: That's a Delta Unifence. It's one of two basic fence styles
: commonly seen on professional grade table saws: the Beismeyer
: style, and the Unifence. And while either is certainly good, you
: can get into religious arguments over which is superior and why.
: I'm a Unifence fan, myself.

: I never use the fence scale unless I've calibrated it myself, and
: even then it takes a while to come to trust it .... and even
: then I never use it on critical cuts. I recommend a good SS
: ruler to actually measure the distance from blade teeth to fence
: face for smaller settings, and tape measure for larger ones.

: It will save you tons of sanding work later if you make darn sure
: all your strips are very consistent up front. To this end, I
: first rip one strip that measures out precisely as I want. Then
: I cut it into half a dozen ~9" long pieces, and set them
: aside as my "master strips". They are used to set the
: fence for all strips ripped from there on, for both width and
: thickness. Put a master strip between the blade and fence, and
: adjust the fence so that the strip passes easily between the
: blade and fence, yet just brushes the blade teeth. Take your
: time and get it right, it is time well spent. Keep the master
: strips in your tool box as sacred items; mine are several years
: old now, and have served for three boat projects so far.

: Make all adjustments with the saw turned off.

: Alway wait patiently for any and all machines to spin down to a
: full and complete stop before considering it turned off. Resist
: all temptations to hurry along....

: While I normally do not care for gadjets, the plastic featherboard
: thingy in the photo is a winner. It is held in place by powerful
: magnets that are "turned on and off" by quarter-turns
: of the knobs. With each pass you make when ripping strips the
: board gets narrower, and the featherboard needs to be reset each
: time. This baby makes it easy. I would replace it instantly if
: anything happened to the one I have, it's that good.

: Nobody asked, but I'd go a little over 3/16" and give yourself
: a little margin. I've settled on something in between 3/16"
: and 1/4", and still get exceedingly lightweight boats. If
: you're going for light weight, learn to be a miser with epoxy
: instead, that's where most the weight comes from.

One more fairly common fence, the Vega. I've got one and prefer it though any decent quality fence is good.

Bill H.