I've been working with various tablesaws throughout my life and have grown quite accustomed to the T-square style fences, which seem to be widely preferred. Recently, I found a vintage Unisaw that runs smoothly, but it still has its original round rail fence. I've been seeing a lot of advice on switching to a T-square setup and I'm curious—what are the actual drawbacks of the original rip fence? Does it really struggle with parallelism like some claimed about older models, or can it perform well with proper adjustment?
3 Answers
A lot of those original fences can be tricky. They sometimes don't lock parallel to the blade after you adjust them. You have to make sure it's square before you tighten everything down; otherwise, it can bind or even cause kickback. During the brief time I used one, I got in the habit of measuring at both the front and back of the blade to double-check my cuts.
There's definitely potential for any older fence to have wear or not function properly, but many can be fixed. I have a 1946 Unisaw with two different fence bodies, and after cleaning and adjusting them, they hold square really well. I've thought about upgrading to a newer style for smoother operation, but I can't see the value compared to how well my old setup works.
I kept the original fence on my Delta contractor saw and I'm actually quite happy with it! Once I got it adjusted, it's been spot on every time I've checked. Maybe I just got lucky, but I think it can work well if it's set up correctly.