Anybody ever cut down their 50" fence??

[brian mcannally]

Am I crazy for thinking about this? I have a jet cabinet saw with the 50" commercial fence and I'm pretty sure I have only used it once or twice past 36". Space is at a premium in my shop and I've about convinced myself to cut it down to say 37". Not taking off a lot but it would add valuable space to move around the saw and maybe it would keep me from storing so much crap at the end of the table.

Any suggestions appreciated.

thanks
brian

[Jim Becker]

I've known folks to do this from time to time. Considering that you can actually get or make replacement rails, it's not that significant of an deal. Or you could make replacements "now" and put the full size ones away in case you sell the machine in the future. Lot's of choices...

[Jerry Allen]

I sold my last saw for just that reason and getting jammed in the kidneys with the rails, and bought a Porter-Cable 3812 portable, which is okay, but I miss the steel top and table depth. I have been thinking about doing the same thing lately.

[Rod Sheridan]

I did just that with a General 650 that I purchased. It had 50" rip capacity, I reduced it to 32" since my shop is small, and I don't use sheet goods.

Regards, Rod.

[Mike Cutler]

Cut mine also.
I have a shop that is 9' wide by 19' long. Long rips are more important to me than crosscut capability.
The rails and bracket are easy to replace, if and when the times comes.

[David DeCristoforo]

Not crazy at all. If you only need a 36" rail, go ahead and cut that sucker down. I whacked my unifence rail without a second thought since all of my wide ripping is done on my slider. And as Jim points out, you can always get a new rail if your situation changes later.

[Michael Schwartz]

36 is more than enough, go for it. I would consider going even lower if space is that big of an issue. If you think of the largest standered cabinet part you might cut and then go by that, that will give you a good idea of the capacity you need.


If I am cutting a large panel, I always use a circulars and the EZ Smart gude, with a combination of the cabinetmaker/square and or the repeaters.

When working with a Table saw, I never rip anything larger than what I could crosscut safely with that saw.

[Rick Potter]

I have a Unisaw with a Unifence. The rail is an aluminum extrusion and is pretty easy to cut compared to the steel ones.

The first time I cut it, it was on the left side to put an Excalibur sliding table on. I cut it with a Sawzall. It cut fine but the cut was not square, not that it really mattered.

The second time I cut the other side down to a 32" or so size. This time I took the fence rail off and cut it on the radial saw, or the chop saw...can't really remember. I didn't use a special blade, and it did a nice square cut.
I cleaned up the other side's cut at the same time.

I haven't really missed the size, since I have two saws, and the other, a slider, has a 50" fence too. I do NOT want to try to cut that one, as it is a solid bar of steel about two inches thick.

Rick Potter

[Alex Elias]

I have the delta with the 32" I guess if you want we can trade.