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Been awhile since I posted anything at all here. Been neck deep in my dust collection design and build out. Now that it's pretty much wrapped up here is a band saw fence I tossed together with some some scrap plywood I had laying around.

This is version 3 of the fence. The first version was of the same design but its mounting point was to weak causing too much flex. Design 2 was a t-square style that failed horribly. I just dont have enough space on a 12" band saw to build a proper t-square.

Version 3 has a few added features so that it mounts very securely to the table. First is a preloaded sprung metal piece underneath the thumb wheel.


As the thumb wheel is tightened the metal bar is flattened/pressed against the rail causing tension.


The last thing I did to make this hug the table securely is knock the vertical part with the wheel out of square with the bottom side of the fence about a half a degree. This causes the fence to rise up slightly when tightened down. I then added a metal hook at the far end of the fence so it engages the bottom of the cast iron table.

(Yes the metal hook was too tight at first and shaved some paint off…still mad at myself for that one)

With both of the clamping mechanisms in place this fence holds securely enough it will shake the saw instead of the fence flexing or moving. Might not be the most sophisticated engineering but its effective.

And to finish polishing up this turd I replaced all the bearings, shimmed the bottom wheel and table to make everything super square, and upgraded the dust collection.


If you can't afford a nice band saw you may as well make the one you have perform as well as it can. I might not be able to cut veneers on this but it can accurately resaw now. In fact she's tuned up well enough that I will probably try to keep her in the shop with a thin blade for curves and quick cuts when I can afford a much bigger saw.

Gallery

Comments

· Banned
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18,919 Posts
thats a great looking fence,should serve you quite well.
 

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6,567 Posts
That thing looks like a BRUTE. How thick is the plywood?

None of it matters if you are happy with the end result.
 

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That thing looks like a BRUTE. How thick is the plywood?

None of it matters if you are happy with the end result.

- therealSteveN
Its thicker than probably necessary at 2 layers of 3/4 baltic birch ply. One of the guys at Woodcraft recommended doing that to keep it from warping. It was my first custom made fence so I took his advice.
 

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191 Posts
Even on a cheaper bandsaw like my Central Machine version (ala Delta, etc.) I should be able to mount some side guides for a much easier to move table fence. Thanks for the kick in the pants!
 

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9 Posts
Nice, I need to get a bigger band saw but $ is always the final deciding factor. Well done
 

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15 Posts
That' a great setup!
 

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5,101 Posts
Looks like it will serve well for the task at hand.
 

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1,434 Posts
Nicely engineered.
 

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Nice, I need to get a bigger band saw but $ is always the final deciding factor. Well done

- SubVette
I could technically afford a nice 17" band saw if I wanted to but then I'd have no where to plug it in. Right now I have to save to get my house electrical upgraded and a sub panel in the shop so I can even think about bigger tools. That future electrical upgrade is also why EVERYTHING will be on wheels as soon as DC is finalized.
 

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Looks great Sansoo but I am trying to figure out what looks like a stop block. Does that come off for re-sawing?
 

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Looks great Sansoo but I am trying to figure out what looks like a stop block. Does that come off for re-sawing?

- controlfreak
Ya the stop block just slides off the end for re-sawing. Most the time in its a drawer in the custom stand I made for the saw but tossed it on for the images.
 
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