Thread: Bent Fence!

Originally Posted by REALOldNick

SO. Questions are:
- if I do get another fence, is it likely to have the same problem?
- if I do put a flat face on there, what is the best material: melamine coated HDF?, aluminium again? ???

I have the same machine and while my fence is OK I can see how flimsy the extrusion is and how the problem could arise.

I have been thinking about remaking my fence and have considered a couple of options. One is to use a 1/4" thick steel angle (eg a lintel) and machine a flat surface onto one face. The other is to do the same with some 1/4" thick Ally angle if I can coax a freebie piece from my BIL. On advantage of ally is that it is safer around the cutter heads.

Originally Posted by BobL

I have the same machine and while my fence is OK I can see how flimsy the extrusion is and how the problem could arise.

I have been thinking about remaking my fence and have considered a couple of options. One is to use a 1/4" thick steel angle (eg a lintel) and machine a flat surface onto one face. The other is to do the same with some 1/4" thick Ally angle if I can coax a freebie piece from my BIL. On advantage of ally is that it is safer around the cutter heads.

OK. Thanks. Yes I was going to avoid steel like the plague for that reason. The TS I bought at the same time has a steel throat insert! That is going to have to go. I am going to invest in a couple of nice blades and at what...$80-100 a pop, steel stays away.These are older machines I reckon. That can be good and bad. Anyway I got the saw, the combo and a large dust extractor for $1800.

That was why Al, or coated MDF were my ideas. If I used the MDF I would keep the old fence for stiffness and attach the MDF to avoid it following the bend already there. But I am not sure how well MDF will go, although I know it used heaps for routers.

A big hunk of Al would be $$. If you can cadge some then my best wishes to you!

BTW ...any hints about the machine? I am having to do a bit of a tune-up and WHY, so anything to look for would be nice to know. It's basically fine and the blades feel.look and sound very sharp, but it's been neglected a bit otherwise.

Just a note: As I type this, I had a call from Timbecon to say they could not find a spare fence. Very nice of them to actually get back. My hat's off.

You could try posting in the metalwork forums, there may be someone there who can help you out.

Hey that's an idea! Plenty of Perthites here, who may be able to point me in the right direction. Thanks. I will see just how painful a serious piece of Al is, first. I know a guy that does machining for a very reasonable price.

I have a question for anybody drifting by:

If I make a new fence, is there any ad/disad-vantage to making the fence the full length of the table? I can see possible advantages, but there may be a reason that the fence is not full length.

I would think a full length fence would have a number of issues; cost, weight and difficulty getting it straight, flat and avoiding twist/warp. I'm sure if there was a good case for a full fence the big companies would have done it by now.

I'll suggest Capral Aluminium - sometimes they have short pieces of angle or c-channel for sale.
I have a PDF copy of their Cattledog - PM me for more info.

The way I see it there's no point in making super long jointer fence unless the jointer has a super long table. The place where the wood has to be held square to the jointer knives is in the vicinity of the jointer knives - forcing the wood square elsewhere can lead to problems. Even larger pro type machines have the fence only about half as long and the total length of table.

Yep. OK. All makes sense. I just wondered if the short fence was all about $$, but I can see where there may be a limit to just how straight a piece of wood can be, given that it's a moving, flexible piece of stuff anyway.

I will check out Capral. There is a place called Smart Aluminium, but I think they may be Capral anyway....

Originally Posted by REALOldNick

Yep. OK. All makes sense. I just wondered if the short fence was all about $$, but I can see where there may be a limit to just how straight a piece of wood can be, given that it's a moving, flexible piece of stuff anyway.

I will check out Capral. There is a place called Smart Aluminium, but I think they may be Capral anyway....

The forces acting while planing takes place are very high and the fence mount for the sherwood is not exactly what as robust as it should be, so making it longer doesn't help if it cannot be held securely.

For a jointer fence, more important than length is strength, check out this fence on my 16" jointer.


