Saw Fence Digital Readout by Wixey
hammer123
| Posted in Power Tools and Machinery on
Anybody with the Wixey Saw Fence Digital Readout. Thinking of buying one. Lets hear your thoughts.
Replies
Only what I've read, and all good.
Bought mine last summer. I like it. For woodworkers who think in terms of fat and thin 16ths perhaps it provides too much precision. I like bing able to sneak up on a final measurement at .005". I also use it for crosscutting to length using the. rip fence and a 1-2-3 block for a standoff.
Digital measuring systems are great for precise screw type adjustments such as planer or sander tables which move parallel. Not so much for a saw fence which has a fair amount of slop that is taken up by final clamping on the rail. I installed an "Accurate" measuring system on my Biesemeryer fence some years ago, high end compared to the Wixey. Ended up ditching it and going back to the vernier system provided. Just more practical for a saw fence, even with fine adjustments. In short, if you have a quality fence with a good vernier system like the Biesemeryer then I would not bother. If not, then it might make more sense to add the digital attachment than replacing the entire fence.
It's been a while, but the best fence system ever made was a "Paralock". It worked on the same principle as the cable driven parallel rule used on drafting tables, Remember them?
Delta and Powermatic put them out of business by including either a Biesemeryer, or their own T square fence system on their new saws. Just a bit of history...
Never used one.
I sort of wanted one, but did not go for it.
If I calibrate my tape right for the blade I am using, I can get accuracy of 1/2 mm (fat 64th) or somewhat better by eye, and be sure it is pretty much spot on because I have a great fence.
Even so, for critical cuts where exact is essential, I will do a test cut and measure before the final piece.
The Wixey device would allow for better repeatability of cuts though and would be nice to have, but I reckon I would still need to do test cuts on critical stuff.
The key is really having a super sturdy, accurate fence with a micro-adjuster. If you don't have one of those, buy one first, and then think about the wixey.
Save your money use a good tape measure.
For a contrasting viewpoint on this zombie thread … I have been using one for over a decade. I have moved it from saw to saw as things changed. It is integral to my methods of work. I factor it in when planning operations and rely on it implicitly. It is particularly useful for doing stepped, repeating cuts as when doing joinery. Cuts that involve moving from a known point to the next point, then moving from that point to yet another point are also easily accomplished with a DRO on a well setup saw.
I would think that if your table saw is tuned up, blade parallel to slot and then rip fence parallel to blade they would work just fine. But if something is out of kilter it would be a crap shoot. Looking at various videos of setting up table saws it is very rare to get a blade perfectly parallel to the miter slot, it's always out 1-3 thou and then they usually don't stay that close, ie. loading lumber from the truck to the table saw to the wood rack. If it's off a bit then the hand plane is used. Just my $.02.
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