Unifence aluminum fence tolerances?

[keith micinski]

I have a Unifence and the original factory aluminum fence has a bow in the middle of it from end to end of about 5 thousandths. Does anyone know if this is acceptable and if not what level of straitness should be expected?

[Alex Shanku]

Yikes!!! .005" out over 4'....:eek:


Mine is out more than that I have never, ever noticed it affecting a single cut.

[keith micinski]

Well, I knew it wasn't a lot but I figure every little bit I can get out of my tools leaves me more room for all of the errors I make.

[Dan Friedrichs]

I don't know, Keith, but I can say that it would depend on where the "dip" is at. If it's in the middle, I probably wouldn't worry about it. I had a Delta T2 that was toed in ~0.005" at the end, and it was causing serious burning off the workpiece. I lapped it flat and noticed a significant improvement in cut quality.

[keith micinski]

Well, the bow basically starts a few inches in on the infeed side and then comes back out a few inches from the outfeed side of the Fence. I am trying to figure out the best way to set my fence since I have read you would actually like to have a few thousandths of toe out to cut down on wood burn. I love my unifence overall but have considered getting an accessory called a Uni-t fence because it looks like it as a lot of nice options so I guess i am just looking for an excuse to justify getting one.

[David Christopher]

Well, the bow basically starts a few inches in on the infeed side and then comes back out a few inches from the outfeed side of the Fence. I am trying to figure out the best way to set my fence since I have read you would actually like to have a few thousandths of toe out to cut down on wood burn. I love my unifence overall but have considered getting an accessory called a Uni-t fence because it looks like it as a lot of nice options so I guess i am just looking for an excuse to justify getting one.

2 thousandths is awful I dont think you can use that at all....go get the new fence...LOL

[Murray Roblin]

Keith,
I have a Unifence with a bow as well, in both the larger face and along the smaller edge. The main face was about 1/8 out, and the smaller edge about the same. I was able to file down the smaller edge to make it straight. I then bolted a secondary hardwood fence to the unifence and ran it across the jointer. This straightened it out.

After all this fooling around, I then bought the Uni-t-fence. I like it, especially the t-tracks. To get the low edge for close cuts on sheet goods, I built a quicky L-section that I then attach to the T-tracks; the lower leg of the L keeps the sheet goods away from the tall fence side.

Murray