Fence Position for Right-Tilt Saw

Article - August 3, 2009

This question comes from Michael who asks:

I know this has got to be the dumbest question. I have a right tilt table saw. Where do you put the fence when you make a 45 cut? Please don’t laugh too loud.

And my response:

Well, I did laugh out loud Michael. But only because you told me not to. :) The truth is its not a dumb question at all. In fact, its a very good question that more folks should be asking themselves when they own a right tilt saw. The reality is that most people will cut their bevels with the fence on the right side of the blade. The problem with this is the fact that the workpiece is then trapped under the blade and has a higher chance of kicking back. It also means that you have less room for error, because if the piece lifts up at all, you will remove some extra material and likely have some burning to deal with.

So one alternative is to cut with the fence on the left side of the blade, but obviously you are limited in the amount of room you have to work with. So I would say if you are comfortable using the saw in this manner and your saw is capable of a left-side rip, go ahead and do it for the smaller pieces that will fit. When cutting larger pieces, you just won’t have much of a choice if you want to use the tablesaw for the angled cut. Its just the nature of the beast.

Discussion

Rob Bois August 3, 2009 10:33 am

The question I’ve always had is why they make right-tilt table saws in the first place? The saw practically invites a dangerous cut. Is it somehow easier or cheaper to manufacture this way? Seems like the right tilt table saw was thought up by the same guy that invented the radial arm saw.

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- James August 27, 2019 6:20 pm
  
  Right tilt saws have the advantage that no matter the thickness of the blade (dado, thin kerf or otherwise) the measurements from the fence will never have to be adjusted since the blade stacks “away” (to the left) of 0 on a measuring tape. Vs a Left tilt in which every measurement over or under a normal kerf will have to be adjusted for.
  
  Reply
Steven Hall August 3, 2009 10:50 am

It is important to point out to the questioner that when you do make your cuts with the fence moved over to the left side of the blade you will need to reverse your hands, feet and body positions when making the cuts. That is you will be standing to the right of the blade, your right foot will be forward, you will hold the stock against the fence with your right hand and you will feed the stock/use a push stick with your left hand. Easy enough for us left-hand dominants as we adapt to the right-handed world already. It’s time for right-handers to know how we feel.

A method I use to make angled cuts and keep the fence to the right side of the blade is to use a sacrificial fence raised above the table surface so that the offcut is not trapped.

I thought a quick web search would find plenty of examples but I was wrong. Apparantly this technique is little documented in the web world. I did find one page: http://www.cjohnhebert.com/Bed.htm

I find, though, that he and others make the mistake of burying the blade into the face of the fence. You can actually bury it into the bottom so that the plane of the fence’s face meets the plane of the left side of the blade. The blade can then be raised into the bottom of the fence to a reasonable height (just don’t raise it too high or you’ll embed it into your real fence!)

The bottom of the false fence needs to be set just below the thickness of the stock to be mitred (say one ply if cutting plywood). Also, the fence needs to be at least as thick if not thicker than the stock you are cutting. Also, you will test the setup on a scrap piece before committing the real material?

The side benefit of this set up is that you can, say, mitre all four edges of a rectangular board with one set up and with no measuring! The pieces can be cut to actual size and then be mitred.

Generally the offcuts will either gently expel themselves or will be pushed through to the outfeed end by the next cut. Sometimes they might do neither and will clog up under the fence and will need to be manually cleared.

Hope this helps.

Reply
Steven Hall August 3, 2009 10:54 am

I forgot to mention that the sacrificial fence method is best suited to panels. Trying to mitre the long edge of a six foot 1×3 with this method would be sketchy at best.

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Todd A. Clippinger August 3, 2009 1:15 pm

My Jet cabinet tablesaw is a right tilt model. I got a deal on it because the store ordered it in and nobody will buy a right tilt. The left tilt models are definitely preferable for the majority of people.

I place the fence on the left side of the blade when cutting a bevel. This is important for me because I like the way the blade approaches the material.

Most don’t realize that if you plan on adding a sliding table to your saw, a right tilt will have the advantage.

