Mini Max S315 WS - Installation, Adjustment and Group Frolic

[Jim Becker]

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In the beginning...there was a box. It was a lonely box, cold and scantily clad for two days and two nights awaiting its fate. And lo, on the third day, 5 woodworkers (and a supportive spousal helper as well as two young maidens) arose from their anxious slumber to behold the box and its contents, bringing the box's long journey from a land far away to its final climax...my shop.

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Let me begin by offering my profound thanks to my friends, Robert Tarr, Fred Voorhees, Joanne Adler and Chris and Dawn Lambert for their help this past Saturday. There is no way I could have accomplished in many days what this merry band accomplished in just a few hours. At first you might think that Saturday, 3 February 2007 was about a new tool. Not! It was about a bunch of woodworkers having a great time together, despite the 19ºF temperature when we got started and the "Ode du Kerosene" we all left with at the end of the day. Joanne's fresh brownies weren't bad, either... An extra thank you goes to Robert for meeting me bright and early to pick up the pallet jack rental and then returning it for me on the way home later in the day. Robert is both a co-worker and a good friend and my appreciation goes deep on both accords.
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Now...getting down to what folks have been chomping at the bit for, in this and the following 12 posts are a total of 61 photos that were taken throughout the day on Saturday as well on Sunday when I was working on adjustments, etc. In addition to those I shot, Robert, Joanne and Chris all picked up the camera at just the right times so that I can share the experience we all had with the SMC community...a not-quite "you were there" moment!

Robert and I got started by un-tarping the big brown box. All attempts at untying the ropes that made up for the lack of bungee-cords failed...freezing rain does not make a cooperative knot in cheap clothes-line. A utility knife was not affected by the cold, however...

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At that point, the rest of the gang had arrived and it was time to "decant" the saw from it's wrapper.

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We all got into the act after I made the ceremonial first knife-slashing and box ripping...here, Fred lends a hand.

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[Jim Becker]

While we were destroying the box (but not its contents!), we had a small audience...a couple young maidens out enjoying the crisp morning air. (My lovely older daughter Nastia happens to be wearing my ski hat from back when I was in high school...that would have been prior to 1975. It's one of only three articles of clothing I have hanging around from "back then". 'Made so well it still looks nearly brand new. Unbelievable!)

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Once the box was stripped off the pallet, we maneuvered the trailer closer to the door manually...I didn't feel comfortable backing it up with the Highlander given the risk to my shop doors doors. The idea was to get the rear of the trailer as close to the concrete as we could...and we managed to get within about 4" once the bed was tilted.

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Robert and I had been talking earlier and the idea became to take the machine off the pallet with the trailer tilted, rather than bringing the pallet into the shop and then doing gorilla work to get the nearly 1600 lb machine onto the floor. Here, Fred and I prepare for that by knocking out some of the rear-most support on the pallet to ease the angle.

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We're now ready to tilt the trailer bed. Although things were (strangely enough) balanced pretty well, we had Dawn pretend she was a counter-weight while I pulled the pin...

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We weren't sure how fast that bed would tilt, so I brought the tractor over and used the bucket as a stop-limit to insure that it didn't go too fast. No worries...it went up smoothly and we still had to break the pallet free from the trailer surface. I guess a little bit of moisture got under it over the two nights it sat outside and it was frozen solid...but only briefly.

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[Jim Becker]

It was only a minute or so and we had the "first foot in the door"...literally.

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Thanks to our stealth photo staff, we have another angle of this somewhat scary process...

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It really didn't take very long and the machine was almost in the door. A little help from the pallet jack was necessary to get the last foot over the threshold, but we made it in the door smoothly and without incident.

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At that point, it was time to employ the pallet jack to rotate and move the machine to approximately where it was going to live from now until, well...forever. (At least in the context of my point of view) We did end up having to move the band saw out from the wall to give ourselves some more room to maneuver. It was easier and faster to move that than move the jointer/planer, that's for sure!

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Another shot of "hot pallet jack action"....

