BS Fence Micro-Adjust Feature: A Semi-Brilliant Idea: SUCCESS!

[Rob Young]

Rob: sometimes in hard to know what is known and what is innovative.  I am relatively new to the BS, and only recently have I discovered its utility for tenon cheeks.  Well set up, with the correct blade, it can be a very precise way to get tenons very close to perfect.  No doubt your approach will yield the same result. I have found that adjusting the fence at its mounting point, rather than on the table directly against the fence, gives me more precise/reliable results.  Its like bumping the fence on the table saw: you get the fence right on with a bump, but when you go to lock the fence, it moves.  Adjustment against the mounting point are more likely to yield better results.  I agree, the graphics on the playing cards can only improve ones reults
 Phil

It takes a little while to develop the "touch" but when bumping my TS or BS fence, I have it partly locked to give some friction. In both designs, the major movement occurs when the lock begins to engage so that's already happened. With a bit of extra friction, the bump and grind method works just fine too. And not just for adjusting fences...

[Philip1231]

Success:  I have added a micro-adjustable stop collar to the rail of the BS fence.  This collar slides on the rails and acts as a stop for positioning the fence.  You get your fence in roughly the right position and then lock the stop collar against it.  Make a test cut and see how far off you are either left or right.  Rotate the part of the stop collar that is not locked down to dial in the correct amount of adjustment: one full revolution is 1/32", so a quarter of a turn would let you adjust around 7 thou.  I ended up having to replace the rail to accommodate the lock collar I had (down sized by 1/16" in overall diameter).  Once I got the new rail ground down to fit the stop collar, it was just a matter of drilling a couple of holes and mounting it.  I all done with fiddling (with the BS at least).  

   

[Handplanesandmore]

Some tips in FWW are lousy ones or impractical ones. Like the one telling people to use a file to fit hand cut dovetails.

Simon

[Derek Cohen]

Philip, I am please you reached a successful conclusion.

Your idea gave me an idea, similar to yours but with a different target. I was not after a micro-adjust, as you were. However, there was one issue that bugged me with the Wixey digital readout: there were times it needed to be reset to zero, which meant that the fence needed to (gently) butt against the blade. The settings would change when I added a re-saw fence to the basic fence. It would be handy to have a stop to return the fence to the same setting for the blade in use at the time. This is what I did ...





Reading on the Wixey ...



Regards from Perth

Derek