Can anyone explain to me the advantages of having a 50″ fence over a 30″ fence. It seems that the 30″ will cut a sheet of 4×8 in half and I cant imagine having to cut anything bigger that that.
Wait, after a bit of thought I think I answered my own question, but lets hear them anyway.
Replies
If I had to take three inches off of a sheet of plywood, I would feel much safer pushing the 45" between the blade and fence rather then the 3" piece between the blade and fence.
I think most of us would like to have the huge capacity fences but the infrequent need and limited space can make those very long rails impractical in some shops. I wavered between the 50 and 30" fences when I got my TS and went with the 30" because of those very concerns. In the two years since getting it, I have had one situation where the 50" fence would have been nice to have. A straight edge clamped to the sheet stock got the job - and project - done though.
If you have the room and the need, get the big ones. If not, like a bunch of others, the 30" fence will work fine.
Tom Hintz
Because there is always more to learn!
I agree with the previous posts. If you have the room and the budget for a 50" fence, great. It is safer and more comfortable for me to trim a few inches off of a sheet of plywood as described. That being said, It is also nice to have a place to stack my cut pieces when I am doing a lot of ripping. If I am ripping a series of pieces at say, 18 or 24", I still have 20 or so inches on the other side of the fence to stack my cuts. It's just how I work. If I had a 30", I'm sure that I would of developed a different method.
John
When I bought my used General 350, it came with an 80" fence. Broke my heart, but there wasn't room for it in my shop...... hacksawed 30" off.
Paul
OUCH! 80"! That must of been a tough choice. Couldn't you of built an addition or left the garage door open indefinitely? I'm being silly, of course. I hope that you had a proper burial and that your saw received some counseling and therapy. Perhaps a 12-step group?John
I agree with all the posters - in this case bigger is better. And BTW, how would you cut that sheet in half the other way, that is to get a piece 4'x4'?
DR
I've never tried it, nor would I without a slide set-up or first rough cutting the material with a circular saw to perhaps 50" or so. To cross cut a full eight foot sheet would be a daunting and dangerous feat. IMHO. John
That extra fence length, with the table extension makes a good place to stack workpieces and if you drop a router into it you can use the same fence as the tablesaw uses as a guide
Andy
"It seemed like a good idea at the time"
hdgis1
Well I routinely saw wood more that 18 feet long..
How long should my fence be?
OK Imagine that you want to make a straight cut in a curved 8 foot long board. If you place the two tips on a fence you can make a straight cut across the curve, but the fence would need to be 16 feet long..
To me bigger is not better.. It all depends on 'how ya use it'! Sorry I had to...
To me (I could be wrong) is after the blade 'has it' the fence don't do 'nothin!'
Hdgis1,
I have a PM 66 with 30 in fence, and found I could have used the longer fence when dadoing the sides of the case. I was able to do all the dados except the middle one. I finished it with the router, but it took alot longer for setup, and multiple passes because I didn't have the right size router bit for the plywood. Another point why the longer one is nice, is I have a router in the 30 in fence. Anytime I cut anything wider then 12 inches, I have to take the fence for the router off. Not a big deal, just another reason why a wider fence is nice.
Dave
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