Length Adjustable Rip Fence

Jerry Palmer

Member
Messages
317
Location
Cedar Park, TX
In this thread Niki mentioned the length adjustable rip fence required on table saws in the EU which negate the need of anti-kickback pawls. Some years back there was an article in one of the mags about tuning up and using a table saw in which the author advocated the use of this type of fence as well as explained how to obtain more or less the same benefit on typical table saws made for the U.S. market. It was a simple auxulliary fence made of ply or MDF etc which is attached to the normal rip fence, but which ends slightly in front of the center of the blade similar to the pic in Niki's post. I was already using a full length plus a few inches auxilliary fence on my saw at the time which I had installed such that it extended several inches to the operator side of the saw. This gave me a few more inches of space in front of the blade to index wide sheet goods to before the blade began cutting them. By sliding the aux fence (attached via T-slots in the side of the fence) further toward the front of the saw, I gained additional index length and reduced the probability of kickbacks on rip cuts.

This sort of set-up has no affect on the accuracy of rips and since there is no fence snug to the workpiece on the back side of the blade, there is nothing against which the board can be pinched if it happens to get canted at the end of the cut.
 
That a good tip Jerry. I made one for my old C-man with an Align-a-Rip fence. I would place it as in the pics for exit stability. It could be slid backward in the t-slots to allow a better register point going in on large sheets. I could slide it back further still to allow a relief at a point about midway through the blade as you describe.

I have not built one for my new saw and fence yet but have considered it a time or two. Like a lot of things, the need will come along and I'll stop at that point to make one. It was a very helpful fixture.

Fence Extn 1.jpg Fence Extn 2.jpg

Sorry about the pic quality, had to snag them from an old location.
 
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Like a lot of things, the need will come along and I'll stop at that point to make one.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I just installed 7' fence rails on my Griz so my next project will be to build a cabinet under it so I don't have to stash all the table saw stuff on what ever horizontal surface is available.
 
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