Rear rail on tablesaw fence, yea or nay? And other thoughts on outfeed / extensions

[Grant Aldridge]

I'm working on my newly acquired unisaw and have decided on the table layout. It has a small cast iron wing on the left (right tilt saw) and nothing on the right. I'm happy with the overall size of my current saw which is right at 5ft wide. It has a router mounted on the right. I can rip 33" but the new setup will be able to rip about 25 which is plenty for my uses, I break down sheet goods outside.

The unisaw came with a Vega pro fence, the fence itself is 44" long or so. I'm going to take advantage of that by incorporating an outfeed table into my extensions. I'm planning on building a U shaped table which will give me about 6" more on the left, about 24 on the right and about 15 on the back, making the whole saw / router surface about 60x42.

That's my situation, here's my question - I've seen cabinet shops with huge outfeed tables where the back of the fence just slides across the table. I'm hoping to avoid adding legs to my extensions. The right side at 24" will be supported along the front by the 2" tube of the Vega. The whole top I'm building will be a torsion box so I can run a framing member (3/4 ply is what I'm thinking, maybe 3-4" tall strips)hard against the back of the saw table where it will be bolted to the casting. That should support everything nicely once it's all tied together. Worst case I'll add some diagonal bracing down to the unisaw cabinet.

Should I plan to add a rail to the back of my table for the fence or should it be just fine sliding across the top? The top will be either mdf or ply with laminate on top. I could attach a thin wear strip of plastic (uhmw or whatever the abbreviation is :-))

Any thoughts or opinions are appreciated.
Thanks!
Grant

[Don Jarvie]

The only reason for the back rail would be to support the extension table. The back rail should be L shaped so you could add it and butt the outfeed table against it. I did this when I added my outfeed table.

I made an outfeed table the size of my saw so in total it’s around 8’ by 4’. I built cabinets underneath for storage. I ran lines under the floor so I have outlets for the saw and power tools. I like a big assembly table so it serves two purposes.

[andy bessette]

One of my Unisaws has the Unifence and requires no back rail. The other Unisaw has a Beismeyer fence with a back rail. Both saws have outfeed tables which serve as assembly tables/workbenches. Both setups work equally well.

[Marc Jeske]

Consider purchase of "Hollow core interior slab door" from BORG for $35 rather than building torsion box.

Marc