First of all, I love the channel. There are a few that I subscribe to and this is my favorite. The work is great and one of the biggest draws is your shop almost exactly mirrors my own. I also run an SCM slider, the Minimax SC3. Your other tools, the overall size etc is very similar to mine. I don't know how the documentation for your slider was, but for me it was almost nothing. It had been a few years since I had done a setup so over the winter I did a full alignment which took me a couple of days. Everything is good but I am still struggling with getting the blade aligned. This is the first time I have ever had an issue. I have a dial indicator that I put on the slide side and a master plate that bolts up on the arbor. I've even clamped my level to the plate to get a longer surface to index to. The only way I know to adjust the blade tracking is to loosen the four bolts to the table top and move the entire table. Even indexed to zero sliding down the full surface of the blade I still get this wacky tear out on the trailing edge. Never had this before. I finally gave up and went by ear and eye. As in a test cut and listen for those back teeth and also to look for the tiny bit of sawdust the kicks up when it's out of alignment. That worked better than the dial indicator, but its still not perfect. Its becoming a problem because I want to cut some cherry ply and that veneer will tear. Your saw isn't exactly like mine, so yours may have other adjustments. Or you may have gotten some actual documentation with yours lol. How do you align your blade, or have you been able to just use the factory alignment? Other than that, mine is a vital part of the shop. Its too big realistically, but I do a lot of crosscut work and it is so much easier. I did put a digital readout on the crosscut fence which is extremely useful. I also put an Incra fence on it. Wicked accurate. I have some hard maple I am going to make big t-nuts with for fixtures and clamps on the slide. You do lots of great, clean projects and your website is nice. Thanks for the content.
Thanks for the kinds words! I really appreciate that. The documentation on the slider is "ok", but I wouldn't call it comprehensive. Sorry to hear your blade fell out of alignment, but it sounds like you took the right approach to get it dialed back in. On the Class SI 350, I haven't needed to make any adjustments from the factory, which is a big relief. I believe when you venture into the SCM line of machines (rather than Minimax), the fit, finish, and calibration from the factory is a step up for sure.
First of all, I love the channel. There are a few that I subscribe to and this is my favorite. The work is great and one of the biggest draws is your shop almost exactly mirrors my own. I also run an SCM slider, the Minimax SC3. Your other tools, the overall size etc is very similar to mine. I don't know how the documentation for your slider was, but for me it was almost nothing. It had been a few years since I had done a setup so over the winter I did a full alignment which took me a couple of days. Everything is good but I am still struggling with getting the blade aligned. This is the first time I have ever had an issue. I have a dial indicator that I put on the slide side and a master plate that bolts up on the arbor. I've even clamped my level to the plate to get a longer surface to index to. The only way I know to adjust the blade tracking is to loosen the four bolts to the table top and move the entire table. Even indexed to zero sliding down the full surface of the blade I still get this wacky tear out on the trailing edge. Never had this before. I finally gave up and went by ear and eye. As in a test cut and listen for those back teeth and also to look for the tiny bit of sawdust the kicks up when it's out of alignment. That worked better than the dial indicator, but its still not perfect. Its becoming a problem because I want to cut some cherry ply and that veneer will tear.
Your saw isn't exactly like mine, so yours may have other adjustments. Or you may have gotten some actual documentation with yours lol. How do you align your blade, or have you been able to just use the factory alignment? Other than that, mine is a vital part of the shop. Its too big realistically, but I do a lot of crosscut work and it is so much easier. I did put a digital readout on the crosscut fence which is extremely useful. I also put an Incra fence on it. Wicked accurate.
I have some hard maple I am going to make big t-nuts with for fixtures and clamps on the slide. You do lots of great, clean projects and your website is nice. Thanks for the content.
Thanks for the kinds words! I really appreciate that. The documentation on the slider is "ok", but I wouldn't call it comprehensive. Sorry to hear your blade fell out of alignment, but it sounds like you took the right approach to get it dialed back in. On the Class SI 350, I haven't needed to make any adjustments from the factory, which is a big relief. I believe when you venture into the SCM line of machines (rather than Minimax), the fit, finish, and calibration from the factory is a step up for sure.