Woodworking Tips & Tools

How to Parallel a Table Saw Fence

Written by drbob on January 23, 2012 – 6:49 pm -

In order for your table saw to work as well as it should it's really important that the rib fence and the saw blade are perfectly parallel to each other. Now my technique for this is I'm assuming that you've got the blade and the miter gauge slots are already parallel.

Then the easiest way to check your fence is to make the fence also parallel to the slots. So here's the way I'm going to do this. I'm going to slide my fence over until the face of the fence is even with the miter gauge slot and lock it down and I'm not looking at it. I'm feeling it. My fingers in this case will tell me more than my eyes will. So I'm feeling that, that I'm going to feel it all the way to the back and if they're even in the front, in order to be parallel of course, I need to be even all the way back. Now if they're not, we need to make a correction.

I'll show you the correction as it's made on two different style of fences. This is a T-square style fence. With this, the way it commonly works is that underneath the fence, there are tabs that look kind of like a leaf spring. In here, on the front of the fence, there's such screw. So when I dialed that such screw in, it pushes on this tab and then of course towards the fence in the opposite direction. If I back such screw out it lets the fence come in. So I'm out to parallel, I'm making adjustment by turning this such screw just a little bit, bring the fence back, check it again and just keep dialing that in until we bring that fence in parallel. Of course it's good to look at the owner's manual for your particular fence. Make sure you're getting that just straight.

Now, there's a different style of fence you might have. On this fence, it's a little bit different. It's not a T-square style. The way this one works is that there are four bolts here and these hold the body of the fence to the head of the fence. So when I loosen these bolts then let me move this part, the body independently the head. So step one will be the same. I'll bring this to my miter gauge slot. I'll check them to see and make sure they're parallel. If they're not, loosen the body of the fence, get in just the right position and then using the bolts, and lock it down.

Sometimes you'll see a couple of bolts up here through the top, sometimes down here. But the concept is the same. The bolts are oversize holes. The oversize holes give you the wiggle room that you need in order to adjust this.

So a couple of different styles of fences again, the best thing to do is to refer to your owner's manual. Make sure you're doing it right for your fence. Most importantly, make sure that your fence is parallel to the blade in order to be safe and get the best quality cuts.

Tags: steel city table saw
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