Truing a 3650 Fence

[reduni]

Has anyone ever milled or lapped a Saw fence? I was ripping some sheet goods and noticed that it was pulling away from the end of the fence. I thought that things may have come out of alignment but after some adjusting I found out that there is a .005" or so bow towards the blade in the fence. It starts just about at the front of the blade and then tapers away. It's not big but is noticable. The fence is from my Rigid 3650. I've had it for 3 years and although it was never perfectly flat it definetly didnt have that much deviation. I may have the resources to have a machinist mill it but dont know if it's a good idea. Any other suggestions short of buying a new fence would be appreciated

Thanks

[chrisexv6]

Has anyone ever milled or lapped a Saw fence? I was ripping some sheet goods and noticed that it was pulling away from the end of the fence. I thought that things may have come out of alignment but after some adjusting I found out that there is a .005" or so bow towards the blade in the fence. It starts just about at the front of the blade and then tapers away. It's not big but is noticable. The fence is from my Rigid 3650. I've had it for 3 years and although it was never perfectly flat it definetly didnt have that much deviation. I may have the resources to have a machinist mill it but dont know if it's a good idea. Any other suggestions short of buying a new fence would be appreciated

Thanks

You could put a face on the fence made of some stable material (UHMW, hardwood, etc) then shim between the existing fence and the new face so that the bow is gone.

Only drawback is a little work to get a t-slot in the fence face, as you will be covering the existing t-slot fence. Also the fence ruler would then be off by the thickness of whatever your new face is......not sure if you can adjust it out with the pointer, or maybe you dont use that ruler anyway :)

[Bob D.]

Also the fence ruler would then be off by the thickness of whatever your new face is......not sure if you can adjust it out with the pointer...


It might be possible to adjust for this by shifting the fence the thickness of the new fence face then fine tune using the pointer.

[BadgerDave]

I'd get it replaced. If what you say is correct then the LLSA would cover its replacement.

[Laflaone]

BadgerDave nailed it. I bought a new 3660 about 4 months ago. While assembling and checking it out, I found that the fence had a noticable bow, concave away from the blade. I did a little research with the parts list before I called Ridgid, and got the stock number of just the long extrusion. When I called, they first wanted to balk a little, wanting me to take it to the closest service facility, which is 50 mi away. I told them, look, I don't need the whole fence, just the extrusion. Four days later it came UPS, no charge, and was dead flat.