One problem with buying from Capral is that sometimes one has to buy a full length (ie up to 6m) length of something. If it's not too expensive and you come up with a suitable fence profile I would be interested in sharing a part of piece with you.

Yeah I was wondering about beefing up the mounting a bit. Even the fence angle adjustment has failed on mine. Just plastic knobs. I was going to see if I could cause movement by pushing it.

That looks like once serious old piece of gear! Must weigh a bit.

I will check out what is available and I am fine with sharing a piece if I have to buy too much. How much do you need? Also, do you have any ideas about profiles? I can sort of see what might be useful, but am open to any advice. I might just take my camera and post up some profile shots for comment.

HAH! Trouble with that is I am just as likely to choose one then have it sold on me/us!

Originally Posted by REALOldNick

Yeah I was wondering about beefing up the mounting a bit. Even the fence angle adjustment has failed on mine. Just plastic knobs. I was going to see if I could cause movement by pushing it.

Yes the fence mounting is very ordinary. I want to rebuild mine completely.

That looks like once serious old piece of gear! Must weigh a bit.

~600 kg It's 3 phase and very long so I cannot have it in my shed at home. It's at the milling yard where I mill wood.

This photo was taken in 2008 when we bought this at auction. I have since derusted it and also made an new all ally guard.
Jointer-guard.jpg

I will check out what is available and I am fine with sharing a piece if I have to buy too much. How much do you need? Also, do you have any ideas about profiles? I can sort of see what might be useful, but am open to any advice. I might just take my camera and post up some profile shots for comment.

HAH! Trouble with that is I am just as likely to choose one then have it sold on me/us!

You can always ask them if they will cut you a specific length. I measured my fence and it comes to just over 700 mm so 750 mm would be OK for me. I would say a 100 x 25 RHS (rectangular hollow section) of 3 mm - or a 100 x 25 angle x 6 mm thick angle would be OK.

I nearly bought a bandsaw that would have sat well next to that thing! It was all cast and about 8' high. In the end I gave it a miss. I just could not have put it anywhere but a shop as you have done.

You reckon 3mm is thick enough for RHS at 100mm? If there was a centre rib I might be happier, but just as a plate....

I found the dogalog on my PC. It does not show 100*25*3, only 100*25*2.5. I will check to see if they have other stuff, but 100*25 angle might need cutting of the short face (100*50.8*6.4 is available)

Originally Posted by REALOldNick

I nearly bought a bandsaw that would have sat well next to that thing! It was all cast and about 8' high. In the end I gave it a miss. I just could not have put it anywhere but a shop as you have done.

You reckon 3mm is thick enough for RHS at 100mm? If there was a centre rib I might be happier, but just as a plate....

It's got to be twice as thick as what's on there now.

I found the dogalog on my PC. It does not show 100*25*3, only 100*25*2.5. I will check to see if they have other stuff, but 100*25 angle might need cutting of the short face (100*50.8*6.4 is available)

It would be good but I reckon it will be kinda pricey.

Yeah pretty much twice as thick, but there is not that central rib between front and back faces that the original has.

Anyhoo, I trotted down to Smart (now Capral) Al in Malaga.

They have 100*25 * 2.5. It is not a stocked item so they won;t cut...well I suppose they cut, but they want you take the whole length .which is $93.50 inc.

Or they have 76.2 (how twee.....oh....it's 3") * 25.4 * 2.35. They will cut that, but although I asked three times I still did not get the metre price.

Length = $77.00 inc. so $12/metre probably plus a buckortoo each cut.

My thought here was to build a 152mm high fence using two lengths. That is a nice (??) high fence and with a central rib for strength.

In the confusion about what they had and what not, I did not test for straight ( had a spirit level with me). They said that tilers used long lengths for straight edges, and that over 700mm it would not deviate. I will follow that up, although an eyeball cast alpong a piece showed a damn straight piece of metal.

Talking about pricey, they had a flat bar offcut there. 110 * 25 * 500mm ..........$41.90.......so there gores THAT idea.That's offcut price!