Most American-made cabinet saws
come with a very similar fence.
As long as you're spending a decent amount of money
and you're getting a good one,
you'll find that 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.
It holds that position every time
no matter where you put the fence on the saw.
They're very reliable.
This to me is one of the best systems on the market
and if you get a saw with something like
a 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 use to cinch it down
it just seemed to move the orientation of the fence.
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.
It's a big problem on a table saw.
These fences are fantastic
but they are fairly limited.
As you can see there's not really much
that you can do with this
and at the tablesaw,
you know as well as I do, it's all about jigs
and other things that you could attach to the saw
and to the fence
that really make the table saw
one of the most useful tools in the workshop.
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's a product out there now
and I wanna make sure you guys are aware of it
because it is a pretty good option.
If you have a a Biesemeyer-style fence
you can upgrade to this.
It's basically made by a company
called VerySuperCool Tools
and they sent me one to test out
and I wanted to show it to you.
Let me take this guy,
put him out of the way here
and show you the VerySuperCool Tools version
which is this bad boy.
Now this drops in to 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 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.
Now really the possibilities are endless
for what you could 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 could use to really show off its 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.
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.
The bolts and screw heads here are recessed
in counter board holes.
This way as you're removing the 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 basically.
As long as they're in alignment
we should be able to get these
on these two tracks fairly easily.
All right.
Just tighten the fence down.
Now we've got a nice tall auxiliary fence
for running vertical pieces across the table saw.
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.
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 it is dead straight.
This is something that doesn't really happen that often
especially 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 phases on there.
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're ripping
most of the time the work piece if it's long enough
is just gonna ride on the high points.
As long as those high points are in alignment
and the same, they're sort of parallel with your blade
you will never really notice them
and they really are very, very small, minute.
It may come into play if you're referencing
in one of those valleys on the crosscut let's say
and then you push forward
and it goes out of that valley,
you may have registration issues.
Most of the time it's a fairly minor factor
at least on my saw.
If you're 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.
The sucker's gonna stay flat
and it's never gonna 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 a table saw
that require some sort of accessory
that I've 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 off cut is released
it's not caught between the fence and the blade.
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
it's actually built-in.
I just used some of these knobs I got from Rockler
and that holds it in place.
This one is a purchased product.
This usually runs about $80, $90.
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.
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.
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.
You have the option to avoid that with this system.
A lot of cool possibilities
and hopefully in the future I'll be able to really dig in
and show you how this thing really starts
to save you money in the long run.
Clearly, I think this is a pretty cool product
but I got 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's Ask Woodman 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're coming out with a whole array of products
under the VerySuperCool Tools name.
As one small business to another
I really like to throw as much support
to these guys as possible,
and it really, really helps
when it's actually a good product.
Something that they can really stand behind
and something that I can tell you is a good product
and I know you're gonna enjoy it in your shop.
I like to throw a little support their way when possible.
Check it out.
I'm gonna leave this on the table saw.
I don't see any reason at this point
to go back to the one that comes with my saw.
I do think this is a worthy upgrade
especially if you're sick of having a ton of accessories
with different clamps and things like that
for various set ups.
All right, so check it out.
It's a VerySuperCool Tools
and I believe their website is VSCTools.com.
Check it out when you get a chance.