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Hello,

I hated the fence on my little 10” Rikon bandsaw I use for smaller work (the 14” stays setup for resaw) so I got one of these Magfence2 from Carter. It’s pretty cool. I also picked up the 5” face panel which is made of HDPE and thought I might use it on the 14” for some resaw operations.

One thing that didn’t occur to me until I went to use it the first time, how are you supposed to make sure this thing is perpendicular to the table? The directions say to make sure the edge of the table is square to the blade and then the pic just shows aligning to the edge of the table. Is that it? It seems simple yet complicated at the same time.

Anyone have one of these?

Brad


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I use a large machinist square to square it up to the edge of the table.

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Thanks, John. It must take practice. I was trying to set it up for resaw and getting the fence squared and also the right cut depth was like battling a bag of snakes.

I will keep at it!!

Brad


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Brad—

I’m confused regarding what you are trying to align to. Normally, with a bandsaw, you are trying to align the fence to the blade, not to the front edge of the table. Carter also makes these aluminum blocks with magnets in them that help you align the fence with the blade. It is called the F.A.S.T. system. It’s a way more fancy name than it deserves. You can do the same thing by cutting a scrap of wood to find where the blade drifts the least, then mark a pencil line on the table along the edge of that piece of scrap. Your fence needs to stay parallel to that line.

While I find the Magfence to be useful on the bandsaw, I actually think it really shines at the drill press, where alignment doesn’t matter, only distance from the bit.

Thanks, Don. I'm probably over complicating things as usual.

I see what you mean about aligning the fence to the blade. It's just that any bandsaw that I've used the fence rides on a rail of some kind on the front of the table. Then I would make sure the blade is square to the front edge of the table and that the fence is also square to the front edge of the table. Once that is set I can slide the fence to wherever it needs to be for the cut and I know the fence is aligned to the blade.

With the magfence, how are you aligning to the blade? Just measure distance from the blade to the fence on the front and back half of the blade? That's only 3/4" of width.

Like I said, I'm probably over complicating it and to be totally transparent, I haven't used it much, I just got it. But I feel like I need to square it to the front edge of the table to be sure it isn't swinging a couple degress left or right across the whole length of it. Know what I mean?

Appreciate the feedback.

Brad

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You'll need to figure out the drift on your saw then record it on a sliding T-bevel in reference to the front edge of the table.

After that use the T-bevel to keep the fence at the proper angle when putting it into position.

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Kevin and I are on the same page. The key with a bandsaw is to get the fence parallel to the blade, not parallel to the table. Yes, bandsaw fences ride on rails, but they also have adjustment bolts that allow you to skew the fence so that it is parallel to the blade.

Kevin's approach is really good. The pencil mark thing I mentioned before works. The F.A.S.T. thing works. They are all methods of getting the fence parallel to the blade.

That F.A.S.T. system essentially attaches (via a magnet) a longer (like 6" long) piece of aluminum to the blade in such a way that the aluminum bar is necessarily parallel to the blade. Then you align the fence to the longer piece of aluminum. It is easier to align to something that long than to something the width of the bandsaw blade.

Now, here is the thing: Are cuts going to be horrible wrong if you align the fence to the front of the table instead of to the blade? Not always. Sometimes you just get a thicker kerf. But sometimes the blade drift is a problem that causes wonky cuts, not just wider cuts. It is best to account and correct for drift rather than accept it.

I hope this helps.

It makes sense, thanks for the help!


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Also, just for fun....

https://youtu.be/wGbZqWac0jU

17:47



Brad


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