Moving fence rails on a table saw?

[Toller]

A few months ago I bought a used craftsman TS with a 2424 alignarip fence. I have never used the 24 to the left of the blade, but have needed more than

24" to the left several times. Can I simply slide the rails 12" to the right and make it a 3612? (The rails are one piece, not two piece like some of them.) If I recall correctly, the old Ridgid was very similar and came either way.

The only problem I see is lack of support or maybe balance for that much rails to the right. I emailed Sears about it, but they didn't bother to answer.

What do you think?

[Mark Jerde]

My fence gives 35 15/16" right of the blade and 0" left. ;-) I like it.

-- Mark

[Greg G.]

I see no problem with it at all, if the holes line up, or you are adept at adding new ones. Not familiar with the fence, but if the fence sticks out *too* far, you might have to add some triangulation or legs to support it properly. JMHO,

Greg G.

[mike]

You can move the rails 12" or the entire 24" to the right. I did this with a Grizzly cabinet saw with standard rails to get a 38" rip to the right of the blade. I cannot rip to the left, never did in 42 years anyhow. Add table and legs to keep saw from tipping.

mike

[Silvan]

I have an instruction sheet from a fence I'm thinking about buying. It says if the legs protrude more than 12", you have to build a "support box" for them.

I'd imagine the same applies to most anything, but would especially apply if the rails are aluminum.

[Traves W. Coppock]

On Mon, 29 Dec 2003 18:44:06 GMT, "Toller" Crawled out of the shop and said. . .:

i did the same thing before i replaced the 24/24 fence with an Excalibur...didnt have any trouble, but make sure you have an extension, shop built or otherwise between the rails, or you WILL bend them...DAMHIKT...momentary lapse of reason while building the #%^#$&^ extension wing to fit in the newly moved rails

[Toller]

Great, I was hoping to hear from someone who had done it. I suppose the extension is so that the two rails support each other; anything fancy about the extension? I was thinking of attaching some oak strips to the rails and putting piece of plywood on the oak strips.

Just curious, what does the Excalibur do better than the Alignarip?

[Traves W. Coppock]

On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 15:31:05 GMT, "Toller" Crawled out of the shop and said. . .:

snip

well, you might want to get a bit more fancy than just a few oak rails with plywood on them, i built a torsion box assembly for mine, stays true, and its a whole lot stronger than i thought even considering the thickness. even tho the main reason for building the "wings" is to support the fence rails, you want to keep them coplaner to the rest of your TS, if you don't it would cause problems with cut squareness later. DAMHIFTO

the excalibur rides on ball bearings front and back, and positively locks both front and back. the 24/24 sort of locks, but always had a tendency to shift while ripping. you wont get any of that with the excalibur. also you don't need to measure the distance from front of the blade to the rear and the fence when you lock it down. it locks parallel EVERY time.

[lopez]

Traves,

I have the excalibut fence, and it has been a lot of grief. First, it kept going out of alignment. I took it back to the factory where they adjusted the springs. The were extremely co-operative, and it is much better now. But it still locks in a non parallel position about one third of the time. The distance between the front and back rails is a constant to within 1/64" The distance between the top of the rails and the saw surface is constant to within .01". got any clues?

Len

Traves W. C> On Wed, 31 Dec 2003 15:31:05 GMT, "Toller" Crawled

[Traves W. Coppock]

On Fri, 02 Jan 2004 10:58:30 -0600, lopez Crawled out of the shop and said. . .:

Every once in a while it will try to "rack" or clamp down crooked, but what i have done is just get the fence to where i want it on the scale, just start to set the handle in the locked position, then release it a bit,,,this seems to remove all the tendency for racking, it straightens itself out, then lock it down.

Traves