That stupid stair saw adjustment took me 45 minutes on a simple landing

I was doing a 12 foot landing in a house off Elm Street and couldn't get the saw to cut square. Turned out the locking pin was a hair off from the factory. Wasted almost an hour before I grabbed a file and fixed it myself. Anyone else had to modify brand new tools just to get them to work right?

3 comments

3 Comments

eva_thompson28d ago

Nah you got off easy, I had to grind the whole baseplate on mine.

leo_fisher28d ago

Yeah absolutely, @eva_thompson is right on the money with that baseplate thing. I had a saw from the big orange store last spring, it came with the miter detent plate so far off it would lock in at 32 degrees instead of 30. Had to take the whole thing apart and shim it with a beer can shim just to get a simple corner cut. You're not alone on that lock pin thing either, I've seen three different guys on jobsites this year alone filing down factory pins just to get square cuts. It's ridiculous that we pay good money for tools and then have to spend a Saturday afternoon making them work right.

the_spencer27d ago

And that baseplate grinding thing is exactly why I keep a flat file in my tool bag at all times now. I learned that lesson the hard way after spending two hours trying to figure out why my saw cuts were walking off line. Ended up taking a file to the baseplate edge and it cut straight after that. It's wild how much slop the manufacturers let through quality control these days. You'd think for what they charge they'd at least make sure the locking pin is seated right from the factory. Did you ever have to go back and redo the whole landing after you fixed the pin?