Building a Better Bandsaw Fence?
#11
I have a Laguna LT3000 18" bandsaw with a stock fence. I've never really used it for serious resawing, pretty much just flat stock rips, and if I ran a big timber through, it was for turning. So I haven't been concerned with perfectly wafer thin veneers. Other than adjusting for drift, I haven't messed with the table or fence. I figured I would need to make the fence taller, so I'm looking for suggestions for that - but ran into another issue first.

I tried resawing - whoops - that didn't work. Fat on one side, wispy on another. Obviously my fence was not vertically square to the table. Took a few pictures and sent them to Laguna and asked how to adjust it. It was out by about a 32nd at the top of the fence, which is 3 1/4" high. Apparently there is not an adjustment, other than do-it-yourself user mods. The fellow I talked to was helpful, though, and suggested a shim to straighten things out. You probably can't see the gap in the pic below, there was too much glare from the backlight (I did insert larger than normal pics, hope that helps). But it was there nonetheless.




So I loosened things up (probably have to re-adjust for drift now) and inserted a skinny little brass washer. Fiddled with it several times to get it just right, and now the fence is nice and square to the table. Probably still pretty hard to see the gap is gone and it's all square, but it is good now. I'll find a proper shim, maybe an old spark plug gap gauge, and do it right. Or if I was good at this kind of thing, disassemble the bracket and grind it flat.






So now that it's square, I'd like to add an attachment to make the fence taller. I was thinking about this H7528 Resaw Attachment from Grizzly. Anybody have any opinions on this?
True power makes no noise - Albert Schweitzer.       It's obvious he was referring to hand tools
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#12
It came standard on my Grizzly 636X and it works great. I have added a 12" board to it on occasion when resawing wide stock. It comes as part of a fence assembly and attaches to a fence that actually rides the rails. Do you have a way to attach it to your stock fence? Ken
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#13
turn the fence on the side and build something like this only taller

Christopher Merril Bigafence
http://christophermerrill.net/ww/shop/bigafence.html





Glad its my shop I am responsible for - I only have to make me happy.

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#14
Before I got a 19" Griz that came with a fence, I used something very similar to this on my 14" Delta, and it worked very well. Easy to square up with the blade and supports the work only where needed - you adjust for drift as you go:




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Non impediti ratione cogitationis
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#15
Some good ideas here, thanks Mike and Admiral. Ken, I would have to drill a hole or two in the existing fence, which is no big deal. That's what Grizzly recommends if you attach it to one of their own stock fences.
True power makes no noise - Albert Schweitzer.       It's obvious he was referring to hand tools
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#16
To square up your fence, use an automotive feeler gauge to determine the gap then use brass shim stock found at automotive parts stores.
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#17
Sawdustd said:


To square up your fence, use an automotive feeler gauge to determine the gap then use brass shim stock found at automotive parts stores.



Now there's a good idea. I was just going to use a blade from my old feeler gauge, I haven't used that thing in years. But a brass shim is even better.

I went ahead and ordered the Grizzly fence, should get it in a week or so.
True power makes no noise - Albert Schweitzer.       It's obvious he was referring to hand tools
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#18
Kevin --- Yep, gone are the days when we used a feeler gauge to gap spark plugs and set points.
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#19
BaileyNo5 said:


I tried resawing - whoops - that didn't work. Fat on one side, wispy on another. Obviously my fence was not vertically square to the table.




Just a thought: it’s true that the first veneer didn’t work right. But if you went ahead and cut a second veneer, and assuming that the tilt of your fence relative to the table didn’t change, the second and all subsequent veneers should come out nice and even.

To put it another way: let’s suppose you had a perfectly set up resaw fence: square to the table, parallel to your blade, and no drift. You have some wood you would like to resaw into veneers, but the faces of the board are not perfectly parallel. It doesn’t matter how awesome your fence and setup is — the first veneer will still be uneven.
Hail St. Roy, Full of Grace, The Schwarz is with thee.
Blessed art thou among woodworkers, and blessed is the fruit of thy saw, dovetails.
Holy St. Roy, Master of Chisels, pray for us sharpeners now, and at the hour of planing.
Amen.
$300 is a lot of Money!
giant Cypress: Japanese tool blog
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#20
Wilbur Pan said:


[blockquote]BaileyNo5 said:


I tried resawing - whoops - that didn't work. Fat on one side, wispy on another. Obviously my fence was not vertically square to the table.




Just a thought: it’s true that the first veneer didn’t work right. But if you went ahead and cut a second veneer, and assuming that the tilt of your fence relative to the table didn’t change, the second and all subsequent veneers should come out nice and even.

To put it another way: let’s suppose you had a perfectly set up resaw fence: square to the table, parallel to your blade, and no drift. You have some wood you would like to resaw into veneers, but the faces of the board are not perfectly parallel. It doesn’t matter how awesome your fence and setup is — the first veneer will still be uneven.


[/blockquote]
There you go again, Wilbur - being practical and results oriented. How can I be an#l-rententive with people like you around?? You are correct, the second was much better than the first. For quick results, you are right. But long term best practice would be to have a square fence. And there's no way I could sleep at night, knowing that fence is so out of kilter!
True power makes no noise - Albert Schweitzer.       It's obvious he was referring to hand tools
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