Now Beth has run the T-nut bolt in the channel and fastens the Angle Unit to it. As she tightens the lock nut, she checks to see that the three pins of the device are comfortably in the channel.

    Beth has slid the Quick Clamp FS-HZ 160 into the track underneath.

  After the Quick Clamp is put into the track, Beth can now slide the Deflector FS-AW onto the end of the guide rail. It helps greatly to keep the electrical cord and vacuum hose in line so that they do not catch on the table during the cut.

   The next thing Beth wants to do, is move the Angle Unit on the guide track so that the Defector (arrow) is back far enough to allow the plunge saw base to sit just forward of it, and the riving knife of the saw positioned where it will be behind the start of the wood. The line across indicates where the Angle Unit's fence is.

   With the Angle Unit properly placed, this is how the side should look. The arrow points to the riving knife. When the saw is started and plunged, the saw blade will come down into the wood and start the cut smoothly. The saw's base is on the Guide Rail and backed up to sit just touching the Deflector.
   It may sound confusing, but once this is set up, no further change is necessary. We keep this setup locked to the guide rail and ready to be used.
   This allows us perpendicular cuts one after another.

    Now to the rip cuts. Beth pulls down a full sheet of melamine particle core board. I have the lumberyard deliver the sheets and stack them vertically  on the panel storage handler (click here for more information),
 

   What's nice about this is that any one of us can flip a heavy piece of this board (85 lbs.) by his or her self. Once it is on the work table, it can be easily slid into more exact position.

    Beth marks where her rip cut will be — 23 1/2". She will make this mark at three points and then align the guide rail to the marks.

      She carefully sets the guide rail so that the pencil mark just shows. In this case, the mark is in the shadow of the guide rail so she has to take extra caution to align it correctly.  Even using a .002 draftsman's pencil still allows for some variance — more than what a table saw fence would produce,

   Here is a better way to make accurate guide rail settings. Beth starts by placing one of these brass screw stops exactly at the 23 1/2" mark (a reader wrote to tell me that these are "stair gauges.) These are available at any hardware store and are used with a framing square.

   Now with the brass stop against the edge of the panel, the start of the ruler is under the guide rail and she can align the rail by touch to this end (arrow). Now she has exactly the measurement she wants — but the guide rail will move when she removes the yardstick.

      Having marked the width of the guide rail on the start of the yardstick, she can carefully cut to this mark — about 8 3/8" but don't do it by measurement. Draw a line when the yard stick is under the guide rail. It is best to leave the cut fractionally long and file it down to the exact width. In our case, Beth cut down two such yardsticks.

   Now Beth "calibrates" the cutoff yard stick. The left arrow points to a machinist's ruler that is clamped to the edge of the table and run under the guide rail. The guide rail is set exactly to the 23 1/2"   mark on the other side. With the guide rail exactly where she wants it, she checks her new cut-down yard stick. The brass stop is against the edge of the board and the guide rail "kisses" (right arrow) the cut-down end. Since she cut down two yardsticks, she can use these from now on to set the guide rail without pencil marks or measuring in any way. Just set the two brass stops at the measurement you want and move the guide rail to touch. It is a great way to get parallel "rip" cuts.