Vega Pro 40 Table Saw Fence


Chuck Melton

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Up until now I have been living with crappy stock fences on the inexpensive table saws that I have picked up from craigslist. My first saw was a 60 year old Delta Homecraft 8" that worked well but I had only bought it to dip my toe in the water to see if I enjoyed woodworking. With a bit of effort it was a very usable saw but I found myself having to square the fence every tine I moved it. 

 

A few months ago I upgraded saws to an old Grizzly TSC-10L (the saw was manufactured by Mao Shan and sold by Griz, Bridgewood, and a few others). The fence on this saw was stock, but much much nicer. I'd saw it was actually square 80% of the time but I would still check the fence constantly. While I was trying to make adjustments to the fence to keep it square to the table, I cracked the cast steel where the fence meets the guide. It was still held on by bolts but it was no longer square.

 

Not being ready or really having space to upgrade to a cabinet saw, I started checking out aftermarket fences. Since my saw is old (20+ years) and not tremendously popular, finding people that had actually installed a fence on it proved to be a bit difficult. By difficult, I mean I scoured the internet repeatedly and came up with nothing. I did find that many users for many different saws said that installing the Vega Pro fence was a breeze, so I bit the bullet and ordered one from Amazon for $280 (almost twice what I paid for the saw).

 

The fence came this afternoon and I couldn't wait to get it installed. Several people have boasted a 15 minute installation, and I have no doubts that it is possible. It took me about 45 minutes but ran into some speed bumps of my own creation. I really wanted to avoid having to drill new holes in my saw, and to my great delight the Vega came with enough predrilled hole positions to negate the needs for me to take a drill to cast iron. There was one slightly snug fit getting the rear rail inside of the bracket that holds my splitter / blade guard but it took about 45 seconds of finessing to get it in.

 

Getting the fence adjusted and dialed in was a snap. It took about 15 of the 45 minutes for me to get it exactly square, adjusted to the right clearance above the table, and readjust the position of the measuring tape to be exact for my saw.

 

I batched out a couple test cuts when I was done and they were perfect. I also found the fence easier to use and far safer than what I had been using.

 

All in all, it's a fantastic product, and while it might seem silly that my fence cost almost twice what my saw did, I am really pleased with it. My only wish is that I had bought the thing sooner.

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I have an early model Vega Pro fence on my first UniSaw. It has been under daily use in my cabinet shop for over 20 years. When I had worn out a few parts I called to ask some questions and talked to one of the bosses. Got straight answers and parts were shipped quickly. If it can hold up to the level of use in a commercial shop it will outlast an imported tablesaw.

Great tool, great company , good customer service!

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