Grahamshed
Established Member
Not had a bandsaw for very long but I only ever seem to use it with the fence to the left of the blade. When, or why, would you move it to the right of the blade ?
Dumb question about bandsaw fences
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Grahamshed
Established Member
Pete Maddex":2owkd3qr said:
I was expecting someone to come up with the obvious thing that I hadn't thought of. I would have had to use the 'Homer' icon. But for that answer you can have it
Grahamshed":37iw9vuu said:
I don't know offhand of any particular reason why the bandsaw should function differently with the fence to the right than with the fence to the left, since the blade moves entirely vertically through the table.
I do occasionally hear the safety advice that people shouldn't ever position themselves to the right of the table, presumably in case a blade breaks and somehow makes it through all the blade guards, bits of casing and so on... so I guess leaving the fence to the right means your fence and 'keeper' bit of the workpiece may be potentially damaged by bits of flying broken bandsaw blade?
I don't think I've ever put mine on the right at all, though. It seems more functionally useful to have it on the left, since that leaves the open side on the right for any length of wood to remain on the offcut side, rather than having to fit the entire keeper and offcut between the fence and the other side of the bandsaw!
The one thing I can think of is that if you're tilting the table for a particular angle of cut and you want two parallel angled sides, then it may be beneficial to move the fence over to, as Pete suggested, cut the other side of the wood! Use as few sides for reference as possible and all that. This is presuming that there's a benefit to having the keeper part of the workpiece on the fence side of the blade, though. I guess that you're less likely to push it into the blade a bit after the cut is complete and mar the edge that was around?
Phil Pascoe
Established Member
+1 It's better to have the wood pushed into the fence than pulled away from it.
Steve Maskery
Established Member
When the table is tilted, if the fence were to be on the left, you would be fighting gravity all the time.
S
S
Grahamshed
Established Member
Yes, I can sort of see the sense of moving it when the table is tipped but that would restrict you to a very short piece of wood.
I think an adjustable angle wood holding jig is needed
I think an adjustable angle wood holding jig is needed
Steve Maskery
Established Member
Grahamshed":2ryyfiav said:
How come?
S
Grahamshed
Established Member
Well, yes and no
Narrow if you are trying to bevel a long edge. Short if you are trying to bevel cut cross grain.
Incidentally.......
Cross cut is across the grain......
Rip cut is with the grain.....
What about chipboard / plywood ?
Narrow if you are trying to bevel a long edge. Short if you are trying to bevel cut cross grain.
Incidentally.......
Cross cut is across the grain......
Rip cut is with the grain.....
What about chipboard / plywood ?
Steve Maskery
Established Member
Well I would"t use arip fence at all to mitre the end of any board, I'd use a mitre fence with a stop on it.
Grahamshed
Established Member
Steve Maskery":1utrjbqw said:
Just so. The 'stop' presumably is only for short planks ?....... and would only work if the blade had no drift ( which mine doesn't now
)Either way it still doesn't provide a reason for putting the rip fence to the right of the blade.
Steve Maskery
Established Member
Graham
GO back to I forget whether it's on my DVDs and find the scene about cutting long bevels. I gt's probably on WE5. When I'm ripping at 45 deg, the fence is on the right. Imagine if it were on the left in that scenario and how hard it would be to keep the workpiece hard against the fence. You would ave to fight gravity all the time.
S
GO back to I forget whether it's on my DVDs and find the scene about cutting long bevels. I gt's probably on WE5. When I'm ripping at 45 deg, the fence is on the right. Imagine if it were on the left in that scenario and how hard it would be to keep the workpiece hard against the fence. You would ave to fight gravity all the time.
S
Grahamshed
Established Member
Steve Maskery":3b4jkl4v said:
I will have a look, cant pretend I remember that bit
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Another reason for moving it to the righ when you have the table tilted, if it is on the left you will be restricted to fairly wide pieces because the fench will either foul the blade guard or the blade if the guard is raised. Thin sections and you can cut as thin as you wish. Plus the one about gravity working for you..
As for standing to the right of the table. I only ever use 1/4" blades and when they do break there's no momentum at all and they just stop. The noise wakes me up though :shock: :shock:
As for standing to the right of the table. I only ever use 1/4" blades and when they do break there's no momentum at all and they just stop. The noise wakes me up though :shock: :shock:
For ripping thin pieces off a board, a tall point-fence makes life easier and fitting it to the right of the blade only involves a long reach G-clamp. Haven't worked out how to fit one on the left :? .
