Thread: Micro Adjustable Bandsaw Fence

Originally Posted by doug3030

Or fit a high sub-fence to the Incra jig and attach it to the bandsaw - job done

If money was no option I could co-opt half an Incra wonder fence and buy aluminium extrusion to assemble a high sub fence, however, it cost me almost $500. Were the MDF would come in at less than $45 for a whole sheet.

I also am not a fan of anodised aluminium, looks good in the showroom but in the rough and tumbles of the workshop, it quickly looks like a dog's chew toy with dings and scratches.

Originally Posted by woodPixel

You guys are over thinking the hell out of this

-- why not just cut a very shallow arbitrary angle (whatever you can) then just set it up. Just make it as close to 1 deg as you can... Doesn't matter if it's 0.9 or 1.345632 deg.... (Or 2...)
-- set it up so its at a "start point"
-- Make a mark on the top, a line across both pieces, this is your start point, your Zero as such.
-- Measure the distance from an arbitrary point on the table (hold your micrometer in place on the table with a magnet, or make a mitre measuring gauge)
-- zero off the mike
-- Slide the fence over until the mike reads something you want, such as 0.1 or 1.0
-- make another mark on the top where the first mark slides over

Presto. Known quantity and a visual index.

Repeat.

edit: Fence furniture, I like your track saw idea. This makes the cutting very easy, plus it's very repeatable too. You could make the whole jig of 18mm MDF and it would be very sturdy.

I think that's even complicated

Set the two angles up and make a mark to define zero

Move the angles until they have expanded the fence a given amount, say 50mm

Mark the distance the zero point moved along the taper

Measure that distance and sub divide it by measurement into 1mm increments (for instance)

Thumbsuckers idea is a great one. I really like it.

I took a moment to flog his design and put it into sketchup.

The designs and images attached. Enjoy. Ive componentized things so mods are easy.

The only changes I *think* I made were the use of a "lock down" rather than knobs and a note that the angle of the routed gap for the knobs/lock must match the angle of the timbers. Youll see it is annotated. This is so as the slip joint (uh, slips) that it doesn't bind up. You could of course make this gap pretty big (say 15mm) as it serves no purpose other than for the knobs to hold it in place. It serves no other mechanical or accuracy function.

I made a mark on the diagram (centre of blue and red) and moved the blue forward 10mm. The gap changed down 0.25mm... so it moves 1/4mm away from the blade with every centimetre of movement forward. Pretty convenient and easy for the maths!!!!

Have a play. All design kudos to Thumbsucker.

bandsaw fence - Scene 1.jpg bandsaw fence - Scene 2.jpg bandsaw fence - 10mm.jpg

The Sketchup file is here: https://goo.gl/K76vGq

Edit: Tidied the model up and added centimetre graduations onto the parts for easy movement/playing

Hi woodpixel
any chance of a PDF format for those who still use pencils ... please

Thanks
Rob

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

Move the angles until they have expanded the fence a given amount, say 50mm

Why as much as 50 mm? this is supposed to be a fine adjustment. Set it to within a mm or so of the required amount with the main fence then fine tune it up to maybe 1 to 2 mm with the auxiliary fine tuning fence. If the sliding wedges only allow a couple of mm adjustment, the smaller range of adjustment means a more acute the angle can be used therefore allowing the wedges to slide further per thou of adjustment, making it easier to adjust and more accurate.

Cheers

Doug

Rob, Let me see how thats done. One can apparently export in plan/isometric etc, but Ive never done it... I only use it for visualisation. I don't have a CAD brain

I can, however, explode it into all the parts. Give me a sec and I'll have a play.

Surely it can just be printed to PDF? Or take a screenshot and print that.

PDFs attached.... is this what you are after?

This is an export in Ultra Hi-Res.