Learned the hard way why you always check your saw blade alignment first

Was building a set of shaker style cabinet doors last month for a kitchen remodel in Denver. Everything was going smooth until I started getting gaps at the cope and stick joints that were way too wide. Spent two days recutting tenons and adjusting my router setup before I finally checked the table saw. Turns out the blade was off by almost 1/16th of an inch from a job the week before where I bumped the fence. Had to scrap three door panels and start over with new wood, cost me about $80 in waste and a full Saturday. Now I make it a habit to check the blade with a square before every single project, not just the big ones. Anybody else have a simple thing like that eat up a bunch of time before you figured it out?

3 comments

3 Comments

masonm702mo ago

lol that reminds me of something my buddy learned building cabinets in arizona. he was using a digital angle gauge to check his blade and it was telling him it was fine, but the joints were still off. turned out the gauge itself was off by about 0.5 degrees from sitting in his hot truck all summer. now he keeps his square in the house overnight so it stays calibrated in the AC. never thought about how heat could mess with measuring tools until he told me that story.

derek99422d ago

yeah i read something similar about laser levels too. a guy on a construction site had his level drifting over a 50 foot run and he couldn't figure out why. turned out the internal sensors get thrown off by heat too, not just the batteries. @masonm70 your buddy's story makes sense now. some of those budget brands are worse about it cause they don't seal the electronics as well. i started leaving my combo square in the house too after i heard that.

jamesm482mo ago

Yo that's wild, @masonm70. I actually saw a thread on a woodworking forum where a guy tested his digital calipers and found they drifted after leaving them in a cold garage overnight. Makes you wonder how many other tools get thrown off by temperature swings without us even noticing. Guess that's why the old timers always said to let your gear acclimate before making serious cuts.