mcfal12
Member
Too Long Don’t Read (TLDR) Summary: Self inflicted design flows which can only be explained by “TSO deliberately designing the extended fence so that the Jessem stock guides are semi-permanently mounted to the extended fence and whenever you want to use the stock guides you are supposed switch fences.” While I don’t know that to be the case - suspecting it leads me to lessen my overall disappointment and is the only conclusion I have been able to wrap my head around this design.
As always - I bought the TSO Products CSC SYS 50 Extended Rip Fence with my own money. The fit and finish is as expected. Whatever aluminum alloy they use is soft (how do I know…….. because I have dropped my TSO extended cross cut fence from about 4’ on concrete and dented a corner I had to “fix” it). But thats another review.
Let me set the stage that I understood I would always have to install and remove the extended fence if I wanted to (and I do as I am not working in a shop very often) pack up the saw in its systainer. Let me also acknowledge part of my statements below are because I want to able to alternate between the stock and extended fence as the situation presents itself while still using my stock guides. If you don’t intended to be mobile with this saw or will not have a need/desire to use the Jessem stock guides on both the stock and extended fences; this product may very well be for you.
The biggest question I had was about the fence width. It is the same as stock fence in its standard vertical position. In other words- no loss of rip capacity while gaining an extended length fence with material support. This is where the design decisions begin to detract from the product. The capture nuts used for the material support are finicky and don’t always properly engaged in the t-slot enabling them to slide when fully tightened. This is not a significant issue per se - if you fiddle with them enough - they fully lock down.
This leads to the second niggle- the newly designed mounts to attach the Jessel Stock Guides are in some ways better but worse than the rip fence brackets designed by TSO Products (https://tsoproducts.com/jigs-fixtur...es-pair/?searchid=357018&search_query=Jessem+) for use with the Jessem Clear Stock Guides on this CSC SYS 50. The rip fence brackets have a threaded hole for mounting the Jessem stock guides to the brackets. The benefit is when tightening the cam lock to raise or lower the guide, it tightens immediately and doesn’t just spin. The new ones aren’t threaded, therefore you must put some tension on the bolt while tightening the cam lock after lowering the guide arm into place. TSO easily could’ve made the new support with threaded holes. TSO did include nice spring supported knurled twist knobs to secure the mount for the Jessem stock guides to the extended rail. This is far better than the plastic star knobs shipped with the rip fence brackets.
Which takes me to the biggest miss and why I cannot recommend the investment. The top t-slot on the TSO Products CSC SYS 50 Extended Rip Fence is wider than the one on the stock fence. Why is this a problem? Well you cannot simply move the Jessem stock guides between the stock fence and the extended fence (this is true for flag stops, jigs or other contraptions that may have been designed with the narrower t-slot for the stock fence). The hardware included (bar) with the rip fence brackets is too narrow for a (truly) secure mount on the extended fence top t-track. The new capture nuts provided with the extended fence mount are too wide to fit into the top t-track on the stock fence. (None of this speaks to the fact that new mounts sent with the extended fence are longer than the original rip fence brackets, resulting in the the original hardware (a bar) to capture the bracket on top of the stock fence being shorter and unusable.) The new capture nuts are also fiddly and more annoying than the rip fence bracket when installing the mounts onto the extended fence.
As an aside- If you use the original rip mounts designed for the stock fence on the extended fence, you would lose capacity in which you could use the guides since the distance is fixed by the width of the 90 degree mounting brackets - but this is an option (added a picture of what this looks like below)
The final two detractions. To install or remove the extended fence, you first have to remove either the in-feed or out-feed material supports or the fence cannot be slid off the capture nut on back of the stock fence. Also, the extended fence cannot be flipped on its slide, like the stock fence can. This feature reduces the risk of kickback when ripping narrow and thin materials.
