My stock Unisaw fence, circa 1950 is plenty robust, but the embossed scale in the front rail is not accurate and not even off by a consistent amount, so I had to measure - bump - measure whenever a cut had to be perfect. I finally couldn't take it any longer, so I looked at aftermarket alternatives. Based partially on some very positive feedback here at SMC, I decided to get a Vega Pro 50. I think I paid $265 at Amazon, with free shipping. Unpacked and installed it today. I have two table saws side by side, the Unisaw on the left bolted to a Sears 10" on the right, with a router table in place of the right hand extension table on the Sears. The 50" Vega fence extends nicely across both saws and the router table.
Installation was pretty straight forward. The fence is real beast, and the rails are plenty robust as well. Those three items are well made and finished, although there were a few burrs where the head of the fence had been machined. The mounting brackets and other auxilliary parts do their intended job well, but are pretty crudely made and some are plain unpainted steel. I guess that's what you use to keep costs down.
The fence fit my Unisaw well, with one exception. The bolts supplied for the rear rail did not fit the threaded holes on the saw. What was supplied were bolts with washers and nuts, but there's no way I could install those nuts inside the saw top. There is just no way to get them in there without taking off the top and that's not something I was going to do. A quick trip to the hardware store to buy bolts that threaded into the saw table solved the problem, but I'm surprised that Vega advertises the fence as fitting a Unisaw but doesn't include the correct bolts for it. Not a big deal, but a small one nevertheless. Also, the rear rail was not machined to be able to use the supplied lift brackets like you do with the front brackets. Why supply the brackets? That resulted in the rail being too low for the reach of the glide button supplied on the bottom of the fence. I put a washer under the button and all was well but, again, if the system is advertised as being a direct fit on a Unisaw should it fit straight out of the box? Maybe it's due to age of my Unisaw, and the rail would be the correct height on a newer model with a different fence system.
It was easy to adjust the fence parallel to the miter slot, and the four bolts that hold the fence to the head are really robust. My measurements with a dial gage showed the fence was straight with less than 0.002" deviation over the 27" of my saw top. Adjusting the elevation of the front rail was easy with the jack screws on the mounting brackets. Similarly, adjusting the front rail to zero the fence with the saw blade was simple. With those adjustments done, the fence was ready to use.
The fence slides smoothly on the rails and locks down with minimal force. It is very stiff - I couldn't see any lateral deflection when I pushed on it sideways. The micro-adjust feature works very well - but the fence slides so smoothly I doubt I'll need to use it much. I made a few cuts and found the work to slide very easily along the annodized fence. And I think I am going to really like it's 42" length, at least with sheet goods.
Overall, I'm very satisfied with the Vega fence. The key components are well made and finished, robust, and work well together. The installation directions are adequate and easy to follow. The mounting parts however, while functioning well, detracts somewhat from the overall image of the product.
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Originally Posted by Thi X. Nguyen
