table saw rip fence

Rob Keeble

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12,633
Location
GTA Ontario Canada
Well this project has taken me a fair bit of time of late finished it up late yesterday.

I have become afraid of myself and the near misses that i have escaped on the table saw. So i figured take a leaf out of all your books and pause a while to setup properly and make it safe.

I saw a couple of red soft poly wheels many years ago at a woodworking show in Toronto. They for sale by Stockroom Supply. They sell them as hold downs for their sander.
At the time i just purchased the wheels.

Well i had always planned to mount them on a fence and that is what i did. Of course this turned out to be easier said than done when i actually got down to the need i would have.

So here is the finished fence setup on my ts fence.
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this is how the wheel is mounted. I wanted it adjustable in height and to be able to slide it across the fence.
Used a piece of T slot width aluminium track and cut another piece of solid aluminium to act as a runner.
Then cut a couple of T track oval nuts (the thin oval strips that have a hole tapped in them) and cut a slot in rear of my runner mounted the cut nuts with two big brass screws. This turned out to be a load of grinding and filing to get it down to sliding in the T slots smoothly. Then cut some of the same T track and slotted it then tapped it and Finally mounted the red wheel. Then all i had to do was drill and tap a hole for the sliding stop knob.
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To make the fence i used 18mm Bb ply and then added a piece of rockmaple planned to have the combined thickness of the ply and maple equal 1.5" exactly so i know i can use my fence measuring system.
Then two rockler clamps came in handy but i thought i would show two mods.
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what you see is a nut i added to the front of the rockler clamp this fastens it up and makes it much more solid try it of u use these clamps. Btw had to bend one a bit to make sure it was 90 degrees.

Then during research i had found a thread posted by Larry (grey beard :) ) where he had made a rip fence and warned of damage done by these clamps to other side of the fence when clamping down. So i cut some leather discs and epoxied them to the metal washers on the clamps.

Now i still have one thing left to do on this fence.
At present the t track is pressed in reasonably tight. But i am looking for advice and opinions on how to secure it permanently. I am thinking perhaps epoxy what say you all.

Apologies for the poor pics. I was so busy today never got to take any and this was best the cell phone would do in the garage where lighting is at best poor.

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Nice! So does the wheel turn in both directions or does it only spin one way?

Speaking of which, many years ago I was trying to repair a dryer that wasn't tumbling, spent a whole lot of time tearing it down trying to figure out why. After a day or two of diagnosis and trying to figure this out and why it had this pulley that wasn't spinning, ended up buying a new one and replacing it, but still no luck. I finally looked at the switches on the front panel and there was one labeled "Tumble On/Off", which was switched to "Off"! :doh:

It was then that I realized that the motor was reversible and that it had a special pulley on it that would only spin in one direction, when turned to off position the motor spun in the opposite direction allowing the pulley to spin on the shaft and not tumble the drum. :D
 
Looks good, Rob. (y) I've used epoxy, screws, or both to secure t-track to fences and tables.

I'm assuming the wheel is intended to keep a board from rising as you're ripping it. is that correct? If so, I think you'll want the wheel to contact the lumber after the blade instead before the blade (as shown in your photo). The back edge of the blade is the part that's rotating up, and that's the part that typically would be pushing the lumber upward.
 
Well epoxy it shall be.

Vaughn u dead right. There is actually a second wheel. Just have to finish its slide carrier.

For the way i was using it which is not shown, i was splitting 2x4 on a bevel and i dont have a riving knife to split the wood. i had the rockler feather board mounted on the fence behind blade but wood was so bad it was binding on blade. So i let it loose behind the blade and use a gentle push stick action to prevent flying up.
Need to work on some sort of splitter for bevel cut on this saw. The blade guard has one but its a scary contraption inc. Craftmams spring loaded hold down anti kick back pawls that cause more grief than they worth.

Thanks for the tips and warmings though all noted.

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Darren wheel is kinda a home cast unit. its poly casted on brass rod. Then another brass rod acts as "axle" and the "axle" bolt goes through that and secures the assembly to whatever. It ends with the wheel free running in either direction so more of a hold down than a feather board effect. I plan on actually adding some featherboards once i get to secure the t track.

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