I’ve had the same issue since the day I upgraded my fence. I always anticipated movement when locking the fence. After my first few cuts with my new fence, I started doing the exact same thing you do. It just seemed like the most simple remedy. I often slide the fence holding pressure against the back side of the front rail near the cursers on both sides then it locks in place without moving. I only have experience with my past and current machines, but I would imagine that deflection is an issue with all Delta/Beisemeyer style T-Fences. It’s so nice to have confidence in your fence. I wouldn’t trade this fence for anything, nor could you pay me to go back to using front/back tube rails (that never lock square). If anyone’s considering upgrading, “just do it”... Great video. Thanks, Russ, for sharing a nice and simple way to avoid deflection when locking the fence.
OK Russ, the latest update.After I got done doing the Admiral's chores (yes Admiral...I'm retired Navy and no matter your rank in service, the wife always insists that they"re they Admiral!) So I backed out the fence alignment/lock-down tension bolts and adjusted them until there was just enough tension to get a good lock down where the fence will not move without really significant force. (Note that this is adjustment is bassawkard from the instructions and then I spent an hour or more in balancing the adjustments to maintain lock down and get the front of the fence and the back of the fence perfectly parallel to the miter track. I used an 'igaging digialign' alignment tool with a digital readout to continually adjust the fence. I quit adjusting the alignment when I could no longer improve on a one one-thousandths difference front to back (with the front measuring 0, the spot at or near the center of the blade at 0 and rear of the fence measuring +0.001 ... because I didn't want the miter bar to go outside the boundaries of the front or back of the table top my definition of front and back are 2" inside the boundaries). Now, back to my original problem. I have the same deflection as you describe and I really thank you pointing out the solution. It certainly makes life easier! However even after I getting the fence back to 'parallel' with the miter slot or perpendicular to the tube there still remains a slight deflection. Whereas the it was always -0.002" prior to my complete readjustment of the fence, it is now exactly -0.001 according to igaging which is supposedly accurate to within 0.0005". Since the deflection has consistently been this small amount away from the blade no matter what the lock-down tension nor the fence alignment position in relation to the blade the only thing I can attribute this deflection to is bad material or improper assembly of the fence 'head'. There is a long metal bar (apparently welded) to the 'head' and it against this bar that the two fence alignment bolts are adjusted. It seems to me that one side of the bar seems to flex more than the other causing a deflection toward the weaker side, in my case the right side causing the fence to deflect away from the blade as it is normally mounted on my saw to the right of the blade. I sure that several readers can point out my erroneous conclusions but none can dispute my consistent results. I can work with this consistent deflection or I can simply ignore it now that it is a -0.001. I'll probably generally ignore it. Thanks again Russ and your feedback would be welcomed.
At 4 min 20 sec on this vid I see a Pencil inside of a Dowel - Whats the scoop on that? - Also for this problem on the fence I Make sure and push the Handle of the fence to the back and square the handle to the bar before locking it down. By pushing back it squares the fence before locking down. Thanks. Enjoy your vids. Keep up the good work.
Thanks George. The pencil has a dowel with a piece of sandpaper glued to one end and a hole on the other. it fits tight on the pencil to give me a small push stick. It comes in handy once in a while. BTY, that one is getting short, I need to move it to a new pencil:>) I had to go get it from the vac collection bucket yesterday. that's a good sign it's pretty small now.
Great Russ. I suspect you found my problem and within a few hours I will have been able to verify the problem and use your solution. So I'll bet right back with you.
Huh :>) Sometimes even the experience miss the obvious (including me). Watch my next video and you will see a good example of what I have been missing for years.
i wonder though, is is installed rite, or did something ware out, maybe one of those little plastic cuttioning pieces between the fence and the guide tube is loose , or for that matter, if anything at all is loose, it can throw things off, i've bumped the table and had to do a set up
ya, i find myselg holding classes every time i try to tell a customer what is wrong with their car, and then they want to know , well , why does it take so long to just paint a little dent, i forget that most people don't know the whole procedure. it's frustrating that people didn't take the dupont , or transtar paint classes, they should be mandatory in 10th grade, WTF, lol
I'll be honest... When I first seen you my first thought was of shock that you knew what deflection was. I really need to stop judging people based on their looks, and for that i'm sorry.
