Tablesaw fence

Re: Tablesaw fence

Barry Irby

I have a fifty year old Rockwell/Delta contractors saw that came with a fence that locked on both ends. I modified it with after market home made rails to allow to rip 36" on either side of the blade. I was making a lot of cabinets at the time and it was useful. Years ago Lowe's put Biesmeyer fences on sale for $80, marked down from about $400 and I bought one for myself and two more for friends.

So yes, I have one and I like it. The original fence was fiddly and I had to set it with a ruler, measuring from the blade. The Biesmeyer fence I can set from the scale, for most things.

Re: Tablesaw fence

Bill Howatt

Original el-cheapo fence locked on both ends and when the far end locked it typically misaligned the fence. This is a common problem with double-locking fences that aren't of good quality.

Replaced it with a Accu-square that only locks at front-end and it is great.

Bill

Re: Tablesaw fence

Jerry Nicholson

I had exactly same thing on my 1964 model Craftsman saw. Every time I locked the fence, the far end would get pushed out of alignment. I replaced it with a Delta fence a few decades ago. Locks only on the near end, works far better than the original fence.

Re: Tablesaw fence

Bruce, a MN Galoot

l have a SawStop with their fence, a Biesemeyer knockoff. It locks on the near side but not on the far end. The fence is rock solid and the far end doesn't budge at all.

I used to have a 60-year old Delta contractor saw that locked with a screw-down mechanism on both ends. The far end was never trustworthy, and in addition, the fence itself would twist.

Re: Tablesaw fence

Lee Schierer in McKean, PA

My original Craftsman fence locked down on both rails front and rear. I replaced it with a Beismeyer fence a number of years ago and no longer worry about the fence not clamping down parallel to the blade. I do check the alignment from time to time to insure the pads have not worn and that it remains parallel.

Lee

Re: Tablesaw fence

Brian from monument colorado

I have a Delta Unifence on a Delta Unisaw dating from around 1988 or so.

It locks on the near side. Only one rail attached on the front. Never had any problems.

Periodically I check it and it has kept accuracy. Except when I took the fence part off for a shorter fence. Then I had to recheck and align it.

Re: Tablesaw fence

William Duffield

For all the reasons others have described for disliking the type of fence you describe, I have never worked in a profeasional shop that had one, and I won’t use one. I have always had either a unifence or a Beisemeyer fence or the SawStop version of the Beisemeyer on the saws I owned and used. I once had a Unisaw with the old fashioned fence, but I sold it before I got it running (3 phase motor) when the Industrial SawStop became available. If I had gotten it running, in time, I would have immediately installed a Beisemeyer fence or clone on it.

Re: Tablesaw fence

Pete in Holland MI

Yup. Fences that lock on both ends often have a narrow heel to align to the track. Fences that lock only on the operator end have a wide heel to ensure stability of the far end. My old Shopsmith and my dad's Craftsman had feature where it locked on both ends, and it sucked. Could never trust it's parallelism to the blade.

My Jet tablesaw of 20 years ago has this type of fence and am very pleased with it.

Not sure what your question is,

Keith Newton

But I have one unisaw with unifence that only locks the front, which I really like. However, if you or anyone else thinks it doesn't keep the far end steady enough, the problem may be your technique, or you may need to make it grip tighter.

The way to tighten is, is to turn both of the two screws out on the ends that are used to square the fence the same amount. However things flex. If you have a dial indicator that you can hold down to the table with the pin against the fence, then push against the fence, you can tell how much it flexes against a force. Obviously you can't push the back end of the fence over very much when you are starting a rip cut that requires you to stand 8' out in front of the saw as you can when you are pushing the trailing end through.

If your problem is that your fence that locks both ends is always out of square when you lock it down, and you have tried to adjust the front part but it still happens, the far end may be locking before the front has a chance to square it up. Ideally the front should engage before the back.

If you are one of the millions of people using an older saw without the safety features, you should know that pushing the material too hard into the fence can be a kickback hazard. Here is how. Lets say you are feeding a small piece of plywood about a foot square or less, and you are afraid of the saw so you are pushing it into hard the fence with enough force to flex the fence over, but as the blade comes out of the front as the cut is finished, then you release your pressure into the fence, which then allows the fence to recoil/ return to its original position, pushing the material into the back of the saw-blade. You should always keep steady pressure until the material is clear of the back of the blade. You should never take your hands of the material until it has cleared the back. I can't tell you how many professional carpenters I've seen that make that mistake as they reach down to turn the saw off.

Re: Tablesaw fence

William Duffield

I also really liked my UniFence. Some people complained that it has about twice the lateral deflection at the far end of the rail as a Biesemeyer. That never bothered me, as long as I kept my table, fence and outfeed rollers tuned and slippery, and didn't let anyone help me pull a sheet of plywood through the saw.

The UniFence had some features that worked to its advantage over a Biesemeyer, but they can be implemented on a Biesemeyer with a couple of simple jigs.