Appreciation post: the day my tablesaw fence slipped and cost me 3 hours on a $400 order
Honestly, this takes me back to about 6 years ago in my garage shop in Akron. I was cutting rails for a set of oak cabinet doors on a tight deadline, a $400 job for a repeat client, when my old fence slipped just a hair and every rail came out a 16th off. Back then I had no backup saw and no spare stock, so I had to drive 40 minutes to a lumber yard in Canton that was about to close to grab more oak. I stood in the parking lot and realized I had been trusting a fence I never checked with a square since I bought the thing used. Tbh, I now check my fence every single morning and I tell every young guy in the shop to do the same. Ngl, that one slip taught me more than any class ever did, and I still keep that crooked rail nailed above my bench as a reminder. Has anyone else had a tool fail on a deadline like that, and what did you change after?
Used to figure a fence was set it and forget it until mine cost me a whole afternoon of rework. Now I grab my square before every single cut, it takes ten seconds and saves hours.