Rip Fence Woes

[Caddis295]

Greetings all,

I noticed this weekend that my rip fence is not locking in the rear very well. Also, it is not aligning straight in reference to the blade. It requires a few taps to get it right. Before it was dead on straight. Any guidance is greatly appreciated.


Regards,

Dino

[LCHIEN]

Greetings all,

I noticed this weekend that my rip fence is not locking in the rear very well. Also, it is not aligning straight in reference to the blade. It requires a few taps to get it right. Before it was dead on straight. Any guidance is greatly appreciated.


Regards,

Dino

check the clamp at the rear is moving in and upwards when you move the locking handle. Maybe needs some lubrication or one of the plastic parts is broken.

Make sure that the two clamps at the front move together to grab the rail. And check the 2 screws at top amke sure they haven't come loose.

[scorrpio]

When removing/replacing the rip fence, it is sometime possible to get its rear clamp riding on top of the rail instead of it top groove. Make sure rear clamp properly engages.

[RayintheUK]

As scorpio says, it is possible that the rear clamping lever is not correctly located - we hear of frequent problems with this. Normally you need to insert the rear clamper by raising the front of the fence up. Here's a simplistic diagram to explain what I'm getting at:



In "A", the rear clamp (shown black) is inserted into the T slot in the rear rail. "B" shows it clamping shut correctly. If, however, it's not located properly, then when clamping, the result will be as at "C". Because the clamping lever is then against a face other than intended (and hence "further away" from the front fence, even if only by a small amount), this could exert the sort of flexing at the front rail you describe. I hope that what I'm trying to say is clear enough.

Ray.

[JimD]

There is a screw adjustment on the rear of the rip fence to control when it moves relative to the handle on the front moving. Correct is when the rear lockup occurs in the last part of the movement of the front handle.

To get things parallel, you have to loosen the two screws on the top of the aluminum extrusion on the front end of the rip fence. They are 1/4 inch coarse thread bolts but have allen heads. They tend to be hard to move. Make sure you have the fence unlocked from the rails, it makes turning the screws easier. I replaced mine the last time I was adjusting it with normal 1/4 bolts to get a typical hex head. I had to relieve the channel the screws are in a little to be able to get a socket on the screw heads (I used a small sanding drum in a dremel tool). I also put some anti-sease (like you put on spark plugs in aluminum heads) on the bolts since they screw into part of the aluminum casting that makes up the front of the rip fence. This seems to help a lot with the bolts moving readily when you need to make an adjustment. There are many methods of getting the rip fence parallel including some in the articles section. What I do is to move the rip fence close to the blade with a metal ruler between them. I try to get only a few thousandths between the rip fence, ruler and blade. That lets me sight the size of the gap at the front and back edges of the blade. I use a micro-positioner on the rip fence to move it in small increments. You move it to parallel and then tighten the screws and then check to make sure you are parallel. A slightly amount wider in back does not hurt but wider in front is a no-no. It results in cutting on the back part of the blade when can lead to kick-back and burning. It usually takes me a few tries but now that I have the bolts moving smoothly it doesn't take long.

Jim