blade where a cut would start and mark the blade location with a marker pen. Without moving the block of wood sideways, slide the table like you're making a cut until the same spot on the block is at the rear of the blade where a cut would end. Rotate the blade by hand to get the pen mark around to the rear and check the space between the blade and the block. This will tell you if the table is traveling parallel to the blade.

If there is any difference in the space between the block at the front and rear then the table is traveling skew to the blade. Marking the blade with the pen and using the same spot to check each time takes any blade runout out of the measurement.

Another thing that may be causing the problem is the blade may be worn more on one side than the other. This might be caused by a skewed table too, or just an old blade.

Ron

[jim simmons]

Another thing that may be causing the problem is the blade may be worn more on one side than the other. This might be caused by a skewed table too, or just an old blade.

Ron

Thanks Ron. The problem as I see it is that the start and the end of the cut are exactly on the straight line that I draw on the piece. HOWEVER, at the center, the cut is about 1/16th of an inch off of the line.

That suggests to me that the guide rail is bent.. But I am going to go through the alignment proceedure that was suggested.

Jim