Rant: My brand new table saw fence was off by 1/16th and I almost sent it back

Last Wednesday I was ripping some walnut for a client's nightstand and kept getting these slightly off pieces. I checked my blade alignment, checked the fence, and sure enough it was out by about 1/16th over a 4 foot cut. I was ready to call the company and complain about a defective fence, right? But my buddy who's been doing this 20 years stopped by and said to check the rail mounting bolts first. Turns out two of them were just loose from shipping. I tightened them up, re-aligned with a dial indicator, and now it's dead on. Felt like a total rookie for not checking that first. Has anyone else found loose bolts on new gear, or is it just me getting unlucky?

2 comments

2 Comments

rayc3823h ago

Man, that exact thing happened to me with my jointer last year.

jasonp7121h ago

Oh man, I feel that @rayc38. I had almost the same thing with my table saw fence last fall and it drove me nuts for weeks. Took me forever to figure out it was just a little burr on the rail that was throwing everything off by like a 32nd of an inch. I kept thinking I was going crazy, you know, adjusting and checking with the square over and over. Finally my buddy came over and spotted it in like two minutes, felt pretty dumb honestly. But hey, at least your jointer story makes me feel better about my own shop mishaps.