New Blade and Continued Adjustments

I've continued work on setting up the Radial Arm Saw, and it is getting close to complete. On Wednesday morning I picked up a new blade (8 1/2" thin-kerf finishing blade, appropriately from DeWalt) and I'm anticipating the first cuts (which will be on the MDF for the sacrifice table top).

Last night I continued adjustments to the machine so that it will be precise in its cuts. First, I adjusted the 90° setting by pulling out my combination square, releasing the clamp for lateral adjustment, and carefully aligning the blade trajectory with the square. I think this came out well, but we'll get to test it once the sacrifice table is on.

Then I started making the first of two horizontal blade settings: front to back. This took a while because I misunderstood what Wally Kunkel was describing in his book, Mastering the Radial Arm Saw. I found the three allen screws on the yoke, loosened them as described, and spent a while wondering how this was supposed to modify the angle from side to side. Once I realized that I was supposed to be monitoring the front to back angle, I could actually judge my progress and I got the saw blade lightly touching the reference block on both front and back, as shown in the photograph above.

Next (and perhaps last) I will be adjusting the side to side angle so that the horizontal blade setting will parrallel the table in all axes (plural of axis, not plural of chopping implements). Hopefully I'll get some time Sunday after our camping trip.