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[Jim Becker]

There's always one in the crowd...Joanne demonstrates the "read the fabulous manual" principle...

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While Fred plays with some bubble wrap.

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And everyone joins in the un-wrapping fun...almost like a certain winter holiday!

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Before we could begin to decide on the "exact" final location for the machine, we had to get the extension table installed as it would be in the space between the business end of the saw and the wall behind it. Here, we check things out for position, etc.

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"Sometimes you feel like a nut...sometimes you are one..."

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[Jim Becker]

With the extension table installed, we could move the saw to the approximate place it would end up...pending measurement of the slider's extent of travel in both directions. On one end would be the back wall and on the other, my workbench.

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Accordingly, it was time to "release the wagon!" by removing a few screws and shipping plates that keep it from moving in the crate while in transit. (Really...it's actually called a sliding wagon in all the literature)

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And so we test...

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...and test...

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And make about a one-foot adjustment back towards the lumber rack to this final position. And then we level the beast...my floor slopes towards the doors and with a machine like this, it's a good idea to make it level. So we did.

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[Jim Becker]

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. (You, too, John M... ) It's quite level. 'Probably the only thing in my shop that is. And it's not going to move anywhere all by itself!

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Surprisingly, the "cosmoline gods" were kind and what gunk there was on the machine was largely in the right places. It was pretty heavy on the cast iron saw table top, but Robert showed us how to first scrape it off (we actually used one of my scrapers), leaving only a thin film to remove with the kerosene. At this point, the shop was also getting warmed up with the doors shut, the electric heaters on and the kerosene heater fired up from it's winter slumber. Here, Robert and Joanne are working on some of the accessories that did have some of the gunk strategically placed that needed removed.

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There are three bolts that secure the dust collection port to the internal blade shroud. One was easily reachable through the side of the machine. The other two, however, required access through door that is behind the motors (there are two...a 4.8hp motor for the main blade and a 1.5hp motor for the scoring blade)...and long arms. Robert got the nod for that job. Here he is pretending to be a "saw procto". Yes, the floor was quite cold, thank you very much! Oh, there was a mighty fine hunk of concrete inside that cabinet, too...it both adds mass and provides balance relative to the very heavy superstructure up under the slider.

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There is a heavy outfeed table that inserts on the saw forward of the cast iron table. It's very heavy and requires no support leg. It also includes built in leveling screws...a very nice design. That said, I suspect at some point, I'll put a router in this space so I can take advantage of the sliding carriage for that function when it makes sense for a project.


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Here, Robert and Fred continue some important cleaning tasks...

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[Jim Becker]

The arbor and blade area proved to be a good place for a "group cleaning"...lot's of parts that required cosmoline removal and it went fast with so many hands reeking of petroleum products...

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The saw shipped with a nice 12" blade very suitable for sheet goods, so it seemed to be a good one to install first. Note that this machine does have a 5/8" arbor and can/will take all my current saw blades including the dado set. The 12" blade came with a bushing (12" blades are bored for a 1" arbor) and it fit on very nicely. The large support "washer" was a bit too snug...I later polished the arbor with a little 320 wet and dry to ease things up and it now slips on just the way it was designed to do so.

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The last major assembly work was to attach the rip fence. It was very nice to have multiple hands as it's heavy and unwieldy when it's not mounted securely. This was the only area that we had to do some noticeable adjustment, but it's important to insure that the rail is parallel with the face of the saw table and at the right distance from the same so that the gear on the micro-adjust properly engages the cog on the fence scale.

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Once the fence and scale were installed, we did a rough alignment of the fence scale to the blade...I later made a final adjustment on this after a test cut as you'll see.

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Woo-hoo...time for some power! Connection of the 10-3 rubber cord at the saw is pretty simple...strip it, push it through the strain relief grommet, insert the conductors in the appropriate places and tighten down the screws. All color coded...

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[Jim Becker]

Time for "da plug"...I wonder if there is a penalty for advertising Festool while working on a Mini Max machine??

