Basic A-Line It

The In-Line Industries Basic A-Line It is a great starter kit for the home shop, or occassional user.  It’s been in my toolbox for 5+ years and though it’s needed infrequently, I’m sure happy it’s there.  It’s a very simple setup consisting of only a few parts.  Of those parts is a 1″ dial indicator with .001 precision (plenty for woodworking measurements).

Primarily, I’ve used this jig to setup and align my tablesaw — most notably the fence to the miter slots.  It’s also great to check for blade runout, or fence trueness.  Though I’ve not used it for this purpose, it could be used to measure arbor shaft runout as well.

Using the system it easy.  The quality components fit together perfectly with the use of two metric allen bolts — one to attach the cross ways, and one to attach the dial indicator.  Once assembles, it is placed into the miter slot.  There are two allen screws that adjust the width to fit any miter slot perfectly with zero slop.  It also has two thumb screws to level the system to the depth of your miter slot.  In a matter of 5 minutes you are up and ready to measure.

If you can stomach spending $80, or if you need to get your tablesaw tuned up accurately, then I’d consider the Basic A-Line It setup.  It’s served me well and given me no problems.  It’s easy to use and made precisely.  The dial indicator is of decent quality, but by no means one of the $300 units you can find.  It’s made me much more comfortable at the tablesaw knowing that without  a doubt the fence is in line with the blade and that the blade is running true — both of which reduce any chance of a nasty kickback.

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