Utility 26 Saw Fence

I own a 1947 Unisaw and at 73 years old it was time to replace the cranky old OEM fence. The Vega U26 was pretty straightforward if you have any mechanical ability but here’s a few tips for older Uni owners. Tip #1: The bolts that come with the Vega are 5/16”. The bolts that hold the original rails are 3/8-24. Go to the hardware store and buy 2 - 3/8-24 x 1 1/4” for the front and 2 - 3/8-24 x 2 1/4” for the back. The holes are drilled and tapped into the table and the front brackets and rear rail will bolt right in. Tip #2: Re-drill the holes in the rear bracket to 1/2”. You will need the addition clearance to let the rail drop below the miter slot. Tip #3: There is a plastic bumper that attaches on the underneath side of the fence. This bumper slides along the top of the rear rail. Remove the Phillips head screw and remove the flat washer from under the bumper. Removing the washer will allow the rear or the fence to drop down to the table. Tip #4: When you bolt the fence to the front mount you will have to remove the rear plate on the fence and slide out the Formica cover to access the four mounting screws. Leave the plate off until you adjust the front and rear rail. The instructions tell you to adjust the fence leaving a 1/16” gap between the bottom of the fence and the top of the table. The rear plate you removed is 1/16” thick. Lay it under the fence, drop the rails to get your clearance, re-tighten the rail bolts and remove plate from under the fence. A perfect 1/16” clearance. Tip #5: Before you lock down the four cap screws that hold the head in take a 3 foot 1 x 4 and drop it into the miter slot. Slide the fence flush up against the 1 x 4 and then tighten the four cap screws. If your miter slot is parallel with the blade then your fence will be parallel with the blade. Tip #6: If you’re going to add a sacrificial fence to your Vega don’t use 3/4” MDF because it’s too thick. Use 1/2 oak or another hardwood. I made an MDF fence and attacked it but there’s not enough adjustment in the rails to allow you to adjust the zero mark on the scale. Not that it’s perfect but here’s what I did. You need a way to attach the sacrificial fence to the Vega fence so I tapped the existing hole to 1/4-20. The pre-drilled hole is the perfect size of the tap. Then I planed a piece of white oak to 1/2”, drilled the fence holes and drilled a countersink for a 1/4-20 flathead screw. Works perfectly. Hopefully, these tips will help all the Unisaw owners out there.

After 40+ years of using a Sears 10" table saw with the OME fence I upgraded my saw to a Vega U26 fence. Wish I did it 40 years ago. The design is well thought out. However the quality of some parts is poor, there are many sharp edges and burrs from their manufacturing processes that need to be sanded or filed smooth. The instructions are ok but should be read through a few times. Installation is pretty straightforward. For my saw I only had to drill one new hole in the table. And then relocate the measuring tape to the left about 2", which was very easy to do. Operation of the fence is very easy and smooth. The fence locks with little effort and is very stable. The micro adjustment works well. Having a fence that extends to the left of the blade is a new feature I will have to try out more. ONE NOTE FOR SEARS TABLE SAW OWNERS: After using the saw with the Vega fence for a few weeks I had the need to tilt the blade to 45 degrees. But it wouldn't tilt past about 35 deg. So after spending 2 hrs throughly cleaning all the guides, drive screw, disassembling and manually moving the mechanism I found the problem. The saw originally came with a blade guard / anti-kickback device. I haven't used it in years. However the mount for it on the back of the saw mechanism was still there. So when the blade mechanism was tilted the blade guard mount ran into the underside of Vega fence back tube rail. All in all I highly recommend this upgrade.

Works nicely - smooth and stays square - no regrets. It's a big improvement over the original equipment fence on my old saw (Delta 34-670). Had to do some drilling and tapping to make it fit my saw (you tube E71Hse0AInY for how I did it). To fit without drilling / tapping you need an attachment place 8 to 9 inches to the right of the blade (had), and a second attachment point 16 to 16 1/2 inches to the left of the first point (did not have). But, given that, it does have a range of adjustments to help it fit a variety of platforms. A lot of people seem to get upset about the parts having burrs - I found some, but it was no big deal to me. Paint and finish were just fine. Added 1/4-20 nuts to the bolts that adjust the bar height so they don't vibrate out in use. Added holes to attach the back rail to my table extensions and added a plate to attach the front tube to the far right table extension (again, more drilling and tapping). Some other models of this fence come with a plate already attached on the right end. If you are handy enough to use a table saw, you should be handy enough to make the fence fit if it doesn't fit right out of the box.

The fence arrived on time and the heavy cardboard box was undamaged. All the parts and instructions were accounted for. The part list and instruction was well printed and I found it easy to follow. The fence is adaptable to many saws so alterations will need to be made. Although some of the parts are crudely machined, everything fit as it should and most are out of sight when installed. I did file 2 alum. burrs on the underside of the head piece. My saw is a Rockwell contractors saw from the 70's . I used the factory holes in the table, so after replacing the 4 mounting bolts to match my tables holes, the front and rear rails bolted right up( I did drill and tap two hole in the front rail tube so that the tape measure would be accurate) As others have stated, there is no support provided if your saw has factory table wings, mine are quite solid but at some point in time I may replace the rear rail with a longer square tube so I can bolt it to the wings. The fence is easy to set up square to a table slot and stays that way, unlike the factory fence I had. I checked both sides of the fence with a straight edge from front to rear and both were very straight. My only issue with the Vega fence is the vertical sides of the fence are not square with my table (as one photo shows) Overall the set up and install was very easy. The fence slides along the rails with ease and locks down tight and square every time. The micro adjuster thread pin and guide pin need a bit of lube to make it work smoothly. I'm very satisfied with the Vega system and would recommend it to anyone with a contractor type saw.

