The WoodWhisperer table saw fence review of the VerySuperCool Tools fence system.
Read complete transcript from Marc Spagnuolo’s table saw fence video review below.
“Most American made cabinet saws come with a very similar fence. As long as you are spending a decent amount of money and are getting a good one, you’ll find it has what they call a Biesemeyer-Style fence. Where you have this very thick rail that the fence rides on, and the fence itself is sort of like a t-square shape, so that when you cinch it in place it locks it into a confirmation that is pretty much exactly where you set it. And it holds that position every time, no matter where you put the fence on the saw. So they are very reliable. This to me, is one of the best systems on the market and if you get a saw with something like a Biesemeyer style fence you’ll be much happier than some of the other crazy ones that are out there.
I used to own a Craftsman saw years ago that had a round rail and the system that you used to cinch it down, it just seemed to move the orientation of the fence so if I lock it down in one spot it doesn’t necessarily mean that if I move it six inches over and lock it down again that it would still be in alignment with the blade. So it’s a big problem on a table saw. So these fences are fantastic, but they are fairly limited. As you can see there is not much that you can do with this, and at the table saw, you know as well as I do, it’s all about jigs and other things that you can attach to the saw and to the fence that really make the table saw one of the useful tools in the workshop.
So what can we do with this saw to actually make it better, or how can we improve this fence really is what it comes down to. Well, fortunately there is a product out there now and I want to make sure you guys are aware of it because it’s a pretty good option. If you have a Biesemeyer Style fence you can upgrade to a VerySuperCool Tools fence. They sent me one to test out and I wanted to show it to you. So let me take this guy and put him out of the way here and show you the VerySuperCool Tools version which is this bad boy. Now this drops into your existing bar here, you don’t really have to do anything other than add the fence itself. The rail is still the same rail and it just works.
“The fence itself is an aluminum extrusion with all of these t-tracks in it. So now, really the possibilities are endless for what you can add to this. It’s built to be built upon.”
– Marc Spagnuolo
The cool thing about this you’ll notice first of all, is this is really the key to the whole thing is this aluminum extrusion part here. The fence itself is an aluminum extrusion with all of these t-tracks in it. So now, really the possibilities are endless for what you can add to this. It’s built to be built upon. As opposed to our standard fences where you just kind of have to rig something up or build something that cradles the fence system. This one will lock right in. Now this is brand new to me I’ve only had it for a couple of days so I haven’t really built anything for it that I can use to really show off it’s capabilities. I can’t wait to actually have a chance to dig into this stuff. But I will show you one of the tall fences that they sent me to try out. That should hopefully illustrate how useful this can be for you. Let’s check it out.
So what I have here is just a piece of Baltic Birch ply with some holes in it. This side has laminate on it which makes this a nice surface to ride your work up against, nice and smooth. And the bolts and screw heads here are recessed and counter bored holes, so this way, as you are moving your work piece across you don’t have to worry about contacting the heads of these screws. Now the t-track assembly accepts these little t-track nuts so as long as they are in alignment we should be able to get these on in these two tracks fairly easily.
Let me just tighten the fence down. Now we’ve got a nice tall auxiliary fence for running vertical pieces across the table saws. So maybe raised panels or anything where you have one of these larger panels that you need to work on the edge. You really need a tall fence for that. So this makes it really super easy to add an auxiliary fence.
Now another thing we need to be concerned about when you have a tall fence like this, is squareness. It needs to be perfectly square to the table, so if it’s not, it’s actually a very quick adjustment. All you need is an Allen wrench and you just make a slight adjustment to these nylon screws and that will tilt it one way or the other for really precise control for getting the squareness of this fence set.
“Another thing I really love about this fence system is the fact that is it dead straight.” ~ Marc Spagnuolo
Another thing I really love about this fence system is the fact that is it dead straight. This is something that doesn’t really happen that often when it comes to table saw fences. Most all of them have some sort of waviness to them that we have to deal with. Now, I’ll be honest, mine, I’ve got these plastic faces on there. Well every place a bolt holds it to the body, it winds up creating a bit of a valley, because the bolt is pulling that plastic material in. The good thing though, is as you are ripping, most of the time, the work piece, if it’s long enough, it just going to ride on the high points. So as long as those high points are in alignment, in the same, they are sort of parallel with your blade, you won’t ever really notice them. And they really are very, very small and minute. It may come into play if you are referencing in one of those valleys in a cross cut let’s say, and then you push forward and it goes out of that valley you may have registration issues. But most of the time, it’s a fairly minor factor, at least on my saw.
But, if you are fed up with yours, and you’ve got one that has lots of dips and valleys and you just can’t get a good straight registration off of it, something like this is absolutely awesome. This sucker is going to stay flat and it’s never going to be a problem. It’s just one less thing that you have to worry about.
Now I just looked around my table saw and I thought, what were the most common things that I try to do with the table saw that require some sort of accessory that I have either purchased or made. Here is a little stop, this kind of cradles/straddles my fence and allows me to reference from my fence but then gives me some extra room back here so that when the offcut is released it’s not caught between the fence and the blade. So something like this, I had to build. I’ve got another piece of the plastic material that my fence is made from, and I use this by burying the dado when I want to do something like a rabbit that goes right up to the edge. I bury it in there, but I need a special set of clamps to hold this to the fence. By the way the clamping system for this homemade guy is actually built in, I just use some of the knobs I got from Rockler and that holds it in place. This one is a purchased product, it usually runs about $80-$90 dollars. It’s a tenoning jig, very handy to have, but the cool thing is all three of these, and a bunch of other things that I can’t even think of off the top of my head, can be made to incorporate with this one existing fence. And I know on their website they actually do have a demonstration where you can actually see a tenoning jig made with this system which is absolutely fantastic. So no more array of clamps, you don’t have to worry about having the clamps holding things and being in your way. Half the time if you can get it clamped, the clamp head is usually in a precarious position or it might just be, flat out in the way of the work piece. So you have the option to avoid that with this system. So a lot of cool possibilities and hopefully in the future I’ll be able to really dig in and show you how this things starts to save you money in the long run.
“…a worthy upgrade, especially if you are sick of having a ton of accessories with different clamps and things like that for various set ups.” ~ Marc Spagnuolo
So clearly, I think this is a pretty cool product. But I get a lot of products sent to me, that don’t always make it into the form of video and put out to you guys. The reason I decided to focus on this one, aside from the fact that I think it is very useful to anyone who has a table saw, is really the fact that this is a company of two people. Two guys are doing this. Allan Little, who is AskWoodMan on YouTube you might recognize that name and his partner Jeff Fischer, who was one of his YouTube subscribers. They basically got together built this company and they are coming out with a whole array of products under the VerySuperCool Tools name. And as one small business to another, I’d really like to throw as much support to these guys as possible and it really, really, helps when it’s actually a good product. You know, something that they can really stand behind and something that I can tell you is a good product and I know you are going to enjoy it in your shop. So, I’d like to throw a little support their way when possible. So, check it out. I’m going to leave this on the table saw, I don’t see any reason at this point to go back to the one comes with my saw. I do think this was a worthy upgrade, especially if you are sick of having a ton of accessories with different clamps and things like that for various set ups. So check it out, it’s VerySuperCool Tools.” – end of transcript
See Marc Spanuolo’s original table saw fence review as published on TheWoodWhisperer.com Nov 29, 2012.
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