TigerStop Manual
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TigerFence must be installed in accordance with all local, state, and federal regulations, as well as common sense safety requirements. Use only trained professionals when installing TigerFence with your existing saw to ensure a safe and proper work station that will in no way endanger the operator or any other personnel. Do not operate TigerFence without proper training. |
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Get your tools for installation readyTo install TigerFence you will need these tools (or equivalents):
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TigerFence comes packed in a carton.
Carefully unpack it and make sure you have all the parts shown in Fig. 3.
Take special care NOT to throw away
the paper template (Fig. 2) which must be used to position TigerFence
accurately on your saw!
Turn OFF all power to the saw!
Push the sliding bed forward out of the way.
Remove the existing rip fence and guide bar.
Make sure that the front edge of the saw table is very smooth and clean. This is where TigerFence will be attached. Nothing should prevent a tight fit.
Use the provided hole template (Fig. 2) to locate the attachment holes. The hole template is printed on a piece of 9" x 60" paper. Fold the template at the line as shown (Fig. 4) and mark two holes on the front edge of the casting at the locations shown on the template. Click on Fig. 4 to link to a larger view of this graphic.
It might not be possible to drill two holes at each location, depending on the height of the table edge. On some saws the top is too thick to use the top row of bolts, so use more bolts in the bottom row.
After marking the holes with the template, use a center punch to provide a start for your drill bit.
Drill out all the holes with a 3/8" bit. The holes will not be tapped. Use a spray lubricant on the drill bit and in the hole to make the drilling easier. Keep a shop cloth on the floor and use it to catch over-spray from the lubricant, so you don't create a hazardous slick on the floor where you're working. After the holes are drilled, clean up the metal shavings removed by the drill.
If you have enough room to the right of the saw to be able to slide TigerFence on to the mounting hardware, use Method 1. If the saw is too close to the wall or other machinery on the right to permit this, skip down to step 10 and use Method 2.
TigerFence is mounted to the front edge of the saw table through the holes you just bored using four pieces of hardware: T-bolt, flat washer, locking washer, and nut.
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Insert a T-bolt into each hole. On the back side of the casting, thread on the flat washer, the locking washer and the nut (in that sequence).
Hand-tighten the fasteners until there is about 1/2" between the T-bolt head and the front of the casting. You may have to access the back side of the casting from inside the saw to tighten the fasteners.
Again, make sure all power to the saw is turned OFF before accessing the inside of the saw through an access panel.
With an assistant, pick up TigerFence with the motor hanging down at the right end of the fence beam and slide it on to the T-bolts. The T-bolts slide into the channels on the back face of the TigerFence beam (Fig. 5). Make sure the left end is on the mark you transferred from the template (Fig. 6). Hand-tighten all the fasteners. Continue at step 14.
Lay TigerFence down on the saw table right above the front edge of the casting in which you drilled the mounting holes.
Slide one T-bolt into the upper and lower channels in the back of TigerFence (Fig. 5) for each of the hole locations.
With an assistant, flip TigerFence over and insert the T-bolts into each of the mounting holes.
This will locate TigerFence but will NOT support it!
Use heavy-duty C-clamps in two places to clamp TigerFence to the saw casting while you are threading on the flat washer, the lock washer and the nut (in that sequence) to each T-bolt. Because the T-bolts are already in the channels, hand tighten all the fasteners. Make sure the left end is on the mark you transferred from the template (Fig. 6).
TigerFence should now be snugly attached to the saw and may also be quite flush with the saw top. However, the top of the TigerFence beam must be as absolutely flush with the table top as possible. Use a combination square to check for flushness.
TigerFence may deviate very slightly from the plane of the table top at its front edge, but the back edge of TigerFence where it meets the saw table should be precisely flush.
Make sure that the left end of TigerFence is flush with the saw table and firmly tighten the top T-bolt at the left end, with a 1/2" socket wrench. Now, you can use this as a pivot point in making sure the rest of TigerFence will be flush with the saw table along its length.
Make any adjustments to TigerFence to achieve perfect flushness to the table top, and firmly tighten each T-bolt from the back side of the casting using the 1/2" socket wrench.
Remove the pivot handle from the blue carriage bracket.
Position the green rip fence body over the blue carriage bracket so both sides of the blue bracket are captured between the sides of the green rip fence body.
Reinsert the pivot handle, this time through both rip fence body and carriage bracket, and tighten it down (it is a ratchet handle) until the rip fence body can pivot up from its horizontal position with some resistance.
Do NOT over-tighten the pivot handle! There may be a bit of space between adjacent members of the blue bracket and green rip fence body.
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Slide the aluminum rip fence on to the rip fence body and tighten using the rip handle (Fig. 7).
Loosen the four bolts on the blue carriage bracket (Fig. 8) with a 9/16" combination wrench.
The carriage bracket is actually composed of two pieces, the top connecting to the green rip fence body, the bottom connecting to the drive unit carriage. The four bolts join these two pieces and also permit the two pieces to be adjusted relative to each other for squaring the rip fence to the saw blade.
You can roughly align the rip fence to the saw blade by measuring from both ends of the rip fence to the edge of the sliding bed or, in the case of a standard table saw, to the slot for the miter gauge.
Tighten the four bolts firmly, and check for squareness by making a sample cut. It should be relatively close. If not, you can finish squaring the fence up later, with TigerFence powered ON, using the same method.
Please note that the upper left bolt is the pivot, while the other three bolts mount through slots to allow for adjustment.
Install the control stand in a location convenient for the saw operator. This will require drilling and tapping two holes in the body of the saw or an associated structure, such as an overhead guard support.
After mounting the control stand, load the controller on to it, and fasten it down securely.
Plug one end of the blue controller cable into the controller and the other end into the motor box (Fig. 9).
There is only one way to plug in the controller cable: the "male" end plugs into the controller, the "female" end plugs into the port on the side of the motor box.
Make sure the power switch is OFF, plug the female end of the power cord into the motor box, and fasten with the metal retainer clip (Fig. 9).
Do not run the controller cable next
to power lines or along dust collection tubes!
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TigerFence should be adjusted to ensure
that the rip fence will not crash into the saw blade when running the
home routine the start-up routine completed by all TigerStops, a five stage process
that confirms TigerStop parameters at every power ON.
This is done by moving the end sensors.
The bottom carriage bracket triggers the end sensor at both ends of the TigerFence beam to limit the rip fence's range of movement. The left end sensor default position is as shown (Fig. 10) with the carriage approaching it. The left end sensor can be re-positioned to limit the minimum range of movement.
If the rip fence looks like it would move too close to the saw blade, loosen the fastener securing the left end sensor, slide the sensor to the right and tighten it down.
The end sensor at the right end of the TigerFence beam (Fig. 11) can be re-positioned the same way to limit the maximum range of movement.
TigerFence should travel smoothly across
the top of the saw table. If it scrapes as it moves, the rip fence body
can be raised. This is done by adjusting the height of the leveling wheel.
Loosen the nut at the back of the rip fence body (Fig. 12), raise the rip fence slightly, push down on the leveling wheel, and re-tighten the nut.
Run the rip fence in and out over the area where it was scraping, and re-adjust if necessary.
See also… Running Min-Max, Making TigerStop Accurate, Scaling, Saw Kerf, Set Up Auto-Test
