JPG wrote
Re the finicky '500' rip fence.
Technique can greatly affect the finickyness.
A common missing step is to press the fence base firmly towards the table prior to and during rotating the clamp knob and while positioning the fence laterally.
JPG,
Thanks. This works on all of the Shopsmith fences, I believe. I think I first saw this tip in a Doug Reid YT video and it is definitely helpful. Unfortunately for me, I didn't receive this tip until I was on my 520 fence. It probably would have removed a little of the persnickety behavior of my 510 fence. Here's the problem though with this tip, it makes it a 3 hand operation. Last I checked, I only have two hands. Reason I say this is that one is often using a tape measure to set rip width. So, how do I hold the tape measure in one hand, use another hand to bump the fence into position, another hand to push the fence base firmly in and another hand to lock the fence into position. ;) I am being facetious here, but I hope you get the point. The operation becomes unnecessarily iterative because you have to measure, bump, push base in, start to lock fence, go back and measure, etc., etc. At least this has been my experience because the fence always moves out of position (relative to the blade) a little when you push in on the fence base. On a good quality Biesemeyer fence, it stays orthogonal to two parallel rails. You simply slide or bump it into position against your measure device and lock the fence down. Done. The 520 fence is closer to a Biesemeyer style fence, but still not quite. In short, the 520 fence, in my experience, is less fussy than my 510 fence before it.
This tip is very helpful, but we need to acknowledge it is an iterative process whereas for many other tablesaws on the market this is a one-setup process.
