Rip fence not square - but not what how think!

[naubur]

My Rip fence is parallel to the blade along the length of the table, or enough for me at any rate. But it is not straight up and down. If I put my square across the table top and up along the face of the fence, the edge of the fence that is parallel to the blade tilts towards the blade at the top (Geez, does that make sense?). So cutting 1/2" thick wood and 1" thick wood with the same fence setting will give me 2 pieces of wood that have slightly different widths.

When I loosen the adjustment screws, I can can make it straight, but as soon as I tighten the screw it pulls it back and I cant seem to hold it during tightening. It seems that the surface the adjustment screw pulls the fence down on to is on an angle. Does that make sense? It is very frustrating. Any help would be appreciated.


Jason

{edit - I do see my grammatical error in the subject! Too late to change now I guess}

[LCHIEN]

your explanation is very clear. Even if the title is not .

The first thing I would suggest is to check and make sure that the black "T" base of the rip fence is sitting down completely on the rails and not lifted up on one side or the other. This might not be your problem but has to be eliminated first. It it's lifting then this problem has been caused in the past by waxing the rails, the rip fence rail clamps can't get ahold of the rail and lift up instead of clamping. excess wax has to be removed with mineral spirits.

If that's OK, I'd check that the rip fence is properly clamping down at all three points - right and left of theblack piece and the hook at he rear that grabs the back rail.

If everything is square, then I'd agree with you that the two adjustment screws on the top of the rip fence aren't pulling down to a square reference point.

[Tom Hintz]

If youu have a T-style fence similar to the Biesemeyer, there are two nylon-looking pads that the top edge of the T part of the fence est on the fence rail. If one of those is missing or more worn than the other, it can tilt the face of the fence arm.
i have corrected this with a couple strips of UHMV (super slick) tape but getting a set of replacement contact pieces is the best answer - if this applies at all!

[JimD]

Jason,

My rip fence was not straight up and down either. I usually have a piece of melamine particle board clamped on it so at first I shimmed the particle board to get it straight up and down. That worked. Then I saw a thread on this website talking about where the extrusion part of the fence (the shiny aluminum looking part) meets the casting that has the handle to lock the rip fence in position. The casting is also aluminum and has the female threads for the bolts that lock the extrusion in position parallel to the blade. There is thick paint or something like paint covering the casting. This can help make the surface the extrusion is clamped against not parallel to the surface of the table saw. It may also be the casting itself that is not flat. A few swipes of a file will cure it but you have to take the rip fence apart, probably more than once, to make the adjustment. It would be nice of Ryobi made the saw to finer tolerances but then it would have to cost more. Be careful if you take the rip fence apart. You only have to remove the two 1/4 inch bolts with allen heads that are used for adjusting it parallel with the blade but once you remove them, the rod that goes from front to back can fall out. It is a little difficult to get back in place and there is a spring, I think it was at the back. If you carefully observe where things are as you take it apart, you should be able to get it back together fine. I put a little anti-seeze on the bolts when I put it back together. In cars steel bolts in aluminum threads seeze up. I suspect that is also part of why these little 1/4 bolts get difficult to move sometimes.

Jim

[Black wallnut]

It is also possible that your front rail is not coplaner to the main table.

[Wood_workur]

the easiest soloution is to shim up one side of the top of the "T" that rides on the rails to make the fence square to the table.

[naubur]

Thanks everyone, I will have a lot to check out tonight. I think the shimming of the front rail 't' or disassebling the fence are the best options.

The back rail is smooth, no wax and the clamp seems to pull properly but I will check it out.


Jason

[naubur]

Just wanted to update this post. I finally had some private time with my tools and decided to look at the fence. Decided that I did not want to diasassemble it, so I flipped it over, removed one of the plastic 'glides' on the side I wanted to raise. Folded some paper a few times and replaced 'glide' with paper under it. First time was perfect.

Thanks for the tip, now my fence is parallel all around.


Jason