Fence stop blocks

Jeff Horton

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The Heart of Dixie
I need a scale (ruler, tape measure, yard stick, ect.) on my Radial arm saw fence. The old DeWalt takes about an 3 days to spin down and I prefer to measure off the blade and locate my stop block on the extension table. I find myself tempted to do something stupid to stop the blade so I can set up for another cut.

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I think it is time to bolt the old girl down and to the extension tables. I want to add a tape measure and a stop block that clamps to the fence but is adjustable to allow for any errors in locating the tape.

I have seen a couple of nice looking commercial units. Just hate to buy without hearing from someone that has actually used it.

I discovered this plan and it just can't much simpler than this stop block. Of course it doesn't have any allowance for an adjustable stop. But I think it would be fairly simple to design something into this basic idea.

Anyone have or built something like I am thinking about?
 
You could get some of the T-track that has the extra slide spot on top for a tape ruler to fit in. will slide for adjusting, but is a friction fit to stay put. Can't remember who makes it, may be Incra. No it's Kreg. See here: http://www.woodpeck.com/kregflipstop.html Has stops built in. Tape mearure built in. This may not be the type where the tape slides, didn't read the whole thing. It is different than what I was remembering. But it will give you another idea. Jim.

ps: Nice saw by the way. I bit my toungue a month or so ago. Someone here locally had a 1958 DeWalt RAS for 200 smakers in the paper. Said it ran. Honey said no, no actually she said "NO!!!" Yeah, that was about how it went. :D I was out of my mad money from spiffs, or I might have done it anyway.:rolleyes: Jim.
 
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Jeff I got the beisemeyer 10" wide table extension for my chop saw. 8' on the left and 4' on the right with one of their flip stops. It's seems to work good. They have something similar for the RAS but might be a little pricey.

You could just buy the stick on tape measure and install it on top of your fence and build some kind of clamping stop block with some type of hair line pointer.

Doug
 
I have the Kreg on my SCMS, and-----can't remember the name of the one on my radial saw:eek:

I really like the Kreg
 
I have the commercial vega unit (if they still make it), and personally, would have been better off to build my own. They are simple enough, and for the $150 it cost me, I could have made it cheap enough. The Vega is a piece of extruded aluminum with mounting brackets and a stop that rides in a t track. It works, but it isn't worth the cost.

FWIW, I used to think I needed the extension tables exactly the same level, perfectly square, etc. Now, I like them to sit a little lower and a little back so that the board rides on the saws fence and nothing else.
 
jeff, what i have done for years is to make a wooden stop block that can be locked into place, used a broken tape i had lying around or bought a cheap 12' one, made a dado in the fence, drilled holes in the tape and screwed it down. in order to make my measurements adjustable i put a screw in the business end of the stop, this is what the board touches, that way i can screw it in and out for fine adjustment. also keeps the saw dust from building up against the stop. this has worked great for me. i'll try to get some pics of mine if you wanna see it, it aint purty, but it works great and was cheap. :thumb:

chris
 
Chris, what you are describing is exactly what I have been thinking about doing. I looked through the catalogs and I just can't see $100 for what they offer. It's to simple to make something like your describing. Just wanted to see if someone else had the same idea. The shop made stop I liked to can easily be modified to work.

Mat, that stop looks good and simple. If it were cheap too I would buy one. Don't think I have ever seen one for sale though.
 
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