Table Saw Fence Alignment: 1/64th off skew

[Travis]

I heard that it is best to set up your table saw fence parallel to the table slots then skew the fence 1/64th of an inch away from the blade at the back of the slot. This is suppose to prevent the back of the blade from contacting the work as you saw through the cut. Has anybody heard of this and is it a good practice.:eusa_thin

 

[Ray Martin]

Yes, there are wood workers who think the fence should be skewed and others that think this is blasphemy. There's arguements for both. If you do decide to skew the fence outwards, I'd make it a VERY small skew. Keep in mind that the fence is a straight line from front to back. Moving the back out means the entire fence is at an angle from, rather than parallel to the blade.

Ray

 

[Howard Acheson]

I am a proponent of having my fence absolutely parallel to the miter slot. If you kick out the back the front is "kicked in" and on long rips you will not end up with parallel edges. In the shop I was involved with we ran one tablesaw with a stock feeder. With the fence kicked out, we never had parallel opposite edges.

In my 40 years of woodworking, it is only recently that I have ever heard of skewing out the back of the fence. It seemed to start with a particular blade manufacturer whose blades were causing scoring in the cut.

 

[Jonz]

I keep it parallel. I get good cuts, so I see no need to change it.

BTW, Howard, your setup instructions are the best around.

 

[FredP]

it will be fine either way :eusa_thin however if you skew it on the right side of the blade it will also be skewed the wrong way if you move the fence to the left side of the blade for whatever reason. :BangHead: this may not be good8-O

fred p

 

[DavidF]

I skew mine out by .005"

Is it true that having it skewed out means rips will be not parallel? I wouldn't have thought so as the front of the blade that does the cutting is a point contact. The more the fence is skewed the worse the cut because the side of the teeth are having the normal scraping action, but not parallel - not convinced:eusa_thin but willing to be persuaded.

 

[Dutchman]

I've always thought you just keep it as close to parallel as possible. The bisemeyer does a pretty good job of keeping it that way but sometimes ripping a lot of plywood can will give you a little skew. Why start out with it?

 

[frigator]

Well the best option I guess is a perfect parrallel fence, but perfection is something rarely obtained, esp if you use your blade to set your fence with. If you have some skew, its best to be out, rather than in.

 

[Travis]

Thanks. I have set the fence to what I think is parallel. How are you guys getting such exact measurements.

 

[DavidF]

Well the best option I guess is a perfect parrallel fence, but perfection is something rarely obtained, esp if you use your blade to set your fence with. If you have some skew, its best to be out, rather than in.

Another point that may be worth considering is that the back of the blade is coming straight up as it touches the cut piece at the back; that could lead to an increased incidence of the piece being lifted up and thrown back at the operator unless hold downs are being used. Me - I'll stick with my 0.005" of skew.

 

[chris99z71]

Thanks. I have set the fence to what I think is parallel. How are you guys getting such exact measurements.

With a setup like this:

It can be done without the magnetic base if you simply mount the dial indicator firmly to a piece of wood. There are billions of different setups out there that are all patented but the consensus I've heard is that a block of wood works just as well as long as it's rigid and slides tightly in the table slot.
Record a reading (or zero the gauge) to a tooth on the near side of the blade. Next, slide the measuring unit away from you, to the far side of the blade, and rotate the blade so that you're reading off of the same tooth and take another measurement.
Adjust the table so that you minimize the difference when measuring near vs far sides of the blade.
This picture might help if I'm not explaining it well.

After your blade is square to the table, you can follow the same procedure to align the fence to the table - except this time you adjust the fence itself.

And finally, here are some links to folks that are alot more knowledgeable than me (including our own Tom Hintz).
http://www.newwoodworker.com/dilindjiguse.html
http://www.shopnotes.com/main/article-dialindicator.html
http://www.thewoodshop.20m.com/calibrate_sled1.htm
http://garageshop.org/newsite_008.htm

 

[NCPete]

my guards are still on the saw, thereby significantly reducing chances of kickback... and the blade is set parallel to the guides, and the fence parallel to the blade.

 

[Travis]

Thanks Mike and Chris. I have a dial indicator with a magnetic base. I am going to try both methods to see what I come up with. I am very curious becasue using a new Forrest WW2 blade I get saw marks and burns on 4/4 purple heart but a very clean cut on red oak. This wood working stuff is all a big puzzle that is fun to solve.:eusa_thin

 

[D L Ames]

Travis, I think you will find that purple heart has a tendency to leave burn marks real easy. IIRC it is due to the oils in the wood.

D L