Fence to the Left. Under Which Circumstances?

[Scott Hildenbrand]

Was just pondering doing away with the fence rail to the left of the blade and shifting the rail to the left on my saw but was wondering, under which circumstances would you ever need to put your fence on the left on a left tilt saw?

As of yet, I've never needed to.

Opinions?

[John Coloccia]

I have jigs that I use that are more convenient to pass through either on the left or the right.

[Bill Huber]

The only time I have my fence on the left is when I am ripping boards for glue up of panels. That way I can make sure they will go together flat.

[Leo Graywacz]

Usually you need the fence to the left of the fence when you are doing angles. There are many ocassions I use the fence on the left, all of them angles.

[Bill Huber]

Usually you need the fence to the left of the fence when you are doing angles. There are many ocassions I use the fence on the left, all of them angles.

Leo, would you explain this a little more, how do you do angles with the fence?

[Leo Graywacz]

When the blade is at an angle Bill. I have a left tilt blade so I don't use it as much. But when I had a right tilt blade it was beneficial to go to the left of the blade so the wood didn't get trapped by the blade tilted towards the fence.

[Myk Rian]

I don't believe I've ever used the fence on the left. LT saw.

[glenn bradley]

Left of the blade when cutting bevels with a right tilt saw. I moved my Beis tube over one set of screws and went from 30" to 40" capacity. I've never missed the tube to the left of my left tilt blade.

[Scott Hildenbrand]

Seems like left of the blade for right tilt saws is common, which is not surprising at all. Mine's left tilt though, so it's all good.

John: Jigs that run off the table saw fence? Which jigs do you use to the left of the blade? I'm intrigued.

[Leo Graywacz]

Most of my jigs ride in the miter slots.

[Josiah Bartlett]

I use the fence to the left quite a bit, but I'm ambidextrous. I have a unisaw with a Shop Fox Classic fence.

I mostly use it that way when cutting bevels and any time the offcut is going to be wider than the save piece on a rip. My right side table is bigger than the left.

[John Coloccia]

Seems like left of the blade for right tilt saws is common, which is not surprising at all. Mine's left tilt though, so it's all good.

John: Jigs that run off the table saw fence? Which jigs do you use to the left of the blade? I'm intrigued.

For example, I have a tapering jig that I made (I posted about it here so you can search for it). Depending on the piece, I want to run it through a specific way. Sometimes I need to stop the taper before the end of the piece, and it's much easier to orient it so that I can simply stop pushing it through as opposed to plunging the blade through the piece and then continuing on that way.

Also, when cutting thin strips I would set my fence to the left. Why? Because I would use the fence on the right to set the thickness of my strip and I'd make a little mark on some tape, and then I'd move the fence to the left and make my slices, lining up the work with my little tape mark.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I have left-tilt Uni. I am nearly finished with a large number of dadoes/rabbets/tenons on long-ish pieces [36" - 54"]. The dadoes and rabbets are relatively close [2" - 12"] to the end of the piece[s], and the tenons obviously are at the very end. Most of the cuts are at 90*, but the rest are angled [not beveled] at 20* - 30*.; Where the pieces required a bevel trim at the end, I did that on the CMS - could have done it just as well with the TS blade tilted left, but I had the dado stack on the TS, so used the CMS instead.

With the fence to the left, the long work piece is fully supported on the extension table as I make the cuts, using an Incra miter and a short offset block at the front of the fence to avoid wood-to-fence contact at the cut.

I recall doing this before, but I can't remember offhand when/what/why - so it isn't a common thing.

[Peter Quinn]

I've done stop cuts for rabbits on some windows that had symetrical right and left stiles. I had to do one half of those cuts with the fence to the left. It was either that or drop the work onto a spinning blade, which is not my idea of safe. Here and there I run into a situation like that where it's easier to work from the left, but usually I could use another method or different tool if necessary.

[Chris Haas]

i was taught in a left handers shop, i have the fence on the left 90% of the time.

[Logan William]

The only time I have my fence on the left is when I am ripping boards for glue up of panels. That way I can make sure they will go together flat.

Bill-could you explain a bit more why you do this? I'm having a hard time understanding why the fence on the left will make a flatter glue up vs on the right side.