Beismeyer face not true full length

[Greg McCallister]

Well I measured the fence face of my Beismeyer fence to my miter slot and noticed that in the middle of the fence it is almost .010 runout from the front to back. Bannana shaped.
I was wondering if any of you have replaced a Beismeyer fence face board?
If so did you get one from Beismeyer, did you make your own, or use the plastic UHMM or ?
Could use some guidence here...

[Jamie Buxton]

.01" seems pretty tolerable to me. However, if you want it flatter, you'd probably be better off making one yourself. The .01" may be coming from the wood, but it might be coming from the steel. What you should do is mount a new hardwood board to the steel, and then get out your jointer plane and go to town. You flatten the wood plus whatever effects the steel has on it. You may need to devise a new mounting scheme which doesn't leave steel where the plane will hit it.

[Frank Drew]

Greg,

Can you also place a known straight edge along the fence to see how much it actually deviates from truly straight?

With as much data as you can collect, I'd suggest contacting Biesmeyer to see how they respond if you've got a bowed fence.

I haven't had a Biesmeyer fence in some years, but as I recall the laminate was applied to the wood after wood faces were screwed to the box beam, so you'd have to peel off the laminate to remove the wood face. If you do that and find that the box beam is straight, applying another face, or reapplying the original face, and checking for straightness shouldn't be too much of a job.

[Dave Falkenstein]

I shimmed a Biesemeyer fence to make it flat. Some of the Jet fences have the same issue. Shimming the low spots resolves the issue.

[Greg McCallister]

Jamie,
Would hate to screw this fence up. also the other side if the fence is not bowed which makes me believe that the iron is pretty straight. Would you recommend BB ply for new face?

Drew,
I checked it with a straight edge and it is defently bowed.
I understand what you are saying removing the laminate.

Dave,
How did you shim the fence without ruining the laminate face?

The reason I checked it is I was getting some burning towards an end of a cut. This fence was a one time true.

[Dave Falkenstein]

Jamie,
...Dave,
How did you shim the fence without ruining the laminate face?
...

It has been a long time, but as I recall I removed the face, put some short strips of masking tape on the metal to create a shim, and reinstalled the face. Will that work on your fence?

[Greg McCallister]

Dave,
It will work but to get to the screws holding the wood on the fence I have to remove the laminate - it is put on after the face wood is put on at the factory. The laminate of course is glued on thus requiring heat to remove it or if I can somehow figure out exactly were the screw heads are, drill into the laminate to get to them. ARGGGGG

[Frank Drew]

Greg,

I drilled holes in my Biesmeyer to be able to mount an auxiliary fence; in order to avoid drilling into them I had to find where the attaching screws were (without removing the laminate), so I measured in with a ruler from the far, open end of the fence. Biesmeyer might be able to supply you with the exact measurements, or even a template.

[Jamie Buxton]

Jamie,
Would hate to screw this fence up. also the other side if the fence is not bowed which makes me believe that the iron is pretty straight. Would you recommend BB ply for new face?

It would be darn difficult to screw up a beisemeyer fence. It is fifteen pounds of steel, faced with wood. To hurt the steel, you'd have to hit it with a sledgehammer. The wood part you can remove and replace and machine to your heart's content. After all, you are a woodworker.

That OEM design for the wood face is kinda stupid. The face on a rip fence is supposed to be replaceable, in case you hit it with a saw blade. Burying the mounting screws under laminate is dumb.

Here's what you do. Remove the old stupid face. This is a destructive removal. Hack and blast. When you get the laminate out of your way, unscrew the screws and remove the rest of the old face. Now build a new one. I like hardwood better than plywood for this. I can plane it so I know it is flat. Put holes through it into the OEM holes in the steel. Counterbore the holes, so that the screw heads are well inside the face. Screw it on, and you're done. Do not apply laminate.

[Tom Henderson2]

Greg,

Can you also place a known straight edge along the fence to see how much it actually deviates from truly straight?

Good advice.

0.010 max deviation over a 27" length is pretty good.

-TH

[Mike Goetzke]

Dave,
It will work but to get to the screws holding the wood on the fence I have to remove the laminate - it is put on after the face wood is put on at the factory. The laminate of course is glued on thus requiring heat to remove it or if I can somehow figure out exactly were the screw heads are, drill into the laminate to get to them. ARGGGGG

Could you try some high strength rare earth magnets to find the screw heads?

(BTW - My Biese fence is bowed about 0.005" to 0.006". Never have seen a problem with my cuts.)

[Denny Rice]

.01" seems pretty tolerable to me. However, if you want it flatter, you'd probably be better off making one yourself. The .01" may be coming from the wood, but it might be coming from the steel. What you should do is mount a new hardwood board to the steel, and then get out your jointer plane and go to town. You flatten the wood plus whatever effects the steel has on it. You may need to devise a new mounting scheme which doesn't leave steel where the plane will hit it.

I agree with Jamie. .01 is not worth messing with. When we start taking feeler gauges to rip fences we need to step back and look at the big picture.

[Cliff Holmes]

the middle of the fence it is almost .010 runout from the front to back. Bannana shaped.

That's not much of a banana. Keep in mind that you're talking about a distance 1/4 the thickness of a sheet of paper. Or, to put it another way, your fence is like a 27" section on the edge of a circle that's almost 3.5 miles across. In other words, pretty doggone straight.

Cliff
The Wood Nerd

[Greg McCallister]

Everyone, thanks for the replies.
This fence is off almost a 1/64" (1/64 is 0.0156) not 0.001 or 1/1000 bowed inward in the middle. I am getting burning at an end of a cut like the blade is getting pinched towards the end. This scares the He!! of of me. I have had kickback before (reason for purchasing the fence). On a board of 3' the burn mark is around 3/4 of the way through the cut between the fence and the blade. To me this means the board is being pushed to the back of the blade. (yes I keep even pressure to the fence and feather boards make it even worse).

Jamie,
I guess you can call me a woodworker - more like a wood destroyer..
Do you think soft maple who suffice as a hardwood face and what thickness would you recommend?

[steve reeves]

Adjust the fence where it moves away from the blade a few thousanths at the back of the blade and the pinching will go away.

This is a common safety procedure anyway...the fence need not be perfectly square to the blade so long as it's not angled towards the blade at the back.

I've found it common for these fences NOT to be perfectly straight (square) from end to end. But set up properly it's not ever been a issue for me. The steel part of the fence I'd almost guarantee is dead straight. once they add the sides and then the laminate is where the error gets induced... just getting the glue on a little thicker in one spot will put a bump in the laminate.