Hi,
Anyone try their hand at fabricating their own “T head” rip fence? I am a metal worker turned wood worker and I can’t see spending upwards of $400.00 for what looks like a fairly easy project. Correct me if I am wrong.
Steve
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Replies
Hammer,
Such projects are always a labor of love. If one has the metal working facilities, and the know-how this is a great project. But like all such projects, the average worker does not have the tools or supplies or experience to do this. The result is usually much less capable or sophisticated than a commercial product, and quite frankly much more "expensive."
Several hundred dollars spent on something already made that is really just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the time and effort that was devoted in the engineering, prototyping and manufacturing allows us to do a lot of woodworking.
That said, I've made all manner of cross cutting sleds, router fences, myriads of jigs and fixtures and have longed to have more advanced metal-working tools so that I could REALLY get lost in a project! Every time I look at a piece of machinery, I find ways that I could re-engineer it. But I lie down for a while and it goes away!
Rich
Hammer,
Check out the plan at John Swensen's site. (He has some other interesting plans and tweaks there as well.)
http://www.tdl.com/~swensen/machines/index.html
Jeff
Hi,
Thanks for the replies. The cost for the steel angle and tube is about $20.00.. I probably have them in my steel rack. As far as spending time making a fence... hey, we probably could buy the items we make cheaper, if you consider the time it takes, but if you are like I am, I don't buy much of anything I can make. I will check out the websites.. thanks again.
Steve
> ....if you are like I am, I don't buy much of anything I can make.
I'm with ya. I don't have very extensive metal working skills - somewhere below my woodworking skills at this point, but that doesn't prevent me from taking a stab at engineering and fabricating stuff when I've a mind to.
Can you purchase, or do you have a piece of steel tubing the rignt size and that's as absolutely straight as it needs to be? Rolling and fabrication for ordinary structural steel shapes is pretty loosey-goosey. It might take some machining to get the material as true as it ought to be.
Same goes for the pieces of angle and such. The design of the Biesmeyer calls for the tube steel to rest on and be bolted to an angle that in turn is bolted to the saw table and side extension. Both of these pieces need to be pretty straight I would think.
On the bottom of the fence itself there are some little nylon glide things that the fence glides on. You'll need to figure on putting something under it to provide just a little lift, I would think, and allowing the fence to slide with ease.
Let's see a picture when you're done!!
Dennis in Bellevue WA
[email protected]
Morning,
There are a couple of problems presented by this project. One, how do I measure if a 60" piece of off the shelf angle iron and tube is flat within so many thousands and two, how to mill it flat if it isn't. There are not many machines available to the DIY that have a 60" travel. I'll post what I find out.
Jeff.. thanks for John Swenson's site, it was helpful but he didn't comment on the central issues involved. This is going to be fun!
Steve
My two cents. Look in the archives this has been discussed back at the old site. Check issue #109 page 88 for a piece on building a fence. I'd go to woodweb and post a WTB ad and pick one up cheap.
Dave Koury
You can measure the straightness of your tube or angle with a machinist's straightedge, $227 - $350 for a 72" in my 3 year old MSC catalog. You can machine it by marking with the same straightedge and fitter's blue and filing or sanding off the high spots. If you don't want to pay for a straightedge, you can buy 3 pieces of tubing and fit them to each other the same way. When each piece is straight with the other two, all three are truly straight.
1. A $350 starret six foot straight edge and feeler gauge would work nicely. I think working with a tolerance of .002" is unrealistic with cold rolled steel
2. You can't mill or grind that type of stock to those tolerances. It will move. I tried making a fence years ago because it looked so easy. I learned a lot about metal since then and I could make one now but it's still cheaper to buy. I do have the six foot straight edge as well.
3. They wanted me to build a conveyor to turn our bandmill into a resaw at our shop. After proving it would cost double what I could buy the M & M one for and take me three weeks versus the one week to get it from them they were convinced. Sure, there's some things I can build cheaper than I can buy or they don't make exactly what I'm looking for but I think Swenson summed it up pretty well. Build it for the fun of it.
Edited 9/19/2002 6:20:17 PM ET by rsl
First, I don't know what the allowed tolerance is for the stock Biesmeyer fence. It may not be 0.002. Second, you may find that off the shelf material is within the tolerance that's required. I just brought up the point as something to be aware of so that when you're done, the fence would provide as much accuracy as one that you would purchase.
Dennis in Bellevue WA
[email protected]
There is a lot being said for the need for a high degree of accuracy here, but it's a lot of hooey as far as a Biesmeyer fence is concerned. I've got one, I like it a lot. I don't have any plans to replace it......but.... Have any of you ever locked one in place and then measured the end deflection under a moderate load? I have. I set up a dial indicator and simply pushed and pulled on the fence about as hard as one might when using the thing for ripping, and sure enough there is deflection. And it's greater than I ever expected to see. Where does it stem from? I don't know. Does it affect my cuts? Not if I'm careful. Is the Unifence any better? No.....my friend has that fence system and his is worse. He's taken to clamping the oufeed end when ripping.
