OK, first things first, I'm a newbie to this wonderful hobby of woodworking, which I am finding is just a black hole to throw money into. Anyway, on to the question. I recently bought a craftsman 10" direct drive table saw with a full size 27" wide cast iron top. Unfortunately the fence that came with the saw just plain sucks and I was looking for some suggestions on a fence system for this saw. Price will play a large part in the consideration of this purchase due to the fact that my wife and I are expecting in less than a month. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks, Ted
On Sun, 10 Aug 2003 02:05:04 GMT, "Ted Rose" Crawled out of the shop and said. . .:
First off, congrats on your soon to be larger family. my wife and i have tried for years, and cannot make little ones,,,oh well, that's another thread for another group.
anyhow, two things.
a decent aftermarket fence for your DD sears TS is going to cost more than i would think you paid for the saw. there is however an upside to this. any fence you buy can be moved to a different saw about a month after you put it on this one. trust me, you are going to want a new TS and soon.
my personal recommendation is the Excalibur fence system. it locks front and rear, takes a lot of abuse, moves effortlessly, and stays true.
again, congrats, and good luck with your new baby,,,oh! and the new child! lmao
Heck, I got through a year of woodworking with that setup. Now that I have a decent table saw (1972 Rockwell contractor's), the stock fence on that is great to me.
On Thu, 14 Aug 2003 01:48:52 GMT, Mapdude Crawled out of the shop and said. . .:
don't bother with it. its less than worth the price they want for what you are getting, and for another 100$ or less, you can get a great fence that will last you for years.
Depending on the saw, it might be difficult/impossible to fit one of the 'regular' aftermarket fenceds like Biesemeyer, Vega, HTC, etc. to the small direct drive bench top saws. Full sized cast iron top might make a difference, though. AccuSquare/MuleCab is about the cheapest of the mainline aftermarket fences, though sometimes you can find a scratch-n-dent universal fit Biesemeyer Home Shop on clearance. Vega was looking pretty good last time I looked. For now I'm making do w/ the Align-A-Rip 24/24 that came w/ my (used) saw. Finally have it whipped half-ways into line, I think. This is the fence that is used on the larger/full-size Craftsman and Ridgid contractor's saws and locks up front and back. Some love it, some hate it (the front-n-back locking). Me, I'm not sure yet, but front-only like a Bies is looking pretty good lately.
Another option might be to dig around Rousseau
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and see if they have an aftermarket fence system to fit your saw. Seems they focus on fences and accessories for benchtop/portables. Never heard anything bad about them, other than being a little spendy (a good aftermarket fence for a contractor saw may cost up to half what the saw itself cost, where on a portable it might cost *as much* as what the saw did!), but that's the nature of the game w/ these little beasts, it seems.
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