Hello All,

Last week I was ripping up some left-over tongue and groove teak hardwood flooring so I can glue them up for a circluar top for a wine barrel that I purchased from a winery in Sonoma years ago. We keep this wine barrel outside so I just wanted to make the top big enough so that the water would run off and not onto the barrel. Anyway after ripping a few of the tongues off of the flooring I butted them against each other just as I would be gluing them and had quite a revelation. As you can see from the “Before” photo there was an elongated hole in between each of the boards.  There was about 1/16″ more cut from the center of the board vs the edges. I have a circa-1960 Craftsman that I got from my Dad and actually the board that was attached to the fence was bowed causing this effect in the ripped boards.  I could’ve just removed the board from the metal fence but I was so tired of having to measure at the back of the blade and the front of the blade that I have been contemplating purchasing an after-market fence for some time now.  I was seriously considering the Mulecab Accusquare due to its price but there was one thing that was kind of bothering me was the fact that to lock the fence I would have to turn a knob rather than pushing down a lever.  I was so used to a lever and thte main reason I like it is that it is visual.  You know the fence is locked by looking at it and I wasn’t so sure that with the Mulecab that I would know this by eye.  Another factor was that the Mulecab was aluminum. I started looking at the Vega model U26 and read about 30 reviews of this product.  They tend to target older Craftsman owners and every review was extremely complimentary and most of the reviewers touted the micro adjustment on the Vega as something they never thought they would use but they use it all the time.  I’m pretty sure that the Mulecab does not have this feature and the Vega fence is made of steel but is still lightweight enough to remove easily with one hand. Another attractive feature was that this fence only cost me $220 at my local Rockler which is very commensurate with the Mulecab and I didn’t have to pay any shipping.

This weekend I installed it on my Crafstman 10″ tilting arbor table saw.  The holes on the front of the table saw worked fine for the front rail but I needed to drill 2 holes in the back of the saw for the back rail.  The fence doesn’t lock in the back but rides along the back rail which is just a hollow steel tube.  I needed to retrofit my folding extension table due to the back rail but that wasn’s any big deal.  The fence was dead-on perpendicular to the saw blade right off the bat. And once you line up the tape at 0 where the fence is touching the saw, all you have to do is dial in the width you want to cut and it is perfect.  After ripping the same boards you can see how they butt up against each other now in the “After” photo.  I am a happy customer and would recommend this to any other woodworker who is looking for an after-market fence. I have also attached a picture of the table saw with the fence attached.  Now I just have to build an extension table on the right-hand side of the saw and I will be able to cut 36″ to the right of the blade.