Sawstop: Why 6 turns per inch?

[Jim C Martin]

Still getting to know my Sawstop ICS. One great feature of a truly vertical raise/lower mechanism for the saw blade is that it will give a consistent travel for each turn turn of the wheel. So I just checked mine and I'm getting 6 turns per inch or 1/6" per turn. Why on earth did they pick that? Why not 8 turns per inch so that each turn is 1/8"? My old Inca 2100 was 2mm per turn which was great for working in metric and I sort of expected the Sawstop to be metric. I suppose 6 turns was a compromise between fine adjustment and fast travel but it sure isn't as helpful for setting blade height as 8 turns might have been.
Of course, if this is all I can find to complain about I guess its a pretty good saw. Service has been great too. I had an issue with the miter bar and one showed up in no time. Great saw, with one quirky feature. And of course the brake too.
Cheers,
Jim

[Stephen Cherry]

Maybe the people who designed it never thought of that. I never thought of it either, but now that you mention it it makes perfectly good sense to do it that way. That said, I use my handy wixey digital height gauge for all my height adjusting needs. I like the idea of a direct measurement. For times when you set something like a dado depth, it never hurts to be exactly right.

[Bruce Page]

Good question. I have no idea how my Unisaw is set up. I always use a height gage if it's a critical height cut.

[Mel Fulks]

As one who got used to old machines having adjustments of one turn equals one eighth or one sixteenth ,I find the modern one of every thread size approach to various adjustments very sloppy and annoying .The popular and otherwise well designed Micron arc moulder is one of the worst offenders . I had to make notes with a sharpie next to all the handles as to how much a turn moves each adjustment.Very irritating to go past the needed point.

[Ole Anderson]

So is it 6 turns per inch at all depths of cut? Based on the geometrics of the trunnion, I would expect the rate might vary depending on the depth of cut. Not like the screw handle for horizontal motion on my mini-mill which is graduated in thoudandths, or the vertical depth of my Woodpecker router lift, which is 32 turns per inch, and also graduated in thousandths.

[Roger Pozzi]

Just my thought since I am not familiar with SawStop.
If the threaded rod is 3/4", or 7/8" diameter, 6 threads per inch indicates Acme threads. IMO Acme threads are more of an industrial style as compared to the USS or SAE thread.
Also just my opinion, SawStop was invented by a lawyer, what would you expect?

[Rod Sheridan]

6 turns per inch, neither conducive to ease of use in the Imperial or Metric system.

My Hammer machines are 2mm per revolution, very easy to use............Rod.

[johnny means]

Do older table saws do this? Seems to me the pivoting trunnions of most saws wouldn't lend themselves to a linear rising rate.

[J.R. Rutter]

I would rather have the faster adjustment that 6 tpi gives over 8 or more. This is pretty much in line with my euro shapers. For a table saw, do you really adjust to final height using only # of turns, or do you measure it?

[Jim C Martin]

What geometrics are you referring to? Saw stop has vertical travel, not swinging travel like a unisaw. Anyway, yes its 6 turns per inch throughout.

[Jim C Martin]

do you really adjust to final height using only # of turns, or do you measure it?

I'd like to have the option and will probably make a reference disk behind the hand wheel that I can zero.
Also, if you know precisely the amount of rise, you only have to find the zero where the tooth is level with the insert. Its easier to be dead on with that than a height measure.

[J.R. Rutter]

Seems like the Sawstop is just begging for a digital height gauge, since it is a linear travel design. I just might have to dig into that on mine.

[Mel Fulks]

With the old sticker machines we would start with maybe a 12 inch face door rail and finish with making 1/4 inch sash bars just by counting the turns of the crank.
.

[David Giles]

What?! You don't think in terms of 5/32" per turn? Why each 72 degree arc is 1/32" blade rise. What could be more obvious?

User has blue tape with references located behind elevation handle.

[Jeff Duncan]

Interesting.....in all my years using a table saw I've never even thought of relating # of turns to a specific height value....especially with a pivoting arm as both my saws have. With the exception of dado blades I'm not even sure how often I set height precisely? It's an interesting concept though I can't see it having much value to me. Do others use this method of measuring height for table saws???

JeffD