Aldi Table Saw Fence Renewal (please read before you judge!)

[lurker]

Does it curve in?
Or is the black bit slightly out of square?

Mine went out of square the other week ( I guess I had been chucking it around a bit).
Easy to realign with the cap head bolts in the head.

Incidentally I pushed a tight fitting bit of square wood down that ally extrusion just to bulk it up a bit. Suspect there is no engineering benefit.

 

[MusicMan]

Incidentally I pushed a tight fitting bit of square wood down that ally extrusion just to bulk it up a bit. Suspect there is no engineering benefit.

Yes, there is. The stiffness of ally is about twice that of a dense wood. Looks like the section is around 20 mm wide with 1 mm walls. The deflection is linear with the section modulus, which is linear with thickness of material in that axis. So you add 20 mm of wood to 2 mm Al, divide by 2 because the stiffness is lower and you get a five times boost in stiffness if it is really tightly fitting or glued in. Your instinct was fine!

Keith

 

[Orraloon]

Hi Smeghead.
Another Red Dwarf fan also. Anyhow as you will have gathered from responses by now is that for ripping wood the fence only needs to reach as far as the start of the blade. This is to prevent wood being pinched between blade and fence and causing kickback. Most newer saws now have short fences. Kickback can be very dangerous and has caused death in some cases. The other kickback preventer is the riving knife so please use it where possible along with the guard. All table saws need to be tuned or set up. The basic steps apply to all tablesaws so the 2 clips show the basic adjustments using basic tools that most woodworkers should have.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxRSarTJLMU
I said 2 clips so wait and part 2 follows. If after a proper setup the saw is still not any better then perhaps consider building a replacement fence. One good jig to have however is a crosscut sled. Plenty howtoos if you google.
Keep in mind that even a small tablesaw accident can have a large impact on you'r future.
Regards
John