Aligning the holes

[oregoncarver]

I have been working on a way to align a hole on my DeWalt saw for a while now. I have put the saw down to fast where I think the hole is on the table and have bent blades.
I purchased a Laser Marker from Harbor Freight, part no. 93242, I paid 2.99 on coupon, they are about 5.00 regular. I took the cap off the light end and removed the small black cover from the light and reassembled the end. I drilled a slightly larger hole in one of the mounting bracket holes large enough to accept a screw that fit the hold down bar screw hole on the saws upper arm since I don’t use the hold down attachment. Turn the laser on and lift the upper arm all the way up and adjust the laser to point on the hole, tighten the screw mounting the laser down. When you need the light it is a push on push off switch, don’t know how long the batteries last but I have been using this for several hours with no problem.

I am working on connecting one to a level switch so when I lift the saw arm the light comes on, but I am a ways from getting this accomplished at this time.

I have not tried this on any other brand of saw at this time but I guess it would work about the same.

Hope this is clear, if not please ask.

Arthur
oregoncarver@hotmail.com

[minowevie]

Geese. Arthur, I never thought of that. I have a bottom feed on my saw. and never thought about how it might be with a top feed. That is a bummer. for sure. sounds like you have a remedy for it though. I think I will stick to my bottom feeder. your friend Evie

[lucky788scroller]

Its kind of clear to me, but I havent ever seen a need for anything like that, maybe I am doing things differently, Im not sure, but, as long as it works for you, its the right thing to do!

[oregoncarver]

I use the laser light only when I work on large projects which I seem to be doing a lot lately. I do a lot of 11x17 projects.

Arthur

[pat c]

How about a picture of the rig? Thanks, Pat

[Rolf]

I top feed my RBI G4 all the time. When you have done it as many times as I have there is no need for gadgets. It becomes a reflex. I think your idea would be great for someone new to scrolling or just switching over to top feeding.

[Richard Grover]

Arthur,

Thanks a million for this tip. I too have a Dewalt and love it. I have been a bottom feeder all along for the simple reason that I could never align the hole in the wood with the hole in the table. Once the project is half done it becomes easier because of reference points in the portrait. I really want to increase my cutting speed, and all the advice I got was to become a top feeder - which did not increase my cutting speed because of all the time I spent fumbling around to align the holes. I will have to try this one. I would think that it would be helpful to top feed on a very delicate piece instead of lifting the piece off the table all the time.

DG Dewalt 788

[Cashmere Scroller]

Laser guided scroll saw sounds cool. What I did was take a broken blade and shove it in the end of a piece of dowel after drilling a hole in the dowel. I fixed it with a little bit of stupid glue (super glue to those who can get it to glue anything but themselves). I shove this through the top of the wood and slide it around until the saw blade drops into the hole in the table. Then remove it and drop the arm while feeding the blade through the hole in the table. Seems to work just fine for me. I do like anything with a laser on it though.

Ron C.

[Mick Walker]

I have a magnet about 1/2" wide and 2" long that I attach to the right side of my saw table. To this magnet I stick a pin with a large round head, if I have trouble finding the hole I just stick the pin through the hole and move it around until I find the hole in the table, remove the pin and insert the blade.

[oregoncarver]

Here is a photo that might help. Again I use this only on larger projects have have lots of cuts. I don't use a lift system so you might have to make ajustments if you do. This has worked well for me. I tried the sticky back that comes with the laser but my shop was to cold for it to stay put so I used the screw method.