Table saw fence locked up mid-cut on a big job

I was in the middle of cutting 50 cabinet doors for a kitchen remodel in Denver last Wednesday when my saw fence just stopped dead. It wouldnt slide forward or backward no matter how hard I yanked on it. Turns out the aluminum track had warped just enough from humidity changes in the shop over the winter to catch the plastic block underneath. I spent 2 hours with a file and some 80 grit sandpaper trying to free it up before giving up and ordering a new rail system for $140. That lost time meant I had to push the whole schedule back a day and eat the overtime for my helper. Has anyone else had a fence fail on them right when you need it most? What did you do to get past it?

2 comments

2 Comments

adam_thomas4mo ago

Had a buddy in Phoenix deal with this exact same nightmare last summer. He was ripping through a bunch of MDF shelving for a closet system and his fence locked up tight right in the middle of a cut. Turned out the humidity from the monsoon season had swollen the plastic glide strip underneath just enough to bind in the track. He ended up taking a hammer to the fence to knock it loose, which of course messed up the alignment even worse. He finally gave up and ran to Home Depot for a new saw stop fence mid afternoon. Cost him the rest of the day and the client wasn't happy about the delay. Did you go with the same brand replacement or try something different?

david_adams4mo ago

Oh man, I gotta disagree with you a bit here... I've been running the same old cast iron fence for like 15 years now through colorado winters and never had that problem. Maybe it's the type of aluminum track you had, but I've always thought those cheaper rail systems are the weak link. You spent $140 on a new one, but filing and sanding for 2 hours on a Friday afternoon when you could've been knocking out those doors just seems like a bad tradeoff to me. I'd rather have paid extra upfront for a heavier duty setup than mess around with a file mid-job like that.