Steve Maskery
Established Member
Iwf":3siv2rpg said:It makes perfect sense that the blade shouldn't be exactly parallel to the fence, but only after I'd read it several times.
Steady on a mo.
Those who advocate a slight clearance mean it is measured in THOU.
Personally I set my table up to be as parallel as I can measure. The main reason for this is that not all cuts are made between the blade and the fence to the right!
My saw is a traditional right tilt - the blade tilts towards the fence. This is a bit of a pain as it makes bevel cuts a bit risky - the workpiece can gest caught in a triangle of table, blade, fence, risking it getting trapped and thrown back at me. So I bevel with the fence to the LEFT. So a fence that is slightly out is going to make matters worse in that situation. It's true I don't want to do that very often, but I want to set my saw up once and forget about it.
I also have my tenon jig which rides on the fence. A bit of clearance on one face would be fine, but then when it comes to the other cheek, I would get rubbing and burning. So I like it straight and true and parallel.
If you set yours up out of alignment, be very sure you know exactly how much is acceptable, and what the unintended consequences are.