I have a 30 year old Craftsman table saw that has served me well. I am now waiting for the money to roll in so I can get either a Saw Stop or PM2000. While I’m waiting to be rich I thought I wood trick out my saw a little.
Looked at the Knots reccomended rip fence upgraqdes and didn’t feel like spending $200 on a saw I’m going to replace. I looked at the stock rails and realized they are simple angle iron. So, a visit to the local steel yard and $27 later I have 20 feet of new rails.
I cut them to 78 inches and drilled some mounting holes and I’m ready to go. Fill in the space with melamene and mount my router and it’s done. Still have a crappy rip fence though.
Anyone else done this? Any advice? It’s all bolt on so zero risk and only out $27 plus some hardware.
Attached is a shot of the new rails.
Jim
Replies
You'll probably want to use something towards the end of the rails to hold the spacing between them. If you set the fence very far from the table top, it will want to pull the rails together when you lock it down and it may not hold very well.
I replaced my stock Craftsman fence and rails with their XR2424 system a long time ago and it's worked great. Since you're still using the stock fence, you may need to adjust it more often. IIRC, the stock fence worked pretty well, but needed quite a bit of TLC.
A couple of other low $$ improvements that really help are machined pully's and a link style drive belt. My saw won't pass the nickel test, but it runs much smoother than stock.
Edited 7/18/2008 9:26 am by Dave45
Your are right about extra support. I have 3 all-thread rods that I will use to get the spacing right as well as a support legs on the right side.
That stock fence sucks. I'll take a look at the XR2424 since I don't know what that is. I thought about buying square tubing and building a real rip fence but I thought was too much time and money. May as well buy one.
New pulleys and a link belt sounds like money well spent. I have 0.002" runout at the spindle flange (0.01" at the blade teeth) so I need to fix that too. Should be able to get to almost zero.
Somebody buy my flip house so I can afford a new Saw Stop.
You may not find an XR2424. I bought mine several years ago and I think it's been replaced by something different. I should also add that most aftermarket fence systems come with the rails as well as a fence so your home-brew rails may not work with them.
Jim,
You might be wise to keep your eyes open looking for a used saw with a good fence (possibly not in working order) or a "as is" sale at a tool store. This weekend, the local tool store had a bunch of table saw fences with and without rails for cheap. I picked up a Unifence rail for $5.
Chris @ www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
That's a good idea. I have the rails mounted and they actually are smoother than the stock rails but still a hassle to get the fence parallel to the blade. I have 48 in to the right and 18 in to the left of the blade. I am building a smaller base for the saw with a dust chute and 4" vacuum port to turn it into a "cabinet" saw. It ain't fine woodworking but it's made from 100% recycled materials. It's 100 deg in the shop so I can't work on it for very long. Glue dries really fast though.
Jim
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