MASTER PLATE

[Gene Howe]

Yesterday, the guys in the brown truck delivered this tool. It's an absolutely flat 6" by10", 1/4" thick aluminum plate. Well, flat to within 0.001". Close enough for me.

It can be used to: check and align blade squareness to the table, insure parallel fence settings, and blade parallel to the miter slot. Also it will square the miter gauge.

Most commonly, it is mounted on the saw arbor. There are holes to accommodate both 5/8" and 1" arbors. They make one with metric holes, also.

It can be used on the table saw, miter saw, RAS, and disk sander. 

I've been playing with it for a few hours and have found both my table saws tables were slightly askew and the detents on the SCMS were not accurate.

Test cross cuts on all three machines were better than before alignment. In fact, 45s on the SCMS were perfect.

Five stars for this little jewel.

Here's a link to the web site.

 

[Grandpadave52]

Nice review Gene. I've contemplated one of these, but never taken the plunge. May have to put one in the '16-'17 budget proposal.   

[Gene Howe]

Thanks Dave. An aluminum plate isn't all that exciting but this is fantastic. Go for it. You won't be sorry.

Edited September 9, 2016 by Gene Howe

[John Morris]

Great recommendation Gene! Thanks for the link too.

[Chips N Dust]

Good info to know - thanks for the link

[lew]

Thanks for the review, Gene. I've often wondered if these plates were accurate. Nice to know they are.

[Gene Howe]

39 minutes ago, lew said:

Thanks for the review, Gene. I've often wondered if these plates were accurate. Nice to know they are.

Very accurate. The 10" length is great because you can't get a saw blade high enough to check squareness or tilt over maybe 6" or so. Plus, there's no teeth to worry about.

Edited September 9, 2016 by Gene Howe

[Fred W. Hargis Jr]

They are accurate, I could never get past the price (back in the day). But I was lucky enough to purchase some stuff off a fellow who's health was forcing him to give up woodworking...he had one and gave it to me with the rest of the stuff I bought. They are handy and mine got a serious workuot wen I was tuning my RAS.

[Gene Howe]

Fred, I always had trouble keeping my RAS accurate. Blamed the MDF table and fence. More likely was my ignorance. If the plate had been available back then, I'd still have that saw.

Glad you got yours all lined up.