TS-Aligner Jr Lite with the TS3650 TS, and unsquare squares

[ja...@ganssle.com]

Folks,

Thought I'd report on this combo. Having two kids in college I bought
the cheapest aligner (TS-Aligner Jr Lite - what a name!) from Ed to
adjust my newish Rigid TS3650.

The TS book claimed a trunion error of under 0.015" is fine, and when I
set the saw up it seemed to be better than that using a combination
square. The TS-Aligner book says 0.005" is the goal. So I set the
system up to take some data. The Aligner Jr Lite doesn't mount properly
on the crummy miter guage that comes with the saw - it can't rest on
the saw table, so I biased it up a half-inch using a precision 0.5"
flat metal stock. After doing that the Aligner showed my trunion to be
off 0.0065". I was astonished that the Aligner could repeat that
measurement time after time. Sighing, thinking that the adjustment
would be a hassle, I read the procedure. Turns out you loosen six
bolts, and then move a little positioning lever. It took no more than
5 minutes to get the thing to 0.001" accuracy! And, again, the Aligner
gave a repeatable readout every time I ran the test.

One is supposed to align the fence visually and with a framing square
to a miter slot. But the Aligner showed I had nearly 0.010" error,
which was also easily corrected. Comparing the framing square to the
precision square I also bought from Ed, I found that the big old Home
Depot square is pretty unsquare. Over 8" it's off by 0.006", so I
imagine that over it's 24" length it's off a lot.

For fun I checked the squareness of my old, cheap, Sears combination
square and was surprised to find it spot on with no light visible
between it and the precision square.

Anyway, though I bet the more expensive versions of the TS-Aligner are
more convenient, I'm delighted with the Jr Lite, and plan to use it for
other things, like checking prop shaft alignment on our sailboat.

As for the TS3650 which gets occasional reviews here, it's a wonderful
saw that cuts with great accuracy. Other than the lousy miter guage, I
highly recommend it.

Jack

[C & E]

<ja...@ganssle.com> wrote in message
news:1165766621.2...@79g2000cws.googlegroups.com...

Have you seen the 'fix' for out-of-square, squares? To widen the angle
strike a center punch at the inside 90* angle. To narrow (bring the legs
closer to each other) place the punch near to the outside angle and strike.
Can't say that I've tried it - just recently ran across the technique. HTH

[e...@ts-aligner.com]

Thanks for the review Jack, I appreciate the good words.

Hi HTH,

This technique works only on framing squares. And, it can only correct
angular errors. It cannot correct errors which involve the
straightness of the edges. Framing squares are great for framing. In
such an application the amount of error that Jack reported is pretty
insignificant. The square he used as a reference is designed for
machinery alignment. Different application with different
requirements.

Thanks,
Ed Bennett
e...@ts-aligner.com
http://www.ts-aligner.com

Better squares are needed for machinery alignment