Biesemeyer splitter parallel adjustment
I noticed earlier tonight that my saw was binding a bit during rip cuts on a piece of Baltic Birch. Not much. . . just enough so that I could feel it as friction when I pushed the piece through the blade. The fence was set up to make a 61mm cut. The 48″ piece ends up 61mm on the initial cut end and 60mm on the trailing end. The first thing I checked was the Biese fence and it’s dead on parallel. The next thing I checked is the splitter and I can see that it isn’t parallel to the blade. It’s skewed away from the fence (and blade) enough for me to see the gap when I check it with a straight edge.
The Biesemeyer manual on Delta’s Servicenet (now there’s an oxymoron!) is all of two pages and doesn’t mention adjustment for parallel. Anyone got any ideas on how to make the adjustment? The only thing I’ve come up with is using shim stock between the splitter housing and the body of the saw.
Regards,
Ron
BTW, the only reason I was using metric is because I was cutting frame members for an extension table and 61mm is the most precise measurement I could get for the difference between the bottom of the back rail and the top of my saw table.
Edited 4/22/2009 9:00 pm ET by RonInOttawa
Replies
Ron,
Lay an straight edge on it when it's out. If it's not dead flat from insert tongue to the top above the pawls, it's bent. Either try to straighten it with gentle force or take the pawls off and take it to a machine shop with a press to reflatten the whole thing. May have happened when splitter was in, blade down and the fence inadvertently shifted into it. Done it.
Either way, it's dangerous. Has to be dead center on a normal kerf blade with a slight (1-2 thous) gap on BOTH sides of the blade.
Hope this helps.
BB
Hi Ron,
It doesn't seem like it takes much of a bump to get the Beis splitter way out of wack, I too have been there and done it. Amazing thing is I must have gremlins in the shop, because I don't ever remember wacking the splitter..
I too did the whole bend it back to perpendicular and parallel thing, most amazing part is I don't recall the splitter being that easy to bend..
I must have the same gremlin in my shop! I don't recall ever whacking it with the rip fence and if I'm not using the saw I always lower the blade and take the splitter off. That's because my shop is in the garage and everyone else in the family always piles stuff on the top of the saw when they're loading/unloading things from their cars! Not me, of course! :<))Regards,Ron
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