This fence has made a world of difference on my old table saw. I put it on an older sears 10" contractors saw and it was very easy to install. Less than a half hour once all the old fence parts were removed and the saw was cleaned up. Bolt holes were perfect for the new fence and there was no need to drill holes in the saw for the new installation. Fence is easy to adjust and is very accurate. This addition has made my old saw as good as new and I'm sure I'll get many years of use from it. A far better alternative than spending a lot of money on a new saw. I'm extremely pleased with this fence and would recommend it to anyone who is looking to upgrade their fence system on their own saw. Well worth the cost.

Nice, it will work fine. The 2 aluminum front pieces had saw marks, had to belt sand and file. Does not affect function, just looked funky. The instructions for the rear were horrible. My saw had no rear holes. No dimensions given. I had to figure it out. The tape as of now is 2 inches off. Not sure how to fix it. The plastic end caps on the front rail leave something to be desired, but are functional. The micro adjust will be nice. Installed on 40+ year old 12 inch Craftsman saw. I wish there were more holes in the fence for a sacrificial fence, I like to use a slotted aluminum insert rail on the fence to hold feather boards. Fits extension wings fine, does not attach to extension wings.

I decided on this fence based on multiple good reviews. I have no idea what people find so wonderful about this product. I could not believe how horrible the finish was on some of the installation parts. It literally looks like somebody let a 3 year-old run an angle grinder on the mounting brackets while smashed in a vise (the vise marks are clearly visible). The same illiterate 3 year-old wrote the installation instructions. Now over to the paint booth. Give the blind, illiterate 3 year-old a rattle can of Rustoleum gloss black and stand back. Areas of bare metal are visible where the confused, blind, illiterate 3 year-old missed the target. The fence piece itself has a piece of thin cardboard with the Vega logo printed on it (with an inkjet printer) placed on the top of the fence loosely fitted in the fence edges. What's that supposed to be? The front tubular rail had absolutely NO protection for shipping. It was simply thrown in the box with a couple pieces of styrofoam on the ends. Guess they couldn't afford a little plastic wrapping to protect the finish even a little. For me, the worst part about the entire experience was the time I spent researching and comparing different fence systems. I read reviews for this Vega fence going all the way back to 2006 complaining about the quality of the hardware and the horrible finish on the rest of the parts. Fast forward to 2022 and NOTHING HAS CHANGED!! How a company producing this kind of garbage stays in business is beyond me. I never even made it to the installation because I figured if they couldn't even produce a decent $2 mounting bracket then lord only knows how horrible the rest of the quality control is. The likelihood of this fence system actually being accurate or even working as advertised is past 'low'. I hope this review helps somebody make an informed decision. Don't give this company another penny until they can address their quality concerns. They need to consider moving their facility out of the 2-car garage and into a legitimate manufacturing atmosphere. I've seen much better quality come from Harbor Freight. It sure makes a quality boat anchor though. Returned with disgust.

The fact that I waited so many years to upgrade to the this fence makes me really dumb. For years I struggled with my old (30 plus yrs.) Sears 10in. table saw fence, adjust, measure, tap tap, repeat and hope that the feance didn't move. Screwed up hundreds of board feet of wood. Out of frustration went to YouTube and built a homemade biesemyer style fence out of 1/2in plywood. Great improvement but still not what I was looking for. All this time I had the Vega fence on my Amazon Wish List but never pulled the trigger. I was also a little hesitant after reading some of the criticisms about the finish and installation. A couple of months ago I finally took the plunge. I waited to write this review until I had the ample opportunity for the 'honeymoon period' to wear off. Well it's been several months now and I'm still madly in love! First, it arrived in pristine condition. packaging was great and handled with care. Second, the finish on the parts was fine. A little overspray on some of the painted parts but you reall had to look to find it. The complaints about rough edges and having to file parts smooth are not what I found. Third, installation was so easy that I thought I had to have made a mistake after reading some of the negative comments. Including taking off my old fence, I guess it took about and hour to install. And that includes really taking my time. I didn't install the rear hold-down beacuse it's something I could do later if it was needed. So far it hasn't been. I did have to fool around a little to get plastic peice used to line up the measuring tape to zero. Rounded over the edges to to move it a little further to the left to get it directly over the zero. Moved the bar over to the blade to see if everything lined up correctly and the first cut was perfect. Now the most important part, performance. Ecstatic may be a little strong but I'm pretty darn close. I still will pull out my tape to see if the measurements are accurate but that's more about 'Old dogs and new tricks' issues. Never to to adjust the measurements after locking down the fence. Speaking of which, after you lock the fence, it ain't movin'. Talk aobut rock solid. Needless to say I could be happier with this purchase. I just have to stop kicking myself for waiting so long.