A friend of mine asked me the following question:
It seems that everybody uses their table saw with the rip fence on the right
and the miter gauge in the slot to the left of the blade. This feels left
handed to me. I am right handed. Is it done this way because of safety
issues? Do young woodworkers do it this way because their fathers did it
this way, and their grandfathers did it this way and their great grand
fathers did it this way? I feel more comfortable with the rip fence on the
left and the miter gauge on the right. Especially when cutting tenons. You
have to slide the work piece left and right to smooth out the cheek and this
seems to me to be a right hand operation. I am comparatively new at this so
please give me your thoughts.
Can you help, John?
Replies
When the fence is on the right side, the operator's right hand does the pushing of the stock. The left hand applies some side pressure against the fence and some down pressure, but the greater strength and finesse is required of the right hand which is the dominate hand for most people, so putting the fence on the right is preferred.
There is no correct side however and there are certain operations, as you have discovered, where the fence works better on the left.
A saw that was designed in Japan, the now discontinued Ryobi BT 3000, later renumbered as the BT 3100 saw, was designed like most saws to be used with the fence on either side but I discovered when playing with one that the whole saw works better and the controls make more sense when the saw is set up with the fence on the left, which leads me to think that using the fence on the right isn't a universal rule.
John White
Thank you very much, John.
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