Customer Reviews

Vega PRO 40 Table Saw Fence System With 42-Inch Fence Bar, 40-Inch to Right

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I purchased the Vega 40" Pro table saw fence roughly five years ago and mounted it on a Rockwell 10" Contractor's saw that I bought in 1980. I was going to upgrade to a cabinet saw or the Unisaw but after replacing the stock fence with the Vega fence, I found I had no need to upgrade the table saw. I build fine furniture as a hobby and it's amazing the difference a good fence makes. It was extremely easy to install; no new holes were needed. This fence is always perpendicular to the blade and never needs to be adjusted after the initial installation. It's strong and very stable. I purchased the "Finger Saver" when I initially bought the fence and it was a great purchase. I'm finding it hard to find the additional accessories made by the manufacturer and which the tool vendors do not stock. I just returned from a trip to California where I had stopped at a Rockler store in the San Diego area. They had a Vega hold-down roller on the in-store display but did not have it available for purchase. I would have bought it on the spot if I could have. SUMMARY: POSITIVE ITEM --> The fence is exceptional and if I bought a new saw, I would most likely move it to the new saw; I like it that much. NEGATIVE ITEM --> The tool suppliers need to make the accessories more readily available to the public (such as people like ME!).

After several years wondering if it would be worth spending [money] on an aftermarket fence for my 20 year old Sears 10" table saw, I purchased the Vega 40" Pro fence. The fence installed with a minimum of modifications (one hole had to be drilled into the cast iron top for the rear rail). The fence makes a big improvement in the overall accuracy and ease of use of the saw. I wish I had made the move years ago. The scale is so precise that I can set up the rip width without using a rule to measure. I'm very happy with my decision to replace the stock fence!

After looking at all sorts of fences (Unifence, Biesmeyer, Excalibur, etc.) I chose the Vega because it was as sturdy as all the others, and had the added benefit of the micro adjust. It took me 30 minutes to install it and square it up. There was nothing difficult about the process whatsoever.

The micro adjust helps alot in the home shop environment where, after you cut several pieces to the same size and change the fence settings, you have to go back and cut one more that exactly matches the others. Fine tuning like this is a snap.

Besides being "rock-solid," the fence has other nice features, such as a fine measuring indicator line, an easy to read fence scale, and the ability to use Vega's or home-made sliding jigs that ride in the fence's top channel grooves. The fence is also pre-drilled and comes with extra-long screws for mounting a sacrificial face for dadoing and other operations. All in all, I'm very happy with this purchase (and I'm not easy to please...)

I've had this fence for a week now and have had time to use it a bit. These are my impressions based on what I observed during the installation and using it for the past week.

Installation - there are two brackets that hold the front fence rail to the saw. I have a Jet contractor's saw, and the brackets didn't line up with the pre-existing holes on the front of the saw. The brackets are about an inch closer together than the holes, which means one bracket slides on completely while the other is barely over the hole. Instead of boring out and tapping new holes, I went with that. Boring out and tapping would also have to be done too close to the existing hole. The back rail went on just fine, and the fence went together very easily. When I brought the fence right up to the blade to set the "0" mark on the indicator, I found that there wasn't enough play to adjust the indicator window to the "0" mark. Instead, I had to peel the measuring tape off the front rail and move it down about half an inch, after which I could zero out the fence.

Performance - overall, I'm very pleased with the performance of the fence. It slides along the rails easily and locks down securely using the main locking mechanism. The fence is rock solid with very little deflection. One thing I would like to have seen are fence sides, either laminated MDF or UHMW. They include long wood screws for anyone who would like to add an auxiliary fence side.

There are two locking mechanisms on the fence: The big main one and a smaller one for use with the micro-adjuster. The way you use the micro-adjuster is you lock the fence down with the small lever, then release the big lever. This frees you up to make micro adjustments to the fence position. When you have dialed in the correct distance, you then lock the big lever down and unlock the small lever. The micro-adjuster locking mechanism on mine slips very easily, however. When I lock the small lever down and start dialing, sometimes the fence stays put and the micro-adjuster moves. If I push the fence from side to side while the small lever is locked down, it moves with little effort. I am going to see if cleaning with mineral spirits and roughing up the locking cam with some sandpaper will fix this.

Overall, I think this fence is pretty good. It's certainly better than the stock Jet Fence that came with my saw (bigger, beefier, and more solid). I gave it a 3 only because it didn't fit my saw properly (which is a common saw) right out of the box and the micro-adjuster slippage. Otherwise, I'd recommend this fence to anyone upgrading from a stock fence.

I recently installed the Vega PRO 40 on a 15+ year old Craftsman 10" table saw. The installation took a little over 45 minutes however the first time I tried to cut a 45 degree rip I had to modify the rear rail (with a hack saw) because it prevented the motor housing from rotating completely to the 45 position. Other than that I am 100% satisfied with the fence. It is solidly built and extremely accurate.

I bought the Vega PRO 40 Table Saw Fence System for my father's early '80s Craftsman contractor style saw. It is a solid fence and the micro adjustment feature is well designed. I would have given the fence 5 stars if it was easier to align the fence parallel to the miter gauge slot. Once aligned, the fence worked flawlessly. It is made in the USA and the URL for the manufacturer is http://vegawoodworking.com/

We were able to mount the fence rails to the saw with the existing saw bolt holes. Aligning the front and rear guide rails parallel to the saw table was very easy with jacking plates (much easier than on my Biesemeyer Fence).

Aligning the fence parallel to the miter gauge slot was frustrating. There are four bolts that connect the fence bar to fence head. There is some play in the fence bar holes that the four bolts go through. That allows the fence bar to be aligned to the miter gauge slot. We found it difficult to keep the fence bar aligned with the miter gauge slot while tightening the four bolts. We had to wedge a 3/4" board in the miter gauge slot, clamp the fence bar to the board and then tighten the four bolts. The Delta Unifence and Biesemeyer fences are much easier to align parallel to the miter gauge slot but they are significantly more expensive. They may also require modification to work with the old Craftsman saw.

