At the time, I learned that several tool manufacturers had been working on the same system together, so that every new portable table saw could be equipped with an easy-to-use guard system where the splitter converts to a riving knife. On my website almost two years ago, I reviewed Bosch’s new Smart Guard System for their portable table saw. Bosch was the first manufacturer to release a new guard system. Those are a lot of reasons to set aside a saw guard.įortunately, tool manufacturers-prodded by governmental regulations-are upgrading the guards on portable table saws. Are the rack & pinion rail cogs out of synchronization? Please help? I got this saw precisely so that I would not have to measure from fence to front and back of blade after every cut.A second portable table saw with a riving knife!Įver since portable table saws first appeared on jobsites, carpenters have been throwing away the guards, and for good reason: They’re difficult to remove and re-install after they’ve been used for a few months, you can’t see through the plastic shroud, so it’s impossible to align the blade with a measurement mark you have to remove the guard to make narrow rips or rabbets and carpenters have always suspected that the splitters cause more kickback than they prevent. These increased sizes were without even moving the fence onto the other locator pins to get a wider 32 1/2' cut. Result? 20 9/16' That's a lot! And, the plastic needle rip guide did not move. Result? 13 1/32' but the plastic rip guide did not move. I also put two tic marks on either side of the rip guide plastic to test that it didn't move underneath the screws with rolling movement of the rack & pinion fence. Then I set the plastic needle rip guide to 1 1/2' and tightened it with its two set screws. Fence square to table with a 1/64th gap at top of fence which is okay for my purposes. Blade parallel to both miter slots and fence. That is too loose and you will notice the rails move when you lock down the fence.Īnyway, I squared up blade to table front and back of blade at zero bevel, and set zero bevel lock pin. I like it so I can roll the fence with the knob but tight enough that you cannot push the fence back and forth easily with one finger. There is a jam nut and spring nut to tighten/loosen tension of the fence lock underneath the table, and then just re-tighten the jam nut after finding the desired tension. It needed to be tightened because when you lock down the fence in the desired position the rack & pinion rails are not supposed to move. First off I calibrated everything out of the box, though everything was already almost perfect except the rail tension on the Fence lock.

I love my new DeWalt DWE749, especially the rack & pinion fence.

Dewalt table saw fence