The Ultimate Table Saw Fence

Hi,I've made a new fence for my table saw out of hardwood, its in the Biesemeyer style.I built it on a 300 mm x 50 mm Aluminium angle.

Please look at my youtube video on blade alignment where I've explained wedging a straight edge in the mitre channel.

Step 1: Shaping Fence Base

Ripped the base down but shaped the bottom into a L shape for stability .

Step 2: Fixing the Channel Angle

I Fixed the base on the Aluminium angle with hot melt glue before self tapping through the angle into the base.

Step 3: Gluing Base

I've warmed the Aluminium in my kitchen oven so that i had time to square it up and clamp it before the glue set

Step 4: Building the Fence

Build the fence on top of the base keeping the build tight to the straight edge, when fixing the cross members leave enough room for your push sticks.

The front of my fence is about 1,5 mm from the table top to allow for saw dust

Step 5: The Lock Mechanism

The lock mechanism is a flat bar with a bolt fixed to it and the turn knob is shop made with a nut trapped inside.

You could use a large head coach bolt

I routed a channel for the fence lock to slide in

Step 6: Facing the Fence With Melamine

Finally I faced the fence with Melamine after making sure that no adjustments where neded to the fence alignment i waxed the fence and the table.

For a more comprehensive view of all the steps please check out the video

[Play Video]

Comments

[aadhol]

hi,
I guess the milamine does not cover the front part of the fence as you left 1.5 mm for saw dust

[marcello bianchi]

aadhol, yes quite correct the gap is for saw dust.

[style4miles]

Why no parts/materials list, or like a sketch or something of the end product?

[marcello bianchi]

I thought that I had put enough informatiom to work out the dimention to their sizes of any saw the fence isn't product specific.please view video for further information.

[JimC80]

Square to the blade in the front but out just a hair on the back side of the blade so you would not get into binding the blade ?

[jorricks]

Not to ask a dumb question BUT

If the blade is at 90 degrees why are you checking distance to channel
Should it not be square by default and if your newly built fence is square does it not all come out square?

I must be missing something.

[dragoon126]

I think you would do it to the channel because that is an absolute. If you build a jig later that runs in the channel and you have squared the blade to the fence you made and not the channel you're gonna have a bad time working it all out.

It's always good to check tools for square even fresh out of the box. Especially if you are a stickler for fractions of a millimeter.

[jorricks]

OK THANKS

[jorricks]

If that’s the case how does one fine tune the blade.
It seems if you mess around with the blade adjustment
you now have opened a real can of worms.

Maybe a link suggestion can be made as to dealing
with the positional can of worms.

[marcello bianchi]

Please check out my blade alignment instructable, showing how I measure alignment.on this saw there 4 bolts to undo then its trial and error until you get it right but the movement is quite small so it can't swing completely out of square I kept the bolts pinch tight until my alignment was correct then I tightened them to the correct torque settings

[marcello bianchi]

Hi dragoon 126 thanks for answering the above query.yes your absulutly spot on with your answer

[marcello bianchi]

Hi jorricks, yes you can build your fence to the blade and everything will run fine and you will get accurate cuts every time but its like dragoon 126 is saying as soon as you build a jig to work from your mitre channel it may be out of square.

on this saw the back of the blade was out of square to the channel by 1.4mm

[Austringer]

Ideally, yes, it wouldn't matter. And if you've sprung for a high end model or carefully aligned your saw, the blade and the miter slot should be very close to perfectly parallel. If you are using a contractor grade saw it's usually off by a fraction. Not enough to matter for general carpentry, but problematic when you get into more demanding work.

[diykiwibloke]

Thanks for this excellent tutorial Marcello. Your second video is doubled up at the bottom of the "all" page.

[marcello bianchi]

Sorry but I'm not sure what the "all Page" is

[Drakori]

I think they mean .... When you click "show all steps" ... there are two identical video's at the bottom. .... Great project btw.

[marcello bianchi]

Thank not sure how that append i will edit it out .thanks for the feedback

[WoodieWannabe]

Brilliant idea! I have a cheap Ryobi table saw with a very wobbly aluminium fence, which could use an upgrade. This is just the right idea for it!

[marcello bianchi]

hi thanks for the feedback.don't forget to post a picture of your project

[WoodieWannabe]

Brilliant idea! I have a cheap Ryobi table saw with a very wobbly aluminium fence, which could use an upgrade. This is just the right idea for it!