Question about Biesemeyer Auxiliary Fence

[Steven J Corpstein]

Has anyone tried using rare earth magnets to hold an auxiliary fence to their Biesemeyer? Something with a t-track to fit into the space on the top, held in place by the magnets.

I just can't get myself to drill the fence but wonder if the magnets would hold sufficiently to be safe. I'd hate for it to come loose half way through a cut.

[Randal Stevenson]

You might look at Rocklers universal fence clamps. They are about $15 (out of stock now till 4-11-08). When they issued a press release about them (I found via google), it showed even using just one, as a stop block.

[glenn bradley]

Has anyone tried using rare earth magnets to hold an auxiliary fence to their Biesemeyer? Something with a t-track to fit into the space on the top, held in place by the magnets.

I just can't get myself to drill the fence but wonder if the magnets would hold sufficiently to be safe. I'd hate for it to come loose half way through a cut.

I went through this. After testing a few things I realized until I got to the 20mm Magswitch units the auxiliary device could be moved too easily for me. The rub is that once I got to that size of a magnet, they were in the way. Your comfort level may be different than mine.

I went with these from Rockler and really like them:

[Joe Chritz]

Drill it, it only hurts once.

If not then the rockler unit looks like a very good way to go.

Personally my opinion is if the aux fence is staying on then drill it. If you need to add one every so often for rabbits or dadoes then the clamps would be a good way to go.

Joe

[Ed Falis]

I'm with Joe. It took me 5 some odd years to get to the point where I had the heart to drill the holes in the fence, but it works great.

[Dale Lesak]

Glenn, I have a set of the Rockler clamps and If you want you can shorten the screw part of the clamp so they don't stick out so far. I cut mine down to about a 1 1/4" don't have all that screwing sticking out . I only use my set on the besmyer fence and they worked out nice. I just grabbed the threaded part with vice grips and took off the knob. cut off what I didn't want, cleaned up the end and screwed the knob back on. I clamped the grips on the threaded part where I knew I would be cutting off, so not to goof up threads. I've got three or four different aux fences and they all look and fit like they were made for the saw (Which they were) hope this is some help Dale

[Jerrold Fernandez]

I have personally had to drill through two fences on two different table saws at the mill I work for. One of which was a brand new Biesemeyer . The amount of abuse our fences go through justified the change. Think of what a couple hundred sheets of ply, nasty green sappy framing lumber, and hardwoods does to a fence daily. We are also expected to make cuts that require the use of cutting into sacrificial fences (burying dadoes..etc).

What we did was drill two holes clean through both faces of the fence, equidistant from the front and rear of the fence. Aluminum tubing was pressed and epoxied into place slightly inset from the original fences. The two carriage bolts secured by 5 star knobs, would now be easily guided into place. After this point you have your choice of the new fence material. I use both mdf and baltic birch ply laminated with Formica, both seem to hold up pretty well. I finished off the fences with black rubber t-mold for the edges. All thats left is to drill the matching holes in the new fences and make a countersink with a forstner bit to allow for the carriage bolt head.

So far it has worked wonderfully for us. Everything looks factory and is very unobtrusive. Changing out the fence faces takes literally no more than 5-10 seconds. While this may end up being the same amount of time as using the Rockler clamps, I feel more comfortable that I know that fence will never have any chance of moving. I like the fact that the top of the fence is left open for use with a t-track for the hold downs that we sometimes use. Again I stress that because of the rough nature and constant changing of our work it was beneficial to change out the entire fence.

If you rarely do dadoes you may just want the Rockler units, thats what I am going to do when I get my new Jet Deluxe Xacta up and running.

[Rob Will]

Why not just buy the Biesemeyer auxillary fence that is made to clamp over the one you have? Mine works great.

Rob

[Mike Spanbauer]

I don't think those are available anymore Rob. They were sweet though (although spendy).

mike

[Rob Will]

I don't think those are available anymore Rob. They were sweet though (although spendy).

mike

I don't recall seeing one in a store but the Biesemeyer website still shows them (???).
http://www.deltaportercable.com/Prod...roductID=13587
Rob

[John Gregory]

Mike's tools has them at $140. Kinda spendy for me.
http://www.mikestools.com/B78-940-Bi...ary-Fence.aspx

[Lee Schierer]

Here's what I did for mine.


You can see more details at my website. http://www.home.earthlink.net/~us71na/fence.html

[michael osadchuk]

steven, I have a General350 ts with the same T-Square/Biesemeyer clone fence.......I embedded three 1/4" x 20 threaded machine screw inserts into the top to fence, equal distance from each other; I use those threaded inserts as attachment points for a thin (1/2" thick) wood batten to lie between the vertical fences and on this batten I've attached workpiece guides/anti-kickback Board Buddies; the same threaded insert attachment points could anchor other accessories, higher fences,etc.

(check out Jim Tolpin's Table Saw Magic book - his "universal rip fence" is also anchored with machine screws both thru the top of the metal fence, although he does not describe the attachment in any detail)

What I did was drill holes - about 3/8" or 1/2" diameter - in the top of the top of the fence; made three wood blocks the height of the internal cavity of the fence, embedded the inserts into the top of the blocks, thnn slid the blocks into the cavity, positioned them under the holes in the top of the fence, and expoxied the top of the blocks to the fence.....yes, it's tedious to trim to a snug fit the blocks into the cavity of the fence.... used flat piece of wood with cutout sized to the base of the blocks to slide/position the blocks under the holes in the top of the fence ...instead of individual blocks a one piece block of wood into which the threaded inserts are embeded could also be used...........

the installation of the attachment points looks clean, adds little weight and hasn't loosen in 6 or 7 years...

a place you can use several small round super magnets: stick them at the front of fence behind the locking handle to keep the handle in the vertical position (out of the way) when the fence is not locked into position


good luck

michael