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Well...here we are, fully assembled and ready to test! This after only a couple hours of fun group work.

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Can you say, "First cut??" Sure, I knew you could...

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The scoring system was new to all of us. Here Robert is exploring alignment of the scoring blade with the main blade. For those not familiar, the scoring blade, umm...scores...the underside of the material in perfect sync with the cut line. It's primary and only purpose is to insure that the bottom of the cut is as clean as the top. This is particularly critical when working with veneered stock...no...and I mean zero chip-out. The small blade spins in the opposite direction from the main blade and it matched in kerf width. (One of the scoring blades I received with the saw is adjustable in width using shims...the OEM non-adjustable blade matches my Forrest WW-II kerf perfectly)

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And here's a shot of the dust collection arrangement. The port is 120mm, which is just under 5". I use a 5" to 120mm reducer at the port and the hose is 5". The saw does have a guard that attaches to the top of the riving knife and there is a 2.5" drop for that overhead. (The hose has not yet arrived from my supplier)

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[Jim Becker]

One of the interesting thing about this sliding saw is the way you can configure and utilize different ways to handle stock. The large outboard material support, which is supported by both the slider wagon and the outrigger at the bottom of the saw, is quite capable of holding very long material...something like 12' or so. In my shop, the limit will be about 8" from the cut line as you can see in this picture. The end of the bar is set at 96" and rides just over the jointer bed. (I would have to remove the guard from the jointer to avoid interference to make a cut this wide, but that only takes a minute) This whole outrigger system is set up so it not only supports a large workpiece when necessary, but can also be used to make precision angled cuts...yup...that's a giant miter gage, in effect!

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For more, um...sedate miter work...this is the regular miter gage. Because this (and all the other) accessories take advantage of the tee-slots on the sliding wagon, it can be positions where it is most suitable for the work at hand. There is always an exact frame of reference relative to the cut line, too.

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This interesting attachment is called a "rip shoe". When working with solid stock that you want to straight-line, you jam the one end of the board under this contraption and use the eccentric clamp to hold the other end in place on the wagon. Then you rip the edge perfectly straight. And I do mean perfectly. More about that later.

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We all had a chuckle with this feature on the table top. It's basically a divot out of the cast iron. It's not mentioned anywhere in the manual that we could find...err...that Joanne could find since nobody else has touched the manual yet except her, including myself. It dawned on me that no matter what the "official" explanation might be...it really is a handy place to stash the insert screws and blade nuts when making changes. I tried that out on Sunday and it was a winner!

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One of the things I had on my Jet saw was two wrenches for blade changing. I was thankful for that because I really never liked the idea of jamming a piece of wood into the blade just to hold it in place while working the nut. This saw comes with a little rod that you insert through a hole in the table down to catch a recess in the arbor shaft, effectively providing a simple arbor lock. Just peachy! Of course, this being a right-tilt saw like all sliders are, I now have to get used to turning the wrench in the opposite direction...honestly, I'll likely get over that!

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[Jim Becker]

The scoring blade has a similar arrangement, but with a smaller hole. The "lock rod" has one end machined to fit.

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Our earlier efforts to align the scoring blade were fine for the 12" cutter, but I subsequently put my WW-II on the machine. Not wanting to deal with the shims on the adjustable scoring blade, I measured the kerf of the OEM blade and found it to be identical to the WW-II...so I put it back on the saw for now...and went through an alignment exercise. The scoring blade not only moves up and down, it also moves right and left. The latter two are the key to a perfect cut, so I put the miter guage on the machine to support some scrap plywood and started making test cuts after doing a rough alignment with a straight edge.

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After about 5-9 cuts , I had it just right. This is a picture of the final cut. This is the bottom of some very cheap and prone-to-chipping plywood. Smoooooooth.... You can see that the previous cut to the right was just a hair off laterally.

