What can I use for table saw fence face?

[Derek Arita]

The fence face on my JS Pro is not flat. What can I use over it to create a truly flat surface? I thought about some kind of flat 1/4" aluminum sheet maybe? Plexiglass?

[glenn bradley]

I see a Jet, Saw Stop and TaiChi JS-Pro. All seem to have aluminum fences. Nearly anything you screw to the fence will conform to the surface. I attached a heavy gauge 80/20-ish piece of anodized aluminum extrusion to a wavy fence and ended up with a thicker wavy fence. I would use whatever face material is handy. Just assure that you can shim between the new material and the stock fence. That'll get you there.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I use wood and lap the surface after it is attached to the fence with screws and glue. When I have done my best to get the surface flat and square I cover the wood with high density Pionite.

[Derek Arita]

I see a Jet, Saw Stop and TaiChi JS-Pro. All seem to have aluminum fences. Nearly anything you screw to the fence will conform to the surface. I attached a heavy gauge 80/20-ish piece of anodized aluminum extrusion to a wavy fence and ended up with a thicker wavy fence. I would use whatever face material is handy. Just assure that you can shim between the new material and the stock fence. That'll get you there.
Saw Stop. Thanks for the advice.

[Derek Arita]

I might try sanding the stock laminate surface with sticky-back sandpaper on a granite reference slab, first. The slab is almost as long as the fence.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

You can use your saw top for a surface plate if you do not have access to granite (I do not). The abrasive can be regular sandpaper glued to an opened up brown paper bag.

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[Lee Schierer]

I have some magnetic feather boards that can be mounted on a vertical surface that help guide pieces while ripping. To adapt these to my Beismeyer fence, I built a shell to go over the fence. The result was a fence face that was taller and straighter than the stock faces on my Beismeyer. You could do something similar for your fence.

[Robert Hayward]

Here is what i did to get rid of a very annoying crooked factory fence face on a PM2000. That is a fence from vscttools.com that was milled flat by them. It is attached with only two bolts, one at each end and held off the PM fence by the thickness of a washer for a 1/4" bolt. This was to eliminate any irregularities in the factory fence causing the new face to distort. I also moved the fence rail tape so the fence measurements are still accurate for making rip cuts.

[William Hodge]

I have a Beisemeyer fence on a Powermatic 72. I took the laminate and particle board off, and bolted on vertical grain Douglass fir. It took some drilling. It has worked fine for 9 years.

[Derek Arita]

I have some magnetic feather boards that can be mounted on a vertical surface that help guide pieces while ripping. To adapt these to my Beismeyer fence, I built a shell to go over the fence. The result was a fence face that was taller and straighter than the stock faces on my Beismeyer. You could do something similar for your fence.

Lee, are those jointed/planed boards?

[Lee Schierer]

Yes, they were kiln dried maple and professionally planed by my supplier. The edges were straight as best I could tell. My straight edge is only 36"

[fritz eng]

Check out: 80/20 1030-72 Extrusion T-Slot, 10 Series 1"x3" 72" long. AMAZON or Ebay. This makes a great fence and the T-slots are perfect for jigs and other attachments

[Derek Arita]

Check out: 80/20 1030-72 Extrusion T-Slot, 10 Series 1"x3" 72" long. AMAZON or Ebay. This makes a great fence and the T-slots are perfect for jigs and other attachments

Fritz, I'm looking at that, but I can't figure out how I could use it on my SS JS Pro.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I finally got around to watching some Saw Stop videos. Do you have the Hi-Low fence?
I think I would try carefully sanding the stock fence and checking progress with a straightedge and square.

Another flattening station is a glass table top, and sanding blocks that I call abrasive shooting boards. I can get wood, aluminum, iron and steel fairly flat, straight and square with sandpaper. It is tedious.

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[Derek Arita]

I finally got around to watching some Saw Stop videos. Do you have the Hi-Low fence?
I think I would try carefully sanding the stock fence and checking progress with a straightedge and square.

Don't know what hi-low refers to. I plan on sanding on a granite reference flat first and see if I can flatten it. I just can't except that because it's a jobsite saw, it shouldn't be held to the same standards of any table saw.