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Marc-Andr August 3, 2009 6:33 pm

It is a good question indeed. I’m a professionnal cabinet maker and I use 45 degree miters in a lot of projects. I now have a sliding table saw combined with a shaper, so that operation is really a breeze (look at the felder KF700). When I had my right tilt unisaw, I cut my pieces to the exact size with square cuts and the use an auxiliairy l-shaped fence over the blade so that my piece would be cut as if it was a left-tilt saw. You simply your angle and blade height so that it cuts trough the wooden fence at your material thickness and voil

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Marc-Andre August 3, 2009 6:33 pm

Sorry, the drawing with letters got mixed up…

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Marc-Andre August 3, 2009 6:36 pm

Hi,
I used to do exactly as Steven Hall describes above. I now have a sliding table saw (A beautiful Felder KF700, simply magical) and a CNC for these operations..

Marc-Andr

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BarryO August 3, 2009 7:36 pm

The big advantage of right-tilt saw is that the fence measurement stays valid, even when the blade is tilted.

As for increasing the danger of kickback, I’m in the camp this is urban legend, promulgated by those that don’t understand what happens when kickback occurs. Kickback occurs when the workpiece is lifted off the table surface and comes in contact with the blade at its apex, which then shoots the board back at the operator at high speed. Given the geometry of the situation, this is less likely to occur with a right-tilt, not more. With both blade and splitter on top of the board, it is much more difficult for the board to lift off.

Now if an operator modifies the tool by removing manufacturer-installed safety equipment (like the splitter), he can hardly blame the tool for such a “Darwin Award” stunt.

Reply
- David Rome November 18, 2018 3:50 am
  
  Kickback Justas often, if not more often, occurs when the work piece becomes more tightly, “wedged,” between the rotating blade and the fence, which can happen by a variety of causes. Yes, it can occur when a piece lifts from the table, but also if the fence, blade, or spreader is misaligned to each other, and the distance becomes more narrow as you move towards the rear of the saw. It can also occur if, for any reason the workpiece shifts partially to one side or the other, where the piece becomes slightly turned at an angle to the alignment of the fence, blade, splitter parallel alignment. The workpiece in these cases becomes, “pinched,” by the fence and blade, (possibly the splitter if still in contact with the blade), and yes, it is a matter of physics: the force acting on the workpiece of the rotation of the saw (which is briefly intensified by the increase in the force pressing the workpiece into the blade laterally by being pinched) is enough to overcome any frictional force of the table, or fence (increased by pushing down and into the fence by the user), or the force of the hand or push-stick acting on the piece. Once those forces are overcome (usually takes less than a tenth of a second) the force of the rotation of the blade launches the workpiece in whatever direction the combination of forces acting upon it dictate. There are many, many videos, some in brilliant super, super, slow motion, and you can sometimes see the piece actually, flex, or bend, or deflect, as it is pinched between the blade and the fence… and then you just see a blur….
  
  Reply
nateswoodworks August 4, 2009 1:35 am

When I had my right tilt the only way I would do it and feel safe is to move the fence to the left side. BarryO if you feel safe go right ahead, but I do not recomend it. Any shift it the work peice and you have a projectile-and this can still happen before you reach the splitter. Yes the splitter and guard are there, but I feel it is only there for the chance of a mishap and not to rely upon. Not telling you what to do and mean no disrespect here Barry but I think it is a bit risky. Michael, if you need a 45 degree another suggestion would be a 45 degree chamfer bit for the router. I have done this many times before my new saw on the router table. If you don’t have a router table you could always hot glue a scrap onto your work peice so that your bearing has something to follow and use your router. Hope this helps some.
Nate

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BedrockBob August 4, 2009 5:31 am

BarryO is correct about the fence measurement staying valid. This occurs not only when the blade is tilted but if you use blades that are different thickness. On a left tilt if you change blades that are different thickness you should re-calibrate the scale on the fence. On a right tilt you donâ

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kosta August 5, 2009 8:12 am

My uncle lost his index finger on a right tilt table saw because he was ripping I think it was a 2×6 for an out feed table. Some how is hand slipped and it was like 11:00 pm he had been working all day and wasnt paying attention and look what happened

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Steven Hall August 5, 2009 11:23 am

“As for increasing the danger of kickback, Iâ

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C. John Hebert June 9, 2010 5:48 am

