PM 66 Accu-Fence set up

[Tom Gerken]

I recently purchased a new (really used, but barely) Powermatic PM66. It is now in the shop and set up except for the fence. The left side of the fence is not PERPENDICULAR to the TABLE, right side is close enough. Note that I am NOT talking about PARALLEL to the blade. The fence does not have a mechanism for tilting the fence vertically. The fence material is the UHMW plastic stuff. The only idea I have to resolve this is to 1. shim on the “away” side thus pushing it to be perpendicular or 2 sawing the UHMW at a slight angle. I am leaning toward option 1 but most likely will be option 1 and 2 combination.

Thoughts? Am I missing something here?

I am also really disappointed/shocked that the fence on this quality of a saw would not have adjustments for this.

Thanks for your help.

[Damon Stathatos]

Not sure if this (http://content.powermatic.com/manuals/M_2195075Z.pdf) is the same as your fence but on page 11 and 12, they show adjusting screws on either side of the rail bar. If not, I'd call PM and ask them, 'what's up with my fence?'

[Tom Gerken]

Damon,

My fence does not have the set screws on top of the rails. Looks like they must have provided this adjustment on newer modles. If they did have the set screws, that would fix one side but then the other side would be out of perpendicular.

[Paul Murphy]

I had the same issue, and since mine was not out too far I shimmed with aluminum tape. If it were out further I would have sawn a full length tapered "wide wedge" to fit behind the fence side-plate. I had first bought the setscrews intending to drill&tap for them, but like you they would have just transfered one sideplate correction for the other sideplate error. Having to do it annoyed me, but it seems to be a part of accurate woodworking if you cannot justify machinery from Martin, Altendorf, or other high-end brands. I have used the fence for years since shimming, and hadn't thought about it until your post. Everything considered, the fence has served me well.

[Tom Gerken]

Thanks Paul.

I took the face off and discovered that it had already been shimmed. Only problem was it was shimmed on the wrong edge, thus making the alignment twice as bad. I am assuming this was done at the factory. The factory did the right thing by shimming, but must have not checked the work afterwards.

Removed the shim and placed it on the correct edge. It was a little thinner than it needed to be so I added three layers of ¼” wide blue tape on top of the steel shim.

It is now perfect of both sides of the fence.