Delta T2 Fence #3: The Third Day - Front Rail is Mounted!

As my last post stated, I decided not to return the Delta T2 fence and try to make it fit my old Crapsman Tablesaw. I have drilled and countersank (is that a word?) new holes in the front fence rail and amazingly… it fits! I then mounted the rail to the tablesaw (measuring the rail height along the top of the saw table), along with the square tubing that the fence rests on making sure to space out the tubing while mounting it (I made a spacer with some scrap wood). After I sat the fence on the table, I had to adjust the fence a little with the adjustment screws and the plastic bushings to get it square to the saw table and blade. To my amazement, the adjustments were very slight. Can you say ‘Happy Camper!’.

I was a little afraid of drilling holes in the rails primarily because I was worried I was going to mess it up, and wouldn’t be able to return it.

I still have to drill and mount the rear rail, but I’ll also have to drill holes in the back of the saw table. Amazingly this 1952 Craftsman tablesaw (model 113.27520) did not have any mounting holes for a rear rail.

Some funny things I found in the manual:

Apparently ‘Miter Slots’ were called ‘Table Grooves’ back in the 50’s
“The saw guard assembly and splitter blade bracket are not furnished with the saw because of government orders restricting the use of aluminum.” – was this due to the Korean War?

Some things I have learned so far:

1st and foremost… TAKE YOUR TIME, no matter how anxious you are to get it installed.

2nd... When modifying a fence, make sure to measure everything about 20 times before drilling. I did, and so far everything has worked out fantastic. I still have to drill and install the rear rail, so hopefully it will work out like the front did.

3rd... If you are unsure on what to do, or want advice concerning anything, come to lumberjocks.com. I have never seen another website with members that were so knowledgable and willing to help (maybe this should be the 1st…).

One more note… A lot of you may be wondering why I would want to put a new fence on this old, piece of crap Craftsman tablesaw anyway. Actually, the reason is that after I had restored it, I wanted to use it. With the original fence broke, I thought I would initially use it just with a sled. Once I got it mounted to the stand, It looked too good not to have a fence. I wanted something cheap, but good and reliable. I did some research on making my own biesemeyer clone out of angle iron and square steel tubing, but decided against it since I have never welded before, and I didn’t want to use bolts to hold the fence pieces together. I started looking into biesemeyer clones, and really liked the Delta T2. It was cheap ($150 at lowes), lighter than most of the other Biese-clones, and the sides of the fence are aluminum held with t-bolts which makes it easy to replace the sides with extruded aluminum sides full of t-tracks (ahh.. fun with clamps, jigs, etc).

-- Jamie, Kentucky