Aligning table saw fence to miter slot

[Ronn W]

I have been use a jig and a dial indicator to align my fence to the miter slot.  But it accurred to me that I could insert 2 straight pieces of wood that fit tightly in the miter slot one near the front of the talbe and one near the back.  Then Just move the fence against it gently and adjust the fence so that it just barely touchesthe pieces of wood and adjust so that the fence touches both at the same time - or leave and very small gap and check the gap front and back with feeler gauges.  Should get me to within a couple of 1/1000's.  Any reason why this should not work??

[BonPacific]

As long as the wood blocks were suitably uniform, and your miter slot isn't worn too much, I can't see this being a problem for setting the alignment. I'd probably still do a quick check with the dial indicator attached to a miter bar after setting the alignment.

[Chet]

On 4/1/2022 at 1:55 PM, Ronn W said:

Then Just move the fence against it gently and adjust the fence so that it just barely touchesthe pieces of wood and adjust so that the fence touches both at the same time - or leave and very small gap and check the gap front and back with feeler gauges.  Should get me to within a couple of 1/1000's.

I think you will be fine doing it this way,  a couple of thou is more the adequate.  We tend to forget that we are making items out of wood, not launching things into space.

[Robby W]

Your method will work. Something we tend to forget: the face of most fences may not be straight. You might want to hit it with a straight edge to check.