Saw guage - video says to kick out fence for hardwoods vs plywood?

[Ian Scofield]

Just watched a video on saw gauges here to test if the blade is parallel to the miter slot / fence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrpcozRsPWw&t=1m28s

The video says that you should adjust your fence slightly if you're cutting hardwood vs plywood. I've tried googling but didn't come up with anything. Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

[Justin Ludwig]

That would be a PITA to adjust every time. You'll find endless discussions on ripping/crosscutting plys and hardwoods on here. I prefer to install a short fence on my TS when ripping hardwoods. Any release in tension towards the fence is met with no resistance and I get much smoother feeds and cleaner cuts. Again, it's personal preference.

[Phil Thien]

Ask yourself why you weren't able to find that bit of wisdom anywhere else, and why an outfit selling a precision measuring instrument would suggest changing your fence .003" if cutting hardwoods.

[Ian Scofield]

Ask yourself why you weren't able to find that bit of wisdom anywhere else, and why an outfit selling a precision measuring instrument would suggest changing your fence .003" if cutting hardwoods.

Sounds about right. Made no sense in my mind and I've never felt the need to change my fence when cutting one thing from the next.

[Myk Rian]

The safe, and usual thing we do, is kick the toe out a couple/few thousandths, and leave it there.

[glenn bradley]

Ask yourself why you weren't able to find that bit of wisdom anywhere else, and why an outfit selling a precision measuring instrument would suggest changing your fence .003" if cutting hardwoods.

But, but, but . . . you can't put it on the internet if it isn't true ;-) The odds that tension release in a hardwood will always cause the kerf to want to open is a pretty loose assumption. When cutting "lively" stock, I use a sub-fence that ends just past the leading edge of the blade. Many saws have fences with this capability built in.

[Rod Sheridan]

My saw comes with setup instructions to set the fence with a very slight offset away from the blade, I'm away on business so I can't verify how much however a couple of thousands sounds familiar

I never change it when changing material, that would be a real pita.

A more important safety feature on a fence is to use a short fence when ripping solid material...............Regards, Rod.