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The pointer on the blade tilt meter was knocked out of alignment during shipping, so I took off the clear face and set it back to the right place. This is a very nice setup...intuitive to use and easy to lock with a lever, rather than something you have to twist.

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I couldn't resist doing my first "captive rip" using the shoe and clamp. While the two pieces I cut were quite short, the finish on the edges was not unlike a hand-plane. I have NEVER, EVER had a rip cut that smooth before. The key is that the wood is held in place absolutely through the cut. You cannot do that with your hands, no matter what kind of feather boards and other hold-downs you use on a none sliding saw.

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[Jim Becker]

I mentioned in the previous post that I ripped two pieces of stock using the shoe and clamp. Here's the result of mating them together. This is as good a joint as I've ever seen off a jointer, let alone a saw. Now...since I know the question will arise in some folks' minds....no, I'll never divest myself of my jointer. Jointers are not just about edges. I happen to like flat lumber and all stock I use gets face jointed before being thicknessed. But the slider is going to alleviate the challenge of edging very long boards as well as straight line ripping oversize material accurately and easily. The saw carries all the weight and the clamps insure that that it doesn't move. Oh, by the way...when using the slider, your hands don't go anywhere near the blade. That's a very nice safety feature.

Here's the two pieces for your edification. Yes...they are short, but the edges are polished and absolutely straight.

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The miter gage needed some minor tune-up to level it with the sliding wagon. The adjustments were quick and easy. I also did a 5-sided cut and it was near perfect "out of the proverbial box".

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One thing I wanted to check carefully was the relationship between the rip fence and the plane of cut, so I broke out the TS Aligner JR. Knowing that for all practical purposes that the wagon is parallel to the cut line, I used the tee-slot as a reference to test down the face of the fence. There was just the right amount of deviation away from the blade toward the back of the blade to satisfy me. I could probably refine it with work, but that will wait until later.

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Next was to check the fence scale, so I did a test rip with the fence set to 6". It was off "just a hair".

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Loosening the fasteners slightly for the scale allowed me to gently move it in the appropriate direction to match the width of the actual cut. BTW, rather than having some kind of magnifying window to set the fence to the scale, the reading is exact on the face of the fence, whether it's in the vertical or horizontal position. (The fence itself is very similar to the Delta UniFence in it's provision for easy cutting of thin materials)

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[Jim Becker]

Whoa...into the home stretch here, folks!

In an effort to get used to using the machine a little, I decided to mill up some strips of hardwood to use in the tee-slot on the top of the fence for jigs, and the like. Between the MM16, the FS350 J/P and the new S315WS saw, I had some very nice stock in a jiffy! (Yea, I know...a lot of iron for such a simple thing... ) But more importantly, it allowed me to feel what "conventional ripping" would be like on the new machine...there are many times when that will be the appropriate method.

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Yup...it fits! (for those interested, the stock for this is just a hair over 1 1/8" wide and 3/8" thick.

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And here is a feather board retrofitted with a piece of the strip I just cut as an example of how jigging on the slider might be accomplished.

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Ok, I'm tired. I have a lot of other things to say and explain, but they will have to wait as it's been a long day with work, cooking dinner and doing these 12...soon to be 12 posts of pictures. Here's a few more shots of the saw in the shop.

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One other thing: I have a lot to learn to put this machine to most efficient use. But I can already see that ever from the beginning, it's not going to be a hard transition; more of a retraining and a rethinking of methods and steps. I like that as it keeps things fresh. And, of course, I'm not squeamish about sharing the good ... and the bad.

[Jim Becker]

This last shot shows the view "down the gullet" of my shop. Strangely enough, this "big machine" has actually resulted in more effective room to move around, at least when the outrigger is not deployed. I like that. Space is good.

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[Corey Hallagan]

Congrats Jim, it's a beautiful machine and a nice layout. Enjoy!

corey

[Jim Dailey]

Wow!! And congratulations!!!

That was a very nice step by step of the process of setting up the saw in it's new home. Very informative.

I have to admit I am jealous... Looks like a sweet setup!!!

jim