david123
Established Member
Having had this a couple of days now I thought I'd like to write a review as I couldn't find one anywhere on the forum, that's not to say that there isn't one on here somewhere, but I couldn't find it.
First appearance was good, it is well built and a pretty solid piece of kit. Fitting the guide rail to my TS200 was fairly straight forward, just involved drilling a couple of holes into the side of the cast iron table, cutting a piece of oak as an infill and fitting the brackets. The bracket holes have elliptical slots for adjustment. I will admit I fitted one of the two brackets too close to the blade raising mechanism, which somewhat inhibited its use. The fence itself locked on solid with it's locking handle pushed down, and slid along the rail easily in the up position. It also has a couple of Allan key bolts to adjust the angle of the fence to the cutting blade.
The tape measure it came with was a stick on one that you fit yourself. I found it best to remove half an inch of the protective backing only, to fiddle about getting it spot on,(difficult as the tape wants to curl at the end when sliding it under the fence) then removing the rest for final fixing.
There are two magnified lining up marks, left and right of the locking mechanism, so that the fence can be used either side of the saw table. A note of warning here, while testing it, I had a tendency to want to line up the to the mark at the left hand lens, and as I use it on the right hand side (that is where I set the tape measure) it would be way out. Pretty obvious on cutting short pieces of stock, but on longer bits, could cause a problem, you could be 4 1/2 inches out. I have stuck a bit of masking tape over the viewing lens on the left hand side, which has solved that problem.
One other thing. Adjusting the fence to 90 degree's is done by rotating a screw on the right hand side of the fence locking mechanism. Unfortunately, I could not shift it as it was locked solid and I ended up ringing Axminster. I spoke to their technical department and they sent me a replacement the next day after reading the manual together and much scratching of heads. Now this is where the fun starts. The replacement had exactly the same problem, I was wondering if I was just unlucky, but I did spend some time trying to find the problem. I eventually rang them back. They didn't know what the problem was but rang somebody who did. It turned out that underneath the fence locking mechanism there are two threaded holes that that will accept a couple of bolts that came in a bag with the mounting brackets and tape measure(I also asked Axminster what they were for when discussing the screw problem with them, but they had no idea. I still don't know what they are for). At the bottom of the right hand side hole is a very small grub screw that needs to be loosened off to facilitate turning the adjustment screw. This cannot be seen without the aid of a torch as it is 3/4 of an inch down at the bottom of the hole. Whatever the bolts are used for they would have to be removed to loosen the grub screw.I have spoken to Axminster and they tell me that they will get their instruction manual updated as there is no mention of it anywhere to be found. Surely I am not the only one to have had this problem.
Conclusion.
I am extremely happy with the fence it is solidly built, slides well, locks solid. Worth the money? IMHO yes.
Downside.
Poor instructions, wasted a lot of time.
First appearance was good, it is well built and a pretty solid piece of kit. Fitting the guide rail to my TS200 was fairly straight forward, just involved drilling a couple of holes into the side of the cast iron table, cutting a piece of oak as an infill and fitting the brackets. The bracket holes have elliptical slots for adjustment. I will admit I fitted one of the two brackets too close to the blade raising mechanism, which somewhat inhibited its use. The fence itself locked on solid with it's locking handle pushed down, and slid along the rail easily in the up position. It also has a couple of Allan key bolts to adjust the angle of the fence to the cutting blade.
The tape measure it came with was a stick on one that you fit yourself. I found it best to remove half an inch of the protective backing only, to fiddle about getting it spot on,(difficult as the tape wants to curl at the end when sliding it under the fence) then removing the rest for final fixing.
There are two magnified lining up marks, left and right of the locking mechanism, so that the fence can be used either side of the saw table. A note of warning here, while testing it, I had a tendency to want to line up the to the mark at the left hand lens, and as I use it on the right hand side (that is where I set the tape measure) it would be way out. Pretty obvious on cutting short pieces of stock, but on longer bits, could cause a problem, you could be 4 1/2 inches out. I have stuck a bit of masking tape over the viewing lens on the left hand side, which has solved that problem.
One other thing. Adjusting the fence to 90 degree's is done by rotating a screw on the right hand side of the fence locking mechanism. Unfortunately, I could not shift it as it was locked solid and I ended up ringing Axminster. I spoke to their technical department and they sent me a replacement the next day after reading the manual together and much scratching of heads. Now this is where the fun starts. The replacement had exactly the same problem, I was wondering if I was just unlucky, but I did spend some time trying to find the problem. I eventually rang them back. They didn't know what the problem was but rang somebody who did. It turned out that underneath the fence locking mechanism there are two threaded holes that that will accept a couple of bolts that came in a bag with the mounting brackets and tape measure(I also asked Axminster what they were for when discussing the screw problem with them, but they had no idea. I still don't know what they are for). At the bottom of the right hand side hole is a very small grub screw that needs to be loosened off to facilitate turning the adjustment screw. This cannot be seen without the aid of a torch as it is 3/4 of an inch down at the bottom of the hole. Whatever the bolts are used for they would have to be removed to loosen the grub screw.I have spoken to Axminster and they tell me that they will get their instruction manual updated as there is no mention of it anywhere to be found. Surely I am not the only one to have had this problem.
Conclusion.
I am extremely happy with the fence it is solidly built, slides well, locks solid. Worth the money? IMHO yes.
Downside.
Poor instructions, wasted a lot of time.
