New Laguna DriftMaster LXIII

[Edward Weber]

It was a preemptive strike, not helping him sell his gospel. 10 posts and no mention yet.

Ssssshhhh keep quiet, everything is going smooth, so far


As to fences, I don't really care for any of the extruded aluminum (usually proprietary) fence rails and ONE sided fences found on most bandsaws these days.
I don't worry about drift, so for me, I prefer a simple but heavy duty, three point fence, you know like those found on a million tablesaws. But since it's a bandsaw, we'll have to redesign something that works, instead of just scaling it down.

I use Jet fences on my bandsaw/s, A simple three point fence that I can use on both sides of the blade.
(disclaimer) I have one installed and one ready to install when time permits.

[Phillip Mitchell]

I had the old driftmaster that i bought used and then sold. Really liked the microadjust feature in the fence. I think all fences should have micro adjust. I use it all the time on my two table saws and shaper. I agree that the drift feature is somewhat gimmicky. If your saw blade is drifting them it is dull or it isnt properly setup. Either way, adjusting the fence to a crappy blade/setup is sorta silly. I appreciated the nice aluminum extrusion fence on the original driftmaster. My LT20 oem fence is the stubby cast iron variety found on other similar italian bandsaws. The driftmaster is much longer and has the advantage of sliding back and forwards like a sliding table saw's fence as well as going into a low profile configuration. Things i didnt love about the original driftmaster and why i got rid of it. It always felt like a prototype that wasnt finalized yet. The installation was a little goofy, and i had a Laguna saw. Switching from micro adjust to quick adjust was never smooth. Finally, something happened with the nut on the end of the hand wheel that it would occasionally spin off the shaft and the hand wheel for the microadjust would fall off. If they fixed these design issues, then i think it could be a fantastic--albeit expensive--after market fence. There arent many options for aftermarket fences that are worth much. The driftmaster is expensive, but it is sort of in its own league.

Agreed. I found a used / New in box driftmaster a few years back for my old 20” Italian saw that had a much worse OEM fence. I really like the driftmaster in use for all the reasons mentioned above and do not use the drift setting feature of it. I have not had the issues you mentioned on mine except occasionally not knowing if it’s in micro adjust mode or not and it not catching the micro adjust threads when turning the hand wheel. It’s a great fence, imo, completely independent of the drift setting gimmick.