Circular Saw Fence

[The Medway Handyman]

Hi

Reference my post about the Makita 5604R, perhaps I should ask a slightly different question.

The only reason I'm looking to buy a new circular saw is that my existing circular saw has a badly designed rip fence.

It's a B&D and is actually quite a good saw, but the rip fence stops at the baseplate, 41mm away from the blade. This means the smallest amount you can rip from a board is 41mm. On other saws the rip fence tucks under the baseplate so you could for example rip 3mm from a board.

Anyone know where you can buy generic rip fences?

[Guy King]

The message from "The Medway Handyman" contains these words:

So make a new fence. Bit of metal strip bent round, with a tee-piece welded to it, ends turned up slightly to stop it catching.

[John Rumm]

Could you retro-engineer the same sort of trick that my B&D has:

There is a notch cut out of the sole plate where the rip fence goes. This allows the fence to move closer to the blade than the edge of the sole plate, since where it bends down over the edge of the plate it can move into the notch.

Not a good picture, but you might be able to make it out from the parts diagram:

Anyone know where you can buy generic rip fences?

The above shop will have loads of different fences... you may be able to find the type that wraps over the edge of the sole plate and returns toward the blade.

[The Medway Handyman]

My metal working skills extend to bending a paperclip - on a good day.

[Stuart Noble]

I wouldn't use the built in rip fence on any circular saw. Anything that follows the offcut is liable to be inaccurate, and you also need a straight edge to start with. A batten on the other side of the saw is better and the various methods have been discussed on here over the years

[Lurch]

On Wed, 14 Feb 2007 09:10:12 GMT, Stuart Noble mused:

I'm glad you mentioned that. I was trying to work out why I never have problems with my rip fence and that's why, I always clamp\screw a batten in place rather than use the fence.

Trend do some dead handy straight edges in vareious lengths to just clamp over a striaght piece of work. I've got some of those of various lengths too.

[Andy Dingley]

I just don't need to rip "3mm" from a board.

If I'm making 3mm stock, I do it on a table saw where I can handle it safely. Chances are I'm also going to finish by ripping 9mm stock down into two 3mm strips, so I really can't do it on a portable.

If I'm trying to remove "about 3mm" with a portable, then it's more likely that I'm making something narrower by a whisker, it might be uneven to begin with and I really want to be measuring from the far side of the board anyway, even if that's a few feet away. In this case, clamp a batten and stop worrying about exactly how thick the waste piece is.

[Stuart Noble]

I use a ply T square with a spacer to save me measuring twice. Works for me and cost bugger all