Rip Fence Problem

[gaftech]

Hi all, newbie from Texas here, and I'm hoping someone will be able to give me some advice.

Yesterday I bought the Sears version of the BT3100, (315-218290), and excitedly brought it home and started pulling it out of the box. As is my custom, I read the manual first then started putting things together. Everything went more or less smoothly until I tried to put my rip fence on, then everything came to a screeching halt.

What's happening is that I can't get the front end to lock into place. I've spent the last 6 hours or so perusing this site for answers, including downloading and reading the FAQs that are highly recommended, but no luck.

I've taken the fence apart to see how it works and to see if there were any obvious reasons why it won't lock down...none.

I've measured the distance between the rails from right to left and there is no more than a 16th of an inch difference between the left end and right end. (I know, it may seem like a lot to a lot of you but I just can't see how much affect that would have on the clamping ability of the fence. I could be wrong though!)

I've checked the level of the entire machine and made the appropriate adjustments to ensure levelness.

I've adjusted the rear clamping screw and made sure the rear clamp is in the slot where it's supposed to be. The rear end clamps just fine and it will appear that the front is clamped also, but a slight nudge of the front end and front will pop up...obviously not clamped.

The locking handle has almost no resistance when moved downward unless I screw the rear screw in all the way, and even then I get very little resistance.

If I place the rear of the fence in it's proper slot and let the front end lay on top of the rail, the two guides that are supposed to slide in the slot are raised above the slot by the plastic plate. I can force the guides into the rail with relative ease but when I go to clamp it, one side or the other will pop out of the slot.

I'm at my wits end here and extremely frustrated. It's obvious to me that either I'm doing something wrong or I'm missing something or the fence itself is either physically damaged or missing a part (none that I can tell by looking at the parts list) or SOMETHING!!!!

Any help would be [I]immensely[I] appreciated. I was hoping to be happily cutting away on the windmill project I'm building for our backyard by now!

[sparkeyjames]

The handle end of the fence "locks" by tension. The handle is on an eccentric inside a metal dohickey that pushes against a flexible plastic part (the one attached with 2 screws in the pic) and drives that plastic part into the fence to lock it in place. At the same time it pulls the other end of the fence to lock the rear end into place. The rear lock is supposed to pinch the lip on the rear rail. Seems as though you have a distance problem. Go back and make double sure you have the rails mounted correctly. They should be parallel all the way down their length within say a 64th to 128th of an inch. Also make sure there is no lubricant of any sort on the plastic piece or the fence face it contacts. Mine locks down quite securely and would take a good hit to move it.

[Black wallnut]

First welcome to the site and congrats on your purchase! Make sure your rails are installed correctly.


The BT3x rip fence is simply wonderful when it works right. It should take little effort to lock so perhaps you are trying to lower the locking handle too far. Reference the above pic. When you lower the handle an eccentric roller places pressure on "E" slightly drawing the front block towards the operator bringing the bosses "C" into firm contact with the back of the front rail while also pushing on a through rod that activates the rear clamper. Make sure that the nylon glides are adjusted so that at "D" the distance is just slightly more than the width of the rail, and parallel. When clamped they do not need to touch the rail insides. If yours do not fit into the rail something is wrong.

[gaftech]

Hot Diggitty-Dang!!!

That, sir, was the piece of the puzzle I was missing! My plastic plate is not at a 90 degree angle, but rather at a 45 degree angle. Therefore when I set the front of the fence on the rail, the end of the plate goes "inside" the rail and prevents the fence from locking.

It also explains why the guides wouldn't comfortably fit inside the slots. They would when I removed the plate, but not when the plate was installed. Instead, the front of the fence would rest on the "back" of that plate and prevent the guides from going in the slot.

In retrospect, as I look at the drawing, it does show it as a 90 degree piece, but since it was at a 45 when I took it out of the box, I "assumed" that the piece was correct. So either it's a manufacturing defect or a packaging defect.

The second I saw your photo I knew where the problem was. I tried it and everything locks correctly and slides great when not locked.

I cannot thank you enough for your help. I have been pulling my hair out trying to figure this out and becoming more and more frustrated as time went on. I'd like to say that I'll immediately resume work on my windmill project, but it's 101 degrees outside with a humidity level of 33%...not exactly conducive to manual labor of any kind.

So I think I'll just kick back in some air conditioning, soak up some suds, scratch the dog's belly, watch a patriotic movie with my wife of 27 years and fire up the saw first thing in the morning when it's cool...

Thanks very much for your kind assistance. After spending many hours on this website researching this problem, I know that I can come here for almost any answer to any problem or question. You guys are great!

[gaftech]

Thanks so much. This is an even clearer picture of what went wrong with mine.

[JR]

As a point of reference, the handle should meet resistance before it reaches 90 degrees. It should quickly gain resistance, with no need to move to beyond about 135 from top dead center.

Is the handle itself screwed in tight?

JR

[dbhost]

First of all. Welcome to BT3Central!

Secondly, congrats on the purchase... Once you get it up and running the way it is supposed to, you should be very happy with this machine...

I am taking a W.A.G. here and I hope it helps.

Is the BACK of the fence engaged with the rear rail? You have about a 50/50 chance of getting the front to lock if the back isn't hooked in, and about a 0% chance of it being square...

[LCHIEN]

One thing that has caused the front T-block to rise off when clamped is waxing or lubricating the front rail. If you put paste wax on it then you need to clean it off with some mineral spirits that will dissolve/cut the wax. If you used auto wax then you may have a heck of a time getting the silicone oils off.

If after you clean the rails of any wax/lubricants, then you might use some real fine sandpaper and rough up the plastic pads where they grab the rails, ever so slightly.

[gaftech]

Astounding Assistance

I'd like to thank everyone for they're excellent suggestions. When it was pointed out to me that my "plate" on the front end of the fence wasn't acting right, I was quickly able to remedy the situation and all seems to be working correctly now. I've been able to square up the rails and even out the miter and router tables so that they even across the board. The fence glides smoothly across the entire run and I can't wait to fire up the saw tomorrow morning.

As for the suggestions/comments about lubricants; based on my rather extensive (and long) research on this site, it quickly became clear not to use any unless they were of the dry type (graphite powder, etc.)...the idea being that I don't want to contaminate my projects.

Again, thanks to everyone for their help. I sincerely do appreciate it!