I wish that I had taken pictures of each step to further clarify the information listed below. Looking back now I realize that it would have helped quite a few people. I may be able to do some sketches and post them here…

First, I went ahead and attached the square tubing to the front rail. Then with a pencil, I made a mark on the front rail at ‘0’ on the measuring tape that is attached to the square tubing.

Then, I disassembled the front rail and tubing. I had a ‘0’ reference point on the front rail from the previous step. I placed both front and back rails together so that I could get my ‘0’ reference point transferred from the front rail to the back rail.

Next, I placed the fence on the tablesaw and moved it to where the zero position would be (against the blade), as if the fence was actually attached, making sure to square the fence with the table. The T2 fence has a plexiglass (or clear plastic) sight where you read the attached measuring tape through. I made a mark on the table where the reference line on the sight was. I then drew a line at that point on the saw top from the front to the back, of course making sure that the line was square to the table.

Next, I layed the front rail on the top of the saw, matching up the ‘0’ reference mark on the rail to the line that I drew on the saw table top. I then measured 1.75 inches from each side of the saw table and drew a line on the front rail for each. I did the same for the center of the table at 10”. I then did the same for the rear rail.

I then drilled the holes. I actually offset the holes a bit higher and did not align them with the existing holes that were in the rails because I wanted to make sure that the fence was as close to the table as it would go without scraping across the table when you moved it or riding too high above the table. The fence sides are adjustable up and down, so you do have a bit of tweaking there too. If you look at the blog, you will notice in the fourth picture down on the before and after pictures, that the holes that mount the rail are up slightly from the original holes.

Once you mount the rails and put the fence on, you may have to adjust the plexiglass sight on the fence a little. It is adjustable side to side, but when I installed it, I barely had to make any adjustment to it at all.

Like I said before, I really was really worried that I would mess it up, but if you take your time and make sure that all of your measurements are accurate, everything will work out fine. All I can say is that it made a 200% improvement on the tablesaw. I have been using it now for a few weeks and it is extremely accurate. It’s nice being able to set the fence on a measurement, and not have to double check the fence to the blade to ensure that what it says is what it’s going to cut.

I am by no means an expert at installing table saw fences, and really, I was taking a big chance on messing up the fence and it eventually not being usable (or returnable). I took my time thinking about how I could accomplish the installation. There may be a better way to install this fence on a craftsman tablesaw, but this way worked for me.

Hope this helps… as stated above, you will have to drill all new holes in the rails to get it to work right.

If you can guess what it is, post it here. I’ll let you know if you get it right. I gave a really good hint in the first blog posting. You just have to do a little research to get the answer.

I cut some of the pieces today, 4 – 18” long pieces have been jointed and edge-glued together to form one plank (needed it to be a little longer than what is required so that I can shape it on the bandsaw), and the remaining length has been resawn and 1 piece of it shaped on the scroll saw which gave me a bit of scrap to use for some other things on the project.

I had a hard time trying to come up with an idea for the contest, but finally I went with something that I love other than woodworking (hint, hint). I am making my favorite one of these, and this is something that I have wanted to do for a long time, but never really thought about making it from one 2×4. It won’t actually be functional, other than a piece of art to hang on the wall, since you really couldn’t have a functional one out of softwood, but for ‘the most part’ the dimensions will be full size and not scaled. I am still trying to figure out how I will make a couple of the things that will be part of the project, but it shouldn’t be a problem…

Hopefully I didn’t give out too many clues… :)

Here is the before picture:

Here are the after pictures with the Delta T2 fence installed:

The next two pics show closeups of the rails where I had to drill new holes since the existing ones did not line up. I also had to drill 3 new holes in the rear of the saw table to mount the rear rails:

As in my last blog post, I still have a few things to do to it like mounting the motor and installing a new switch, making a router table extension, and putting some adjustable feet on the legs of the table.

Let me know what you guys think so far!

Just in case you can’t see the pictures completely, here is a link to the album.

I am actually on vacation for the remainder of the year, so I’ll be finishing up this saw. I have 2 more things to do to it….

1. Mount the motor and install a new switch
2. Make a router extension wing.

I have always hated the Crapsman ‘Professional’ router table that I have. It has the aluminum top that we all hate, and it has always felt flimsy.

This saw has the standard cast iron extension wings, which are not solid. If I leave the right side wing off, that will give me approximately 24” from the edge of the table, to the end of the fence rail. So i’m looking at a 24” X 27” router table extension.

I took some pictures, but I can’t get them uploaded because my step-daughter took my usb cable to her dad’s house. Hopefully I’ll get it back tomorrow and I can upload them…

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).

Has anyone had any experience drilling holes to mount their fence, and if so, what is the best way to do this so that the holes are level and straight. I was going to use my ShopSmith to do this, but the max distance from the chuck to the table is too short to fit the saw table between.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hopefully it will fit the mounting holes of the table saw. From what I can tell, the Delta T2 (biesemeyer clone) should be a good fence. Feels extremely solid and I like the aluminum fence faces.

I was going to try and build something similar to what Hutch had built with extruded aluminum. I really like his design. I think that I’ll still go this route for my other 2 table saws. I may even make one similar for my bandsaw. Here is a link to the fence that Hutch made.

I’ll try to get some pictures tonight.