Axminster bandsaw fence upgrade.

[Honest John]

After purchasing and watching Steves complete bandsaw DVDs I've now got my old SIP 14inch bandsaw cutting true and running very sweetly. I've even tuned out the drift following Steves instructions! The week spot of my saw now is clearly the rip fence, which may or may not lock true to the blade when moved. I don't think any amount of fettling will significantly improve this and I am thinking of an upgrade. The Kreg and the Axminster are both in my sights. Both of these fit to the front edge of the table. The standard SIP fence fits from underneath. There are several options, but the Axminster instructions say to drill and tap 2 M6 holes in the front edge. This looks possible but will mean drilling 2 5mm holes 23mm down from the surface of the table. This will put these holes towards the lower edge of the casting, or at least not in the middle. The casting is a little over 8mm thick at this point. I'm wondering if a 6 mm clearance hole through the casting and using a nut and bolt rather than tapping the hole would be a better solution. I'm thinking that I could place a section of steel bar between the casting and nut, thus spreading the load along the edge of the casting. As I understand it once fitted these bolts will not be undone. The rail can be removed by undoing the knobs at each end when the blade needs changing. I think the Kreg version fits in a simolar manner..
So, has anyone fitted either of these to an SIP bandsaw, and do you think that a nut and bolt with load spreading backing plate would be a good idea?

 

[Steve Maskery]

Hi John
I'm glad your machine is running nicely and thank you for the plug.
Did you buy the whole set or just the bandsaw ones? If you bought the lot and haven't watched them all yet, skip to Workshop Essentials 10. There is an excellent fence on there that will fit a bandsaw just as well as it fits a TS. You may have to swap out the rail on your BS to suit, but that is not difficult.
The fence itself is easy to make, no welding required, and is as rock-solid as a Beismeyer.

 

[Honest John]

Thanks for the reply Steve. I just bought the bandsaw DVDs s and still have the last one to watch. Not sure where I'm going with the fence upgrade yet. The sorting of my bandsaw has gone so well now that I'm starting to question my intended purchase of a table saw. This morning I made a crosscut sled running in both rails of my bandsaw, and this is making very square cuts. I cut both of the runners for this on my bandsaw and both were right first time. Thickness of these was less than 0.01mm different end to end measured with a digital calliper. And cut using my existing rip fence. My only problem now is that when I move the fence it doesn't always fix square, and so cannot be relied on. There are always ways round this as parallelism can always be achieved with a calliper measurement to a slot. The key to all this as was evident in your DVDs is getting the blade to track straight with zero drift. After that it's a breeze!

 

[Steve Maskery]

I cut both of the runners for this on my bandsaw and both were right first time.

You mean they were Right First Time Every Time, eh?

Very pleased to hear it.

 

[Honest John]

Just for closure on this thread...... I have now found the answers to my original ramblings! Events took an unfortunate turn this morning when cam locking mechanism on my bandsaw fence broke. Oh dear, ( or words to that effect) I said. It had snapped on part of the alloy casting, and any sort of repair was not possible, as it would require a complete re-engineered rebuild, and as I was not happy with this fence anyway, there didn't seem much point in attempting that! One of Steves shop made fences was certainly a possibility and would I'm sure have been brilliant, but I was realy wanting an instant fix. I had almost talked myself into an Axminster upgrade fence prior to this failure, so it was off to Warrington I went. The fence mounts to the front edge of the bandsaw table and requires 2 M6 holes. Many bandsaws have these already but mine did not so a small metal engineering job was required. After carefully marking and popping the mounting sites I drilled the 5mm holes into the cast iron table. This turned out to be a simple task with a sharp new drill bit. I then tapped these holes to M6. This was a first for me. I've hand chased many threads in exotic timbers, but I've never used a tap in metal. The rest is a very simple task of fitting the fence to the new rail and adjusting it. It was very nearly right out of the box, but with a few adjustments to square it to the table and to the slots it was complete.my new Tuff-saws blade is cutting without drift after following Steves instructions on his bandsaw DVDs, and this fence is true to the blade when locked in any position. The Axminster fence is awesome when fitted to a well tuned bandsaw, and my saw is now achieving levels of accuracy that I didn't realise we're possible with this tool. I wish I had done this years ago. Steves bandsaw DVDs should be bought by every bandsaw owner!