I used one of the inexpensive DRO (M503?) for my rip fence. I made a simple wooden box that the display slides into with a friction fit, and that attaches to the rip fence casting with magnets. The harder part was mounting the read head, but with a scrap of aluminum and some sturdy mounting tape I made it work. It was very helpful, and met the need. I am not sure what advantage there would be in using a DRO that costs an order of magnitude more.

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The DRO must be recalibrated when the fence is changed from high to low position, and when the fence is tilted up and the read head comes off the magnetic tape. I turned a hardwood button that fits into one of the scoring unit holes, so I just slide the fence into contact with that button and reset the DRO. The most time-consuming part is re-reading the instructions for the button sequence needed to reset the DRO!

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As far as the cross-cut fence stop goes, Brian’s is not only solid and square to the fence and to the table but is on the right side (and the proper side, IMO) of the DRO. I used mine in conjunction with a single parallel fence, so being able to get closer to the saw blade without fooling around with spacer blocks is helpful. It does leave a short zone near the end of the cross-cut fence without a stop, but that has yet to be an issue for the way I work.

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Now that I have a new saw with the Felder DRO on the rip fence I will have to find a way to deal with the left-side flip stop. It stops 8.15” from the blade. I have some ideas for a spacer that will travel with the flip stop, but have yet to try those ideas out.

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John Hinman
Boise ID
Kappa 450X and A941