I was frustrated with the fence on my Craftsman 22114 table saw not working very well, so I finally decided to give the Vega 40 fence a try. I've been very pleased and only regret that I didn't do it sooner. Compared to the original fence, the Vega fence added 15" of rip capacity, consistently locks down parallel to the blade, is easier to adjust (although that only needs to be done once), and the micro adjuster on the Vega actually works.

Installation was relatively easy, although it took longer than Vega claims. I found the instructions a little difficult to follow, mainly because they are not very clear on which bolt or screw to use where. But the Vega fence was easier to install than the one that came with the saw and did not require drilling holes or other modifications.

I just finished installing the Vega "Professional" 40 table saw fence system on my Unisaw.
I mounted the fence about 3 ½" to the left of their hole locations which gave me about 10" rip capacity to the left of the blade, and about 36" to the right of the blade.
The engineering concept of fence system is actually pretty good. The front rail looks to be centerless ground, as it is very straight, only out about 0.003" in 42". The rear tube is straight.
I must have received the first fence Vega subbed out to some back yard shop since no one else has mentioned how poorly this thing is manufactured. This is without a doubt the shoddiest piece of workmanship I have ever seen. Even the stuff from China now shows far better craftsmanship. There were burrs everywhere. I even cut myself pretty nicely on one before grinding, and filing all the sheared edges of the mounting plates, and filing the burs on tapped and punched holes.
The aluminum brackets which support the front rail are about 3/8" thick. The slots for mounting were punched rather than drilled and milled. They tried to clean up the sloppy "blow out" by partially milling the rough edges. The slots for mounting the round front rail were not even in the center of the mounting saddle. I do not know why they punched the slot clear out the end of the brackets on one side, severely weakening them. I cleaned up all the slots in my mill with an end mill the best I could. I have requested new un-punched brackets from Vega.
The 1 ½" square tubing for the rear of the table has a very thin (0.095") wall. If you do not place spacers on the inside of the tube, the tube will simply be smashed when you tighten the bolts to a reasonable torque. I made my own spacers. The ends of the tube were not cut square, very noticeable. I squared them up.
The front tube has a 0.100" thick wall, and was simply tapped for mounting bolts. This gives you less than 2 threads in the wall. The aluminum mounting brackets are made with a "V" saddle which has a considerable gap in the center for the bolts. Tightening the bolts with no backup inside the tube would distort the tube. I made some nice tapped, "half moon" nuts for the inside of the tube.
The so called "micro adjustment" feature was simply un-usable. When the small micro adjust cam was locked down you could not even turn the adjustment knob to adjust the fence since the whole thing was in a bind. It will end up in the trash. My opinion is this is just a sales gimmick anyway, as you don't need it.
Really crappy paint job. Dust, dirt in the paint, missed areas, overspray on the sliding surface of the main slide. Must have been done with rattle can. It was not epoxy since it came right off with lacquer thinner. I will put a descent paint job on it.
I almost threw it back in the box and sent it back, but I thought it had potential once it was cleaned up, and properly mounted. It does actually function pretty well. This fence resembles a one-time prototype rather than a production unit.
I'm sorry I didn't buy a 30" Biesmeyer, it was the same price.

The first indication that this was a quality product was the shipping carton. The carton was cardboard as you might expect; however, there were no crushed edges as you also might expect if the carton contained almost 100 pounds of steel. The reason - the carton was reinforced with wood! The contents were also very securely and carefully packaged and additional wood blocks were utilized as spacers in the carton itself. The quality did not stop with the shipping carton. The finish on the fence and rails was quite good and was fully protected by ample plastic and foam in the carton. The installation of the product was reasonably direct and required minimal "interpretation" of the printed instruction manual. The instructions suggest that this replacement will fit "most" contractor-type saws manufactured during the last 50 years. Of course my 36 year old saw had to be the reason the fence is not a direct replacement for "all" classic Craftsman saws. The bolts used to mount the front rail were 1/4inch too short! But even with that set-back, the time to install the system was less than that required to drive to the local big box to purchase longer bolts. The fence was easy to adjust its height relative to the table, to make it square to the blade, and to make the graduated ruler accurate. The fence slides smoothly and locks securely. After it was installed, I immediately utilized it to rip 100+ feet of cherry. For the first time ever, my saw did not burn cherry! The fence is equipped with a "micro-adjust" mechanism. I was not sure how this would ever be of value but it proved its worth the second time I used the fence. Using this fine adjustment accessory, I was able to shave off 1/32inch from the 110 slats I had just cut to use in the sides of planter boxes but which I had miscalculated the width of the slats which was required. This is an investment that I wish I had made years and years ago and which was worth every dollar.

One negative comment - The instruction manual prominently announces that this product is made in America. This being the case, I would think that the manufacturer should be proud of the quality of their product and prominently display this information on the outside of the packing crate since this is frequently not the case, especially in this age.

I purchased this fence to replace the original fence on an old 1987 Dayton table saw with a 30" table bed depth which isn't so easy to find a fence that will handle this depth. The fence installed easily with one exception (no fault to the company). I did not want to drill new holes into the saw itself, so I took the rear rail to a machine shop to drill a new hole to line up with the original table saw hole (only one). The front rail lined up exactly with the original holes. It only cost $20 to have the machine shop drill a precise hole that would line up exactly. Once I aligned the fence, I was able to make awesome rip cuts on the saw. The microadjustment feature eliminated the need to "bump over" the fence a hair or two to make cuts.