[Peter Mich]

The Wood Whisperer replaced his Sawstop fence with aluminum extrusion…https://youtu.be/Co2W6TNovDw…starts around 3:20 of the video.

[Derek Arita]

The Wood Whisperer replaced his Sawstop fence with aluminum extrusion…https://youtu.be/Co2W6TNovDw…starts around 3:20 of the video.

Thanks for the link. The fence on the SS JSPro is not at all the same type of fence, so to use something like that would be much more difficult. Also, I've read or saw that extrusion is not very flat. I think that's the reason VSCT machines their extrusions to get them flat and square.

[Jim Becker]

Derek the "elephant in the room" for me is that if the fence is out of flat enough to be of concern, and it's a new saw, why not try to address that with the manufacturer. Just because it's a "job-site" saw doesn't mean there cannot be a reasonable expectation that it will not have a major defect. Especially given it was not an inexpensive tool purchase.

[Kevin Jenness]

I have flattened a cupped aluminum fence with a sanding board and added p-lam for smooth feeding.

[Warren Lake]

just tell them the name says PRO, the fence says its not.

My Beismeyer was not straight and so had to sand the metal to flat before putting on a auxiliary fence. The fence on the SCM while old and used hard might be out a tiny bit from wear is so many levels above these other fences.

[Tom M King]

I'm glad you found what the problem was anyway.

[Derek Arita]

So right now, I'm super happy! I sanded the face of the fence on my reference flat, with 220 paper and it worked! Ya, it looks like crap, but that really doesn't matter. I tried a couple of cuts and no more waviness. I sanded till I got about .002 deviance from end to end and that was good enough for me. Now I don't have to add a fence face to it. As an added bonus, sanding took out the vertical cup as well, so a win-win. I'm stoked. Now I can move on...

https://i.imgur.com/D1FKLNO.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/xZooCtt.jpg

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Nicely done! The appearance is interesting. If you ever need to re do the laminate you could use Colorcore Formica.

[Roger Feeley]

Don't know what hi-low refers to.
Me too. What’s hi-low?

[Bill Dufour]

Screw thick wood face to the fence . Make sure to countersink all the fasteners. Then run it over the jointer to flatten it. If it was cast iron scraping is by far the most accurate way to get it flat and at the correct angle. Very steep learning curve to do that but the tools are cheap and can be made at home.
Bill D

[Jim Becker]

Me too. What’s hi-low?

The venerable Delta UniFence and pretty much every fence on a Euro slider has "high/low" positioning for the actual fence. "High" is a vertical fence similar to a T-square type fence. "Low" is when you slide the fence out and rotate it 90º so that the fence height is about a half inch or so. It gives more hand clearance when using a push device and less interference from overhead collection when ripping strips of material between the blade and the fence. It's my preferred position, honestly...I don't set it to "high" unless I need that support for whatever I'm cutting.

[Greg Quenneville]

I don't set it to "high" unless I need that support for whatever I'm cutting.

Me too. As an added refinement I have a short piece of extrusion similar to 8020 that replaces the fence extrusion when I only want a bump stop. (I have a full combo so my fence is really too long to retract far enough to use as bump stop)

[Jim Becker]

Me too. As an added refinement I have a short piece of extrusion similar to 8020 that replaces the fence extrusion when I only want a bump stop. (I have a full combo so my fence is really too long to retract far enough to use as bump stop)
The actual fence that SCM/Minimax ships with their sliders is uber long, so I just cut a short 300mm or so section off for using as you mention since I keep the "full length" fence rear end back from the end of the blade and don't need the extra length anyway.

[Paul Saffold]

A source for custom lengths of the 80-20 mentioned. Not everyone wants 6 ft.

https://f-l-8020-store.myshopify.com/products/1030

[Greg Parrish]

Me too. What’s hi-low?

Pretty sure he is talking about the flip over low profile fence for using material closer to the saw blade while also using the blade guard. The SS JSP has a small fence that flips from right side when stored to the left side when used. If you use this, it would make it hard to fit a replacement or add on fence face.

See the 4th picture over on their website: https://www.sawstop.com/product/jobsite-saw-pro-jss-120a60/