So here’s my conclusion - the misses by TSO's design team are too big to ignore. They easily could’ve designed the top t-track narrower, stuck with the bar solution to secure the Jessem mounts to the rails and copied the design of the stock rail so that a new mounting solutions wouldn’t be required and you could flip the fence on it’s side for ripping thin and narrow materials.
As always - I bought the TSO Products CSC SYS 50 Extended Rip Fence with my own money. The fit and finish is as expected. Whatever aluminum alloy they use is soft (how do I know…….. because I have dropped my TSO extended cross cut fence from about 4’ on concrete and dented a corner I had to “fix” it). But thats another review.
Let me set the stage that I understood I would always have to install and remove the extended fence if I wanted to (and I do as I am not working in a shop very often) pack up the saw in its systainer. Let me also acknowledge part of my statements below are because I want to able to alternate between the stock and extended fence as the situation presents itself while still using my stock guides. If you don’t intended to be mobile with this saw or will not have a need/desire to use the Jessem stock guides on both the stock and extended fences; this product may very well be for you.
The biggest question I had was about the fence width. It is the same as stock fence in its standard vertical position. In other words- no loss of rip capacity while gaining an extended length fence with material support. This is where the design decisions begin to detract from the product. The capture nuts used for the material support are finicky and don’t always properly engaged in the t-slot enabling them to slide when fully tightened. This is not a significant issue per se - if you fiddle with them enough - they fully lock down.
This leads to the second niggle- the newly designed mounts to attach the Jessel Stock Guides are in some ways better but worse than the rip fence brackets designed by TSO Products (https://tsoproducts.com/jigs-fixtur...es-pair/?searchid=357018&search_query=Jessem+) for use with the Jessem Clear Stock Guides on this CSC SYS 50. The rip fence brackets have a threaded hole for mounting the Jessem stock guides to the brackets. The benefit is when tightening the cam lock to raise or lower the guide, it tightens immediately and doesn’t just spin. The new ones aren’t threaded, therefore you must put some tension on the bolt while tightening the cam lock after lowering the guide arm into place. TSO easily could’ve made the new support with threaded holes. TSO did include nice spring supported knurled twist knobs to secure the mount for the Jessem stock guides to the extended rail. This is far better than the plastic star knobs shipped with the rip fence brackets.
Which takes me to the biggest miss and why I cannot recommend the investment. The top t-slot on the TSO Products CSC SYS 50 Extended Rip Fence is wider than the one on the stock fence. Why is this a problem? Well you cannot simply move the Jessem stock guides between the stock fence and the extended fence (this is true for flag stops, jigs or other contraptions that may have been designed with the narrower t-slot for the stock fence). The hardware included (bar) with the rip fence brackets is too narrow for a (truly) secure mount on the extended fence top t-track. The new capture nuts provided with the extended fence mount are too wide to fit into the top t-track on the stock fence. (None of this speaks to the fact that new mounts sent with the extended fence are longer than the original rip fence brackets, resulting in the the original hardware (a bar) to capture the bracket on top of the stock fence being shorter and unusable.) The new capture nuts are also fiddly and more annoying than the rip fence bracket when installing the mounts onto the extended fence.
As an aside- If you use the original rip mounts designed for the stock fence on the extended fence, you would lose capacity in which you could use the guides since the distance is fixed by the width of the 90 degree mounting brackets - but this is an option (added a picture of what this looks like below)
The final two detractions. To install or remove the extended fence, you first have to remove either the in-feed or out-feed material supports or the fence cannot be slid off the capture nut on back of the stock fence. Also, the extended fence cannot be flipped on its slide, like the stock fence can. This feature reduces the risk of kickback when ripping narrow and thin materials.
So here’s my conclusion - the misses by TSO's design team are too big to ignore. They easily could’ve designed the top t-track narrower, stuck with the bar solution to secure the Jessem mounts to the rails and copied the design of the stock rail so that a new mounting solutions wouldn’t be required and you could flip the fence on it’s side for ripping thin and narrow materials.
