Rough Rip Results on the Tablesaw

glenn bradley

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I was noticing my rip cuts giving less than stellar results. I am reasonably proficient at aligning my tools but, put the alignment plate on the saw and checked anyway. Blade to slot was good at near-immesurable. Slot to fence was way out of whack.

The Saw Stop fence, like other Bies-clones uses pads against the main rail to secure the fence in place. These pads are wear surfaces. Although they are quite resilient, something had changed on the order of .012" ( a skinny 64th) over the length.The fence faces have never been good (I've never seen any that really were without some aftermarket love) but were irregular over their length in the order of a rippling .003" as the gauge slides along the laminate face. I opened the fence about .002" between the start of the fence face near the handle and the edge of the table (about 27").

The irregularity is still there of course but, I've gone from this:

Rip Quality (1).jpg

To this:

Rip Quality (2).jpg

At least Saw Stop makes it easy to change your fence faces so I guess I will have to get into that. I have used shellac'd MDF in the past that was superior to anything I've come across this side of machined and anodized aluminum. I really don't want to throw another $100 worth of machined extrusions at the fence . . . I will percolate a while and would appreciate any input those of you who have made modifications would like to share ;-)
 
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