Aligning rip fence in the vertical plane

[JR]

Does anyone know how to do this? I did a quick check for square before ripping the tops off some boxes and discovered a slight tilt to the fence.

I don't remember this being discussed before, so I'm reaching out to the brain trust.

TIA,
JR

[wbsettle]

There have been a few threads on it. This one has the fix on page 2. I thought I had a couple of more, but that's the only one in my bookmarks list currently.

-Brent

[sparkeyjames]

There have been a few threads on it. This one has the fix on page 2. I thought I had a couple of more, but that's the only one in my bookmarks list currently.

-Brent

Do you really bookmark things within this site? Most sites I frequent have decent search facilities so I never bookmark pages within a site unless it has special interest to me. The only thing I can add to my original fix post is be very careful of filing/grinding. Take it a little at a time and check it often. Yes I know that means taking it apart and putting it back together many times but better safe than sorry.

[JR]

Thanks. I guess I'd forgotten abuot that thread.

Now to tear apart my fence. Sigh.

JR

[Bill in Buena Park]

JR,
Is your fence out of square clamped and unclamped?

I once checked mine - unclamped - found it to be square to the table - but them clamped, it was off... turned out one side of the fence head was lifting off the rail during clamping. I don't recall if it was dirty, slick, or what - but after a good cleaning, it clamped square again.

Just thought I'd mention this in case you haven't checked - possible save you some fence tweaking.

[JR]

Yeah, it was out of square clamped as well as unclamped.

I chose to shim one of the plastic guides on the head of the fence. I keep a pack of playing cards in the shop to use for thin shim stock, and it seemed to work fine.

I didn't have to disassemble/reassemble then realign the fence assembly. I just removed one of the guides, shimmed it, and reassembled. The fence checked fine for alignment.

Thanks for the help, guys.

JR

[wbsettle]

Do you really bookmark things within this site? Most sites I frequent have decent search facilities so I never bookmark pages within a site unless it has special interest to me..

I've found forum search tools to be more hit or miss, based on the settings the site operator implements so yes, I do bookmark threads on this site and others. As you say, it has to be something I'm specifically interested in revisiting. Sometimes I do it simply so I won't forget something I've found when I need it later where later could be months/years.

In the case of the off vertical fence, I marked it to make it easy to reference whenever I finally got around to attempting the fix. It's actuall been a while since I filed the casting marks, but I never bothered to remove the bookmark...came in handy for JR's question.

-Brent

[vaking]

I simply cut a hardwood face and attached to a rip fence on its left side. Hardwood face is attached with 2 recessed screws and square nuts that fit the extrusions on the side of a fence. Making hardwood face vertical is very easy - just shim it. An added benefit - if you accidentally bring the fence too close to the blade - hardwood face is easy to replace.

[LCHIEN]

the suggestions for enlarging the holes and filing the bosses and cleaning the rails to prevent the T-block from rising on one side or the other are all in the BT3 FAQ (see my Sig line below). And its linked to the section on rip fence questions. Easy to find.

[wbsettle]

the suggestions for enlarging the holes and filing the bosses and cleaning the rails to prevent the T-block from rising on one side or the other are all in the BT3 FAQ (see my Sig line below). And its linked to the section on rip fence questions. Easy to find.

Loring, would it be asking too much for you to include the version or last updated date in your signature? I didn't realize the FAQ had been updated since the days it used to be available for direct download instead of by PM to you. My copy, v4/04-13-06 doesn't mention filing the bosses as a fix.

Thanks.

-Brent

[LCHIEN]

Loring, would it be asking too much for you to include the version or last updated date in your signature? I didn't realize the FAQ had been updated since the days it used to be available for direct download instead of by PM to you. My copy, v4/04-13-06 doesn't mention filing the bosses as a fix.

Thanks.

-Brent

good idea.

[Spuds]

Having never seen the original thread this one was an eye opener. I pulled my rip fence apart and the boss looked just like the picture with a big goober on it.

I took the fence head to my mill and faced the front boss to level, it took several passes and you could clearly see that it was not square/level. Once it was flushed I kept the Z height and faced the rear boss so it was level with the front one.

Anyway thanks to all for posting this information, it was awesome!