36 or 52 inch rails?

[Michael Lutz]

When I bought my PM 66 I decided to go with the 52" fence. I have a 17' x 23' shop with a staircase and mechanical equipment. I have it on a mobile base and jockey it around from time to time. I put the right extension table against the wall. I have my RAS on a mobile stand in front of the table that can help on the infeed side for wide boards or can be moved out of the way for working on the router table mounted in the right extension. I also use the TS as an assembly/glueup table where the extra width helps.

Mike

[gary Zimmel]

I have a unisaw with 52" rails. I don't have an issue with space so for me it was an easy choice to go 52". I don't go past 30' every day, but when I'm doing the final cutting on say a table top or building more cabinets for the shop it sure is nice to have the extra lenght.
If I uprade my TS it will have 52" rails again.

[Brian Penning]

What am I missing here? If you have a good outfeed table can't you simply have the offcut side against the fence(add the blade width)? Within reason of course.
I mean you're not going to put a 1" offcut side against the fence with a 4' wide sheet, but 10-12" against the fence isn't a problem. Again, that's with a good sized outfeed table.

[Fred Craven]

This is a perennial question. When I got my saw, I opted for the longer rails. It seemed like a good idea at the time. but now... the saw just takes up too much space. (in my case the rails are actually quite removable, but I'm usually too lazy to do that)The only reason to have such capacity seems to be to cut down sheet goods. But for that a panel saw or a guide system is a heck of a lot safer. Now that I have a festool system, I don't plan on doing that again.

I am constantly tempted to cut off a portion of my rails so as to make my saw easier to move around, and take up less space. But I have resisted the idea. But I'm pretty sure I'll shorten them one of these days.

[Al Willits]

Have the shorter, wish I had the longer.

In fact been thinking of picking up the 52" rails or seeing if someone wants to trade, been enough times I was short that I will go longer sooner or later.

Besides, like mentioned, it makes a good router/staging area.

I'd measure and see how the longer rails will work in your case.

Al