Tablesaw Rescue

 

Above is the workhorse of my wood working projects, a table saw. I had an old Craftsman from the early days and it was a fine saw though a bit on the under powered sign. I would still have it today if it wasn't for it's miter slot system. Any accessories that used the miter slots, or slots cut across the table top, had to use their proprietary T-slot system which was expensive, didn't allow one to easily make jigs for various jobs and was impossible to adjust to any sort of accuracy. So not quite a decade ago, I upgraded to this Rigid hybrid table saw with normal miter slots like everyone else. It is a hybrid because it looks and has the functionality of a cabinet style table saw but has casters that when pressed into use, can allow you to easily move the saw around your shop like a contractor style saw. For those who don't understand these terms, thing of it as the best of two different worlds put together. It was a perfect fit for my shop and I have made many jigs to utilize those miter slots in various ways.

Soon after I obtained the saw, the first and only deficiency I have found with this saw, was the fence and track system. The fence and track allow one to cut precise dimensions of wood while keeping the project square to the blade for an accurate cut. The standard fence that came with the saw had too much "play" in it allowing it to be not square with the blade. I tried to show that in the picture above where I clamped the fence along one of the miter slots and then moved the far end easily about 1/4" out of square. That is just no bueno. I have suffered with it all these years but finally decided I had enough. I started researching companies that make custom fences that can be adapted to any tablesaw and in that process, uncovered a novel approach. In the age of custom plastic 3D printers, someone with the same tablesaw as me, fixed the problem of the unsquare, sloppy fence that comes with it.

Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on a new fence system, for twenty dollars, I could order three custom made plastic pieces that replace the white plastic ones that came with the saw. They provide much tighter tolerances that can be filed for a custom fit versus the white ones with no adjustment what so ever and a sloppy fit to start with. 

So with a few minutes with a screw driver and another handful of seconds with a fine file, I installed the orange pieces and filed them to a precise fit.

On the far end of the fence, I replaced the default small plastic piece with the much wider orange piece that provided even more support for the fence to keep it square. 

Finally I applied some paste wax to the fence and new plastic pieces to make everything glide smoothly and put it back on the fence up next to the miter slot. Even with the handle in the loose position, the fence is now exactly square to the miter slot and had no slop in it meaning it will be square to the blade every single time without effort or thought into making it so. Technology saved the day saving me hundreds of dollars and helping to take my work to the next level in the future.