What is the best practice to align a table saw fence to the miter slot?
Question:What kind of precision is required and what gauges will be needed?
Answers:
I can't fault Spuds answer, personally I would go with the third part of his answer and save myself the price of a magnetic base.
I align mine to the blade instead of the miter slot, although aligning to the miter slot is a lot easier. If you use a magnetic base with a dial indicator you can attach the base to the blade near the bed of the saw, and extending the arm out, move the fence to the plunger on the D.I., causing it to "indicate". Now you can rotate the blade "almost" 180 degrees and compare the reading on the dial to the first reading. I like my out-feed distance (blade to fence) to indicated 2-3 thousanths larger than the in-feed side.
If you don't have a dial indicator you can get pretty close by making a round template from plywood. Make a hole in the center to go over the blade arbor. Tighten the nut down and move your fence up to the template. Here you can adjust the fence so that it's tight against the fence on the side nearest the operating end of the saw and use a feeler gauge or a dollar bill to adjust the other end of the fence.
If you absolutely HAVE to align it to the miter slot you can use anything that will fit snugly and square into the slot. I have steel dowel pins the right size to do this, but even a piece of wood cut to the right thickness will work. Stick whatever it is you're using in the miter slot and move your fence up to touch them. Now use the feeler gauge method from above.
Hope this helps - good luck!
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