What's the best way to true the fence of a CMS?

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
I read the instructions that came with the saw.
They all ( I have 4 different CMS's) say to use a framing square and align the fence to the blade. I did that on 2 of them, and it didn't work out all that great. - matter of fact it didn't seem to work out at all.

What did seem to work, was using two carpenters triangles placed in the slot and lining up each side of the fence, then checking it to the blade, and repeating the whole process until it looked right.

After that, I cut a sample, then checked it with the framing square, then went back and repeated the process until I got it just right.

Is that the way to do it or is there some better way?
Any tips on doing it better would be appreciated.

BTW - it took quite a bit of time. Mind,,I'm not complaining about the time
(to be honest,,,it may sound strange,,but,, I kind of enjoyed it).

[joseph j shields]

Rich,

I find that a steel "engineer" square works best.

Like these from Woodcraft...

http://woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=3730

I have this set and find the 6" square to be ideal for truing up my cms.

Hope this helps!

-jj

[Mike Cutler]

Rich.

I like your method, and if it works I say keep using it.

The fences on CMS's can be some fairly rough aluminum castings. They have losts of little burrs and such in them. On my Dewalt the bottom portion of the fence is pretty good, but the top of the fence, that slides, has a little curve to it. Nature of the beast.

I use mine quite abit in the shop, and rarely move it off 90 degrees, once I have it set up. It's quicker to realign the slider fence than the CMS, so I do angles on the TS, unless I have a lot of them to do.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Joe and Mike,
Thanks guys.
I guess I'll keep doing what I'm doing.
It seems to be working pretty well.