General-T Saw Fence

[Bill Miltner]

I recently purchased a used General table saw with this rip fence. Anyone have experience with one? I had to disassembe the saw for the move and haven't set it back up yet.
I don't want to waste time setting it up if I will need to replace it, but also don't want to waste money replacing it if it's not necessary.

[Darnell Hagen]

It's a Biesmeyer, keep it.

[scott spencer]

Great fence. IIRC, General actually manufactured the Biese at one time. They now sell an excellent copy that's closer to the original Biese as any.

[Bill Miltner]

Thanks for the feedback. My current aftermarket fence is a VEGA so I don't have any experience with the Biesemeyer type fences.

[John Packwood]

The fence on my general works fine. I do have to clamp the back end down when I am set up to make picture framing stock with feather boards as I push hard against the fence. For general ripping it is OK. Only problem I really have is I wish the curser line was lower against the rule so I didn't have to hold my head at the same exact place to avoid parallax for consistency. One of these days I will just remake the plastic line holder.

[Bill Miltner]

John,

So you experience some fence deflection necessitating the need to clamp the rear of the fence? Is this indicative of all Biesemeyer style fences? Is so, that's discouraging, I never experience that with my VEGA.

[Rod Sheridan]

I never had a problem with my General fence even when using a stock feeder.

The only issue I had is that since it isn't held in place at the rear, you couldn't use hold downs attached to the fence, since they would lift the fence.

I solved that by using the stock feeder, eliminating all the feather boards.

regards, Rod.

[Rob Steffeck]

John,

So you experience some fence deflection necessitating the need to clamp the rear of the fence? Is this indicative of all Biesemeyer style fences? Is so, that's discouraging, I never experience that with my VEGA.

I see no discernible deflection on my General 650 fence. I've ripped 1800ft of lumber over the past week and the cut is very precise (13' lumber using featherboards). I have a router lift in the extension table and use the fence to back my "router fence". In that configuration I have featherboards on both infeed and outfeed side and see no deflection.

[John Packwood]

Usually I have no problem with the General fence. When I do it is because I am pushing against it pretty hard at the back making picture framing stock and cutting a pretty large rabbet. I make it out of poplar 1"x1"with 3/16 left in front of the glass and 1/2" left in for the sides. Do it about 60 to 100 linial feet at a time. If you take a fence 3 feet long and put 10 lbs plus of force at the back in all fairness I would expect some flex.

Making a tunnel with feather boards with lots of friction holding the wood exactly place is easier for me that setting up a router operation. I also use a stacked dado for this with a sacrifical fence. Puting a clamp on the back end is just such easy insurance against any flex and only take 2 seconds.

When just a standard ripping operation or cutting out a rectangular piece of plywood the fence works great just as is.