Fred Page
Established Member
Here’s a long and sorry tale of how I spent an entire afternoon.
I still regularly use a Coronet Major saw table for most square cross cutting. Well, it’s not been very square recently and I set out to ‘fine tune’ as they say these days. No matter how I adjusted the mitre gauge I still failed to get a true 90 degree cut. To do this I used a small engineer’s square against the saw blade - absolutely square but not the answer. I then checked the mitre gauge slot against the blade and yes, this was out and needed adjustment (a procedure I’d never done before in forty years!). With the help of Pyatt Woodworking I found out how to do this and was pleased with the result. However, I still couldn’t get a spot on square cut. In desperation I then laid a straight edge across the small piece of 6 ply I’d screwed to the mitre gauge (Picador Fig. 110. - these must have been supplied to Coronet many years ago). To my horror I found this had developed a distinct curve! No wonder I was getting out of square cross cuts. To my further horror I found my 9 inch try square also out of true.
Don’t ask me what I’ve learned from this other than it pays to check the obvious first. Using the mitre gauge without any additional wooden support I now get a perfect 90 degree cut. I do wonder whether it might be possible to use a suitable section and length of truly flat aluminium as extra support on the mitre gauge?
Fred
I still regularly use a Coronet Major saw table for most square cross cutting. Well, it’s not been very square recently and I set out to ‘fine tune’ as they say these days. No matter how I adjusted the mitre gauge I still failed to get a true 90 degree cut. To do this I used a small engineer’s square against the saw blade - absolutely square but not the answer. I then checked the mitre gauge slot against the blade and yes, this was out and needed adjustment (a procedure I’d never done before in forty years!). With the help of Pyatt Woodworking I found out how to do this and was pleased with the result. However, I still couldn’t get a spot on square cut. In desperation I then laid a straight edge across the small piece of 6 ply I’d screwed to the mitre gauge (Picador Fig. 110. - these must have been supplied to Coronet many years ago). To my horror I found this had developed a distinct curve! No wonder I was getting out of square cross cuts. To my further horror I found my 9 inch try square also out of true.
Don’t ask me what I’ve learned from this other than it pays to check the obvious first. Using the mitre gauge without any additional wooden support I now get a perfect 90 degree cut. I do wonder whether it might be possible to use a suitable section and length of truly flat aluminium as extra support on the mitre gauge?
Fred
(still have good memoires of the old Coronet Consort that I sold long ago) And are Picador still in business? Haven't seen their stuff for ages.
