Very Super Cool Table Saw Fence...

[Mark Carlson]

I'd like to see pictures of your linear bearing setup.

[Chuck Scheuermann]

Wow, wish I'd seen this before I bought it.
I immediately saw the deflection of the aluminum. I turned the rail the other way and it still deflects on the far side of the 42" extrusion. I'm thinking its at the connection where it mounts on the cross rail. Is it the aluminum? hard to tell. I still have to figure it out.. It upsets me we have to reengineer things we buy that almost never are as good as they say and even are approaching garbage if we can't use them!
Chuck

[Ted Miller]

Wow, wish I'd seen this before I bought it.
I immediately saw the deflection of the aluminum. I turned the rail the other way and it still deflects on the far side of the 42" extrusion. I'm thinking its at the connection where it mounts on the cross rail. Is it the aluminum? hard to tell. I still have to figure it out.. It upsets me we have to reengineer things we buy that almost never are as good as they say and even are approaching garbage if we can't use them!
Chuck

Chuck, I did order a few other extrusions directly from 80/20 in different thickness and they all had a lot of deflection, 42" and 48".

When I spoke with Jeff @ VSCT about the way the 4 locking nuts hold the fence, it would be much more rigid if the nuts we side by side in two rows and maybe the deflection would not be so bad...

[Don Huffer]

Chuck, I did order a few other extrusions directly from 80/20 in different thickness and they all had a lot of deflection, 42" and 48".

When I spoke with Jeff @ VSCT about the way the 4 locking nuts hold the fence, it would be much more rigid if the nuts we side by side in two rows and maybe the deflection would not be so bad...

If I may add. I have a Unisaw with the Unifence. Had it 28 years. My fence deflects too but it hasn't made a hills bit of difference in all those years.

[Mark Carlson]

I'm seeing very little deflection if I press on the end of my VSC fence. I dont press against the end of the fence when using it so I dont worry about it. Note: I got the same amount of deflection or more with my General b-meyer fence which is very heavy duty. I'm not sure theres a fence without a rear lock that doesn't deflect a little if pressed near the end.

[Ted Miller]

If I may add. I have a Unisaw with the Unifence. Had it 28 years. My fence deflects too but it hasn't made a hills bit of difference in all those years.

Had the same saw in '79, that fence had deflection, sold that saw and went with a PM that had the T-style and had no deflection. I did try the Incra style fence on the cabinet saw I have now, that fence has 3 points of hold down, but the 30" travel was a PIA to deal with. Tried many a fence in my day and found for me Aluminum is not the way to go.

Ripping 8' and 10' sheets of double sided MDF as well as full size Ply, you need a very solid fence...

[Matt Meiser]

Thanks to everyone who posted in this thread for offering real world experiences. It sure does seem like there are a lot of small time tool companies out there that have a good idea but poorly execute the final product.

[Greg Hines, MD]

Kinda off topic, but I really like what he does with the work table on his youtube series of videos.

Doc

[Don Huffer]

Had the same saw in '79, that fence had deflection, sold that saw and went with a PM that had the T-style and had no deflection. I did try the Incra style fence on the cabinet saw I have now, that fence has 3 points of hold down, but the 30" travel was a PIA to deal with. Tried many a fence in my day and found for me Aluminum is not the way to go.

Ripping 8' and 10' sheets of double sided MDF as well as full size Ply, you need a very solid fence...

No, I'd have to say no matter what I rip. My saw is built as strong as it needs to be. I'm sure thousands of Uni owners would agree. My point was meant to point out that we really don't need to get too preoccupied with all the thousandths in our woodworking.

Al