I love my new DeWalt DWE749, especially the rack & pinion fence. However, it has an issue. First off I calibrated everything out of the box, though everything was already almost perfect except the rail tension on the Fence lock. It needed to be tightened because when you lock down the fence in the desired position the rack & pinion rails are not supposed to move. Fixed easy enough. There is a jam nut and spring nut to tighten/loosen tension of the fence lock underneath the table, and then just re-tighten the jam nut after finding the desired tension. I like it so I can roll the fence with the knob but tight enough that you cannot push the fence back and forth easily with one finger. That is too loose and you will notice the rails move when you lock down the fence.
Anyway, I squared up blade to table front and back of blade at zero bevel, and set zero bevel lock pin. Blade parallel to both miter slots and fence. Fence square to table with a 1/64th gap at top of fence which is okay for my purposes. I rarely rip anything thicker than 5/4.
Here's my problem. I cut a strip of wood at exactly 1 1/2". Then I set the plastic needle rip guide to 1 1/2" and tightened it with its two set screws. I also put two tic marks on either side of the rip guide plastic to test that it didn't move underneath the screws with rolling movement of the rack & pinion fence. I ripped a piece at 9" Perfect. I ripped a piece at 13". Result? 13 1/32" but the plastic rip guide did not move. Then I ripped a piece at 20 1/2". Result? 20 9/16" That's a lot! And, the plastic needle rip guide did not move. These increased sizes were without even moving the fence onto the other locator pins to get a wider 32 1/2" cut. What's up? I'm befuddled. Are the rack & pinion rail cogs out of synchronization? Please help? I got this saw precisely so that I would not have to measure from fence to front and back of blade after every cut.
