Fence not locking up square

[darylb]

I've got a BT3100. It's worked flawlessly for me, until just recently.

I don't know what I did to cause it, but the fence refuses to lock up square. It's square when I set it where I want it. As I lower the handle, the front cam engages, and it's still square. As I continue to lower the handle, the rear of the fence moves a good 1/8" away from the blade. I can only get it square by holding it in place as I lock the whole assembly.

Arggh. I've searched here, and tried some adjustments, to no avail.

Has anyone else encountered this? What did you do to fix it?

Basil

[gimpy]

I'm not sure if this will help or not. I read this on this site a few months back. When I am lining up my fence, I pull the mechanism towards me which takes the slack out and lines the fence so that when I lower the handle to lock it in, the fence does not move.

After rereading your post, I think I just described what you are doing to lock it in. Sorry, I can't be of more help.

Frank

[JimD]

Basil,

I think it is time to loosen the two allen headed bolts that hold the rip fence extrusion to the head of the fence with the locking lever (they are on top). I think the fence moves when you get both sides of the fence hard against the rail. These bolts may be hard to move. I put anti-seeze on them (they are steel bolts going into an aluminum casting) and replaced the allen heads with regular hex heat bolts. You have to grind a little to get the head heads installed.

I think this because the little hook arrangement at the back goes up and down so I do not see how it could pull you out of alignment. Another test would be to push the front of the rip fence hard against the rail with the handle totally unlocked and see if it does not assume the same angle and when you lock it.

Jim

[leehljp]

The fence squares and locks in two steps. Usually it locks when moving in the opposite direction - towards the blade about 1/16 or 1/32 inch.

The point behind this is that the fence locks down and squares up in two stages, so don't think that movement during the locking process in itself is a problem.

So the problem now is the adjustments that are needed - such as mentioned above by Jim. Frank also gave some good advice on technique of using the fence.