Introduction: How to Make a Table Saw Fence for Homemade Table Saw
This time I'll make a table saw fence for my homemade table saw.
How I did it - you can check by looking DIY video or you can follow up instructions bellow.
For this project you will need:
Materials:
Aluminum rectangular profile
Wood screws (50mm)
Square 2.5x2.5cm wood pieces
2x7cm wood board for fence + some plywood
Carriage bolts
T nuts
Tools:
Table saw or hand saw
Drill and bits
Hammer
Clamps
Step 1: Aluminum Rail Fabrication
I took this rectangular aluminum profile and made two passes with my home made table saw to get 9 mm groove in the middle. This will be a slot for sliding bolts. Drilled and counter sinked 5 holes for screws.
Step 2: Installing Rail
Eyeballed proper rail place at table top edge and used wood board to ensure, that rail will be flush with table top. Marked holes and later on predrilled to full depth. Used 50 mm wood screws to secure it in place.
Step 3: Sliding Mechanisme
Added square wood piece, eyeballed and marked a groove center.
Drilled three holes all the way through. Align up second square wood piece and with drill bit marked hole places. This time only middle hole, was drilled all the way through, meanwhile side holes was drilled only half way.
Step 4: Assembling
Hammered two T nuts in side holes.
With chisel remove few millimeters of wood to compensate on a back of a T nut. Glued, clamped and screwed both piece to one solid unit.
Step 5: Carriage Bolts
For sliders I used carriage bolts. Side bolts will be acting as a sliders. Middle one - will tight all mechanism up.
Carriage bolts had round bolt heads, so I grinded two sides to make them fit in my rail.
Step 6: Fence
For fence I used 2 by 7 cm wood board, plus glued and screwed a piece of plywood to get more solid fence.
Checked blade squareness to the rail edge. Looks good! Align fence, double checked squareness, clamped and screwed with 50 mm wood screws. Give some action to the fence, tighten up again and checked one more time - does it still square. Looks it is, so removed wood screws, added wood glue and screwed everything back.
Step 7: Testing
After wood glue dried, it is time for testing. Fence unlocks, moves and locks very simple and freely. Also table saw fence could be easily removed if there’s need to use cross cut sled, for example.
Made some test cuts. By only looking at the last cut, where I got thin wood strip, I could tell without any measurements that this fence is really accurate.
When I was thinking about this fence design I wanted that this fence will be simple and minimal as possible. And I think, I did it quite well.
If you're interested how I made my homemade table saw you could check my other article on instructables here.