rip fence length

I think there are many times I rip more than 36 inches but commonly do this with ease with a 36 in fence is this what you mean by rail? Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

If you have a choice I would definitely choose the 52”. even if you only build small projects you will still need to rip wood much longer than 36”.

-- http://artisticwoodstudio.com Custom furniture

Noah, I faced the same question when I bought my saw in April but went ahead and got the 52” rails. I routinely rip/crosscut plywood for cabinetry and, while I normally have done this with a circular saw, I really wanted to do it on my saw. Space is tight, as I have 4 feet to the left of the saw and the right side rail come within a few inches of my cabinetry.

But by moving my saw forward to clear the cabinets I can cross cut a full sheet of plywood. Now I routinely do all my cuts on the table saw. This just saves a step in the building process since I do not have to worry about splintering and, of course, I can break down plywood independent of the weather.

-- Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful- Joshua Marine

sorry, i wasn’t clear. shouldn’t be here before coffee. the rip fence is standard. the rail length is what i was referring to. as far as the width of stock that i rip…
thanks

scott,
how do you support the left side piece of ply that wants to fall away? i’ve never thought of crosscutting a sheet without a panel saw or some type of sled.

I normally do not rip/crosscut any piece longer than 18 to 24 inches to the left of the blade. But if I did then I have a mobile cart that I can use to support the work piece. I normally rip/crosscut on the right of the blade and if I need to crosscut a sheet of plywood, as I did yesterday when I needed a couple of 84 inch panels for the cabinet that my wife has “commissioned”, I cut to the right of the blade where the extension table will support the piece.

-- Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful- Joshua Marine

thanks for the info. nice saw, by the way.

plywood is normally 96”. You need the ability to cut that in half. So 52”

-- "The way to make a small fortune in woodworking- start with a large one"

now I got you well done looks good I too would go for 52” model Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

I went with the longer rail and setup my router on the right side of the saw with an extension table to fill out the length of the rail. This seems to be common especially if space is limited.

I’ve customized different rail attachments to use with the saw guide and router for dust collection and varying the cuts.