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That is a sweet upgrade for your saw. I had this same saw years ago and I also upgraded to the delta T-2 which made a huge improvement over the original crappy stock fence. After I upgraded my saw, I found myself needing a wider rip capacity than what was possible with the included 30" rails. So I tried to find the 50" version or at least the rails which were nowhere to be found. So I looked at the rail setup and determined that I could use 2" steel tubing and 2" angle iron to create rails of any length I needed and that is exactly what I did. It was a pretty quick and inexpesive upgrade for me, the only tricky part might be drilling and tapping the holes in the square tubing. But what I did was cut a piece of scrap hard wood to fit into the space between the angle iron and square tube of the original rail assembly and used that for a spacer for the new rail assembly that I was making (hope that makes sense). If you are going to do it check your local scrap metal yards or even metal fabricators to see if you can get some cutoffs (usually at a substantial discount, because new steel is not cheap). I have included the project card of my new setup in case you would like to check it out.

 

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Josh, you really made that old Craftsman into a real saw now. I put the T-2 on an old Ridgid. What a difference it made! Before long you will be moving up to a cabinet saw. lol I don't have the Triton, but I hear a lot of good things about them and their A-1 customer service. Enjoy and good for you. rand
 

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Isn't that T-2 a great fence, at a great price? I put this fence on my craftsman TS, which is similar to yours, and it has made an old saw seem new again. I built new wings for my TS as the old stamped steel wings didn't fit right after I installed the T-2, and didn't extend out the length of the rails. I already have a separate router table, so I chose not to put one in.

One thing I am curious about is deflection. So that you won't be climb cutting, you would have to start the piece from the rear of the TS, where the T-2 isn't clamped down. (Assuming the fence is positioned similar to how you have it pictured for router operations) Has that been an issue for you?
 

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Mikema, actually yes. haven't routed much on it yet, but I did realize that when i press hard on the fence on the unlocked side, it moves a bit. is there a common solution for this? i was thinking some sort of clamp i lock down when the fence is finalized - or - putting the TS fence to the other side of the router, and starting the cut at the lock side… any help would be great.
 

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Very handy addition to the saw. I have the same router plate in a home made cabinet, wish I had saved myself a lot of time, money and space by doing the same as you.

Great work
 

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Very Cool. Nice to use the saw table for both!!
 
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