TS-2424 lateral scooter adjustment on fence

[Dave Doerschuk]

Hello all;

I bought a TS-2424 about 10 months ago, and have been very happy with it. My only gripe is the lateral scooter knob on the fence, underneath the fence lock handle. I have to shove it in fairly hard to get any traction at all, and it moves the fence in little jerks. As a fine adjuster, mine is pretty useless. I've cleaned the underside of the bar, and the rubber sphere of the scooter. I've checked the bracket holding the scooter to the fence, and it's straight and very close to 90 degrees down. There is no adjustment on the scooter assembly.

I went by Home Depot, and both their floor models had the same darn problem! I think this may be a candidate for an engineering change; does anyone know if a modification has already been produced?

Thanks very much for the help!

Dave Doerschuk

[Dave Arbuckle]

Have you waxed your rails and fence underside slidey parts?

Dave

[Dave Doerschuk]

Good idea! I waxed the tops of the rails and the bottom of the fence (contact points) with two coats of wax. It gave me a very nice improvement, but still pretty far from perfect. The fence now moves very easily by hand, but the scooter is still much less smooth than adjusting the fence by hand.

[DaveM]

Dave
Are you sure that you have the proper clearance on the fence so that it moves easily? I forget what it was... something like 6 pages of the instruction manual being able to slide underneath the fence. My micro adjustment works fine. Might want to check that. Hope it helps.

[Dave Doerschuk]

Thank you both very much for the help. The lateral scooter control now works *much* better than it did out of the box. Here's a recap, including a callback from Ridgid's excellent tech support person, Vic.


<LI>Make sure the fence is riding only on the rails. It must not contact the table proper. If it contacts the table, then re-allign it according to the installation manual.

<LI>Clean the rails and fence's plastic tab bearings with rubbing alcohol, and then either:
A) wax them with a non-silicon car wax or
B) coat them with Bostik's "Top Cote" table saw preservative spray.
On the rails, wax/coat only the tops, don't wax/coat the bottoms or you'll never get any traction!

<LI>Clean the fence's rubber half-sphere that contacts the bottom of the rail with rubbing alcohol, then use a fine grit of sandpaper to scuff the surface of the rubber. I used 100 grit, but it doesn't seem critical. Initially, the rubber is shiny; you're done when it's very dull. You don't need to take off much, and be careful not to create flat spots on the sphere.

<LI>This is no rack and pinion: you've got to push the knob towards the saw pretty hard, about 5 pounds force.


I'm going to have to find something else to whine about, because this table saw works great! smile.gif

Thanks again,
Dave

[ 10-25-2001: Message edited by: Dave Doerschuk ]