First of all, the article I posted on my site id foolproof. In that one can make precision miters without messing it up and have to resort having a left tilt saw. The only material left on thew right side of the blade and is trapped is waste. With 3/4″ stock, the only piece is a chamfer strip approximately 3/4″ in diameter. This strip wobbles around and eventually wants to be pulled back but in most cases it’s a gentle pull back. I never stand in it’s way anyhow as my concentration is keeping the piece to be cut against the fence rather than left it drift away from the blade.
There’s no chance of lifting due to the the stop piece above the blade. Also, the blade isn’t buried in the fence per say, just just the top edge of the cutting teeth are barely into the sacrificial fence. I have used this system for my entire professional career with no injury. I did have a few pieces hit a back wall (drywall) with hardly any damage. In fact the waste never stuck into the drywall, but broke in 2 or 3 pieces (plywood).
This system may not work for everybody, but I can’t why not, but rather than hand down information with others view point, I thought I’ll reply straight from the horses mouth! Try it, you might like it ;-)

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Ray April 2, 2014 7:50 am

Interesting thread but it did not address my problem. I have a left tilt table saw and want to cut a 45 degree bevel on the long edge of 1X8 cherry. I put the fence on the left, so there is 7″+ of material between the fence and the edge I’m cutting. It starts out ok but about 8-10″ into the cut the blade seems to warp, going off into the good stock and ruining the piece.

I’m a complete amateur at this and will appreciate any suggestions on how to get this done right.

Thanks

Ray

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- Marc Spagnuolo April 2, 2014 8:33 am
  
  You might want to check your saw’s calibration for runout. Sometimes a saw that runs fine at 90 degrees but wacky at 45 degrees is in need of calibration.
  
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Dennis June 26, 2014 11:36 am

I am not really understanding why a left tilt is safer if you move the fence to the left of the blade on a left tilt saw? Isn’t it the same situation, just mirrored?

I have an old (70s era) right tilt saw with a sliding table, the table is not in use at the moment and I have to cut some runners and make a small sled so I can get stuff done, cutting the runners by using two push sticks and having the piece be underneath is all I can do, I stand to the side and I have a proper riving knife and SUVA style blade guard, the fence is also aligned so it won’t pinch, been considering a short fence insert. Hope this will be safe enough.

I am limited in what I can do as it’s my first table saw and I have no previous jigs or tools built to help me. I could really use this small sled to get things going.

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Todd October 28, 2014 3:07 pm

I’ve been looking at European versions of table saws, mainly from a safety perspective (hauntings of SawStop), but also evaluating just how I use my table saw now that I have a track saw. Mine is an older right tilt and I definitely feel unsafe cross-cutting bevels on the right. But when I talked with Laguna Tools about SawStop and safety issues and right versus left tilt, the salesman pointed out that the European style sliding saws are righ tilt because cross-cuts are made from the left side and only the off-cut is trapped under the blade, important for both safety and possible saw alignment issues. The right side is mainly used for ripping operations. It seems us Americans with the way we use our table saws have driven the recent left tilt phenomena.

I think the argument about the merits of left tilt versus right tilt is irrelevant. Knowing how to use your table saw safely is, and this means adapting your work style and building fixtures to ensure your safety. If you have a right tilt, then ripping narrow stock on the left is your best and safest bet. If you are cross-cutting wide stock, build a sled.

Incidentally, the only (real) gripe I have with my old Delta right-tilt contractors saw is the lack of a riving knife. I average at least one kick-back event every year that could have been avoided with a riving knife. I know enough to stand to the side when feeding my stock, but my poor garage door…….

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Dean April 6, 2018 3:18 pm

What I have found is that on a left-tilt saw if you cut a 45 bevel, if you have the fence on the right, the way the blade engages the wood, (the leading teeth are coming down and to the right) it helps to keep the workpiece aligned against the fence. The result is a nice straight cut with little binding. Running the fence on the left has a tendency to try to pull the workpiece away from the fence making it very difficult to make an accurate cut and with a lot of binding, lifting and smoking. I have just recently purchased a vintage General 350 table saw and am now hoping to find a good price on a sliding table to make those large dimension bevel cuts a possibility.

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Fence Position for Right-Tilt Saw

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