So, my message to hammer: Make yourself a fence, enjoy the process (I like metalwork more than woodwork myself), and make a fence that won't deflect.
PS I have no doubt that an off-the-rack section of rectangular tubing is straight enough for a tablesaw fence. Hell, you can always fasten a wood face to it, then joint that straight!
I have no doubt that an off-the-rack section of rectangular tubing is straight enough for a tablesaw fence
Jeff.
What I had more in mind was the guide tube rather than the fence itself. I don't think I'd put a piece of mild steel across the saw table where there would be any, ANY risk of having it come in contact with the blade. Or maybe you were talking about the same thing??
Personally, I'm thinking a cable system, would provide a more stable front and back end to resist the deflection you mentioned. Perhaps better than the clamping cam on the Beis. would be a clamp that operates across the table (clamping the table, in effect, between two pads) combined with the T square guide principle.
Dennis in Bellevue WA
[email protected]
My old craftsman table saw had such a clamping feature as part of its fence. It clamped very well in fact. Of course the alignment had to be set by hand, both ends....trial and error. But once clamped it stayed there.
That's exactly what I was thinking about. The old Craftsman I sold about 6 months ago was like that, too.
You got me curious now. I'm gonna check the deflection of the Beis.
Dennis in Bellevue WA
[email protected]
Jeff--
Have any of you ever locked one in place and then measured the end deflection under a moderate load?
I'm curious. What ripping technique are you using that applies sideways pressure on the outfeed end of the fence? If the stock is pressing on the end, isn't it then moving away from the blade?
Well by the time the stock gets to the end of the fence there is very little pressure since I concentrate the "sideways push" on my end. But, if the fence deflects by pressing on the end, then the same pressure applied in the middle will also deflect it, though less, and so on as the pressure point moves forward. In most cases, I don't ever notice what's going on.
Except.....
I also use the fence with a router table that's on the wing portion of my tablesaw. Here I feed from the free end of the fence, so I clamp it. The deflection is very noticable in this application.
Well, o.k., your explanation of lever arms is certainly correct. What I still don't understand is why you would apply sideways pressure anywhere but at the infeed end (zero lever arm). Shouldn't all other force be straight ahead? If you push against the fence anywhere but at the start, you're moving the stock in a nonlinear fashion. Why would you want to do that?
Edited 9/20/2002 6:13:58 PM ET by Donald C. Brown
Edited 9/20/2002 6:15:02 PM ET by Donald C. Brown
Well I'm really unsure what point you're trying to make, but.....let's suppose that what you say is correct: One should only apply sideways pressure at the infeed end. I guess that means that a "fence" could be dispensed with altogether and simply use a dowel, and something to aim with, at the infeed end. That'll be good because a dowel set into the table top certainly won't move.
OK, so I'm yanking you're chain. My point is that some lateral pressure on the infeed side of the leading edge of the blade is necessary. How else will the board stay up against the fence? For that matter, without some lateral pressure how does the operator know that the stock is up against the fence? Personally, I don't know what direction "straight ahead" is. So I compensate by pushing (mostly) forward and sideways (less so). The stock won't move sideways because the fence is in the way (assuming that the bloody thing doesn't move or deflect) so it will move in a linear (forward) fashion by default.
Have any of you ever locked one in place and then measured the end deflection under a moderate load?
some lateral pressure on the infeed side of the leading edge of the blade is necessary
At least you're now pushing against the infeed side instead of against the outfeed side of the fence.
"Straight ahead" is into the blade, not pushing against the side of the blade and fence.And no, a dowel is not equivalent to pushing against the front of the fence. A dowel would permit the stock to pivot.
Edited 9/20/2002 8:04:42 PM ET by Donald C. Brown
Edited 9/20/2002 8:11:42 PM ET by Donald C. Brown
Paralock, far superior, more accurate and no longer in business because everyone thinks Biesmeyer's are better without even trying other fences.
"PS I have no doubt that an off-the-rack section of rectangular tubing is straight enough for a tablesaw fence. Hell, you can always fasten a wood face to it, then joint that straight!"
That is exactly what I have done with my Unifence on the Unisaw. The aluminum extrusion is not as straight as I would like; it has a belly in the middle, perhaps 1/64" or so. Nasty for rips. By screwing on a piece of cherry about 5" high by 1" or so thick, then jointing it all at once, it is now quite flat. Plus, the extra height is handy for clamps, etc. I also use the fence for my router, mounted in the extension table. Why this would not work for the shop-built fence I cannot imagine. Good luck.
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