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Is it supposed to look like this?
- Thread starter nobog
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2022
- Messages
- 524
Take it off, Put it in the Mill and square it up with a fly cutter.
I think you're gonna be fine. My bigger concern would be to take the straight edge, at any particular height, and lay it horizontally across the fixed jaw. Don't get the micrometers or anything, just lay it up there and see if it's about straight. If the ruler/scale/straightedge contacts most of the way at any given height, I don't think you'll see much if any issue. Basically, you want better than a single point grip, but a horizontal line of contact across that vice jaw will be quite beneficial to you, as you can't set a square cut on a single point, when the opposite jaw swivels...
If I were to flatten mine (I'm not gonna It's not as bad as your pictures, but it's most of that....), I would leave it lean forward (as yours does) just a whisker. It's not "that" rigid (it doesn't need to be), but I wouldn't want it to move into a bell mouth position under pressure. That'd be counterproductive. As mine is, it grabs the top of a clamped part first, and if you pay attention to the screw as you're tightening it, you can literally feel when the jaw "squares up". Overall, it works well, even if I don't tighten it enough to "square" the jaw. Which is most often.
I look at it like this- It's a band saw. If it cuts way out, anything you can do makes it greatly better. Once it's close, you can still do better, but you're going to asymptotically approach some degree of mediocrity, with larger and larger investments in less and less return. It's not a mill. I say use the saw, and adapt it as you need to get the results you're after. Unless as I said, you find the jaw convex in the horizontal direction. One point of grip on the fixed jaw, I'd chase after that preemptively, but the "lean" you have, I doubt it'll ever show in the work.
If I were to flatten mine (I'm not gonna It's not as bad as your pictures, but it's most of that....), I would leave it lean forward (as yours does) just a whisker. It's not "that" rigid (it doesn't need to be), but I wouldn't want it to move into a bell mouth position under pressure. That'd be counterproductive. As mine is, it grabs the top of a clamped part first, and if you pay attention to the screw as you're tightening it, you can literally feel when the jaw "squares up". Overall, it works well, even if I don't tighten it enough to "square" the jaw. Which is most often.
I look at it like this- It's a band saw. If it cuts way out, anything you can do makes it greatly better. Once it's close, you can still do better, but you're going to asymptotically approach some degree of mediocrity, with larger and larger investments in less and less return. It's not a mill. I say use the saw, and adapt it as you need to get the results you're after. Unless as I said, you find the jaw convex in the horizontal direction. One point of grip on the fixed jaw, I'd chase after that preemptively, but the "lean" you have, I doubt it'll ever show in the work.
I have an old "Detroit Machinery" 4x6 saw that was made in Taiwan. I have it cutting perfectly at 90° by replacing the jaws with straight angle iron, and installing a stop made from 1/8" flat bar that is used to re-establish the 90° angle after cutting anything other than 90°. The post above is correct, the work needs to be at 90° to the blade, that's what matters. And, that the blade is at 90° to the bed.