table saw fence

[Cliff]

My Hammer rip fence died.

AT LAST~!!!!!

I hated that thing.  It was as if some one brought their 12 year old to work and let her design and engineer  the rip  fence.

 

So I order  some stinkin bleedin OVERKILL metal

 0.200" thick 2" x 3" steel tube

1/4" thick 3" x 3" angle

Some more  smaller angle and some 2"x 3/8" bar. 

I had a hunk of 3/8 x 6" laying around

 

Here's my progress so far:

End view of the Fence in progress

 

 

 

 

There are 13,  1/4-20 bolts holding them together  pinned  on the ends with dowel pins

 

 

 

 

Yes I hand tapped them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hung it on the saw tonight.

 

There is also an end support.  This is about 60 pounds of steel.  There are only two bolt locations on the Euro style saw.

That left a huge honking long mess of steel cantilevered off the end looking solely for support  to some sheet metal tables they sell with the saw.   It's really a small piece of cast iron they have for  the saw.   IT works but it's not big.

 

My saw is  stationary.  So I cheated.  I installed an end support for the fence onto the concrete floor.

I  anchored a hunk of 6" x 3/8" steel to the floor with TapCons.  But first I welded a hunk of angle to that so it's stand  vertically and installed a cap with a 3/8-16 tapped hole for a leveling screw.

 

So  now, I can adjust the angle of the dangle quite nicely.

 

No pics of it on the saw tonight.  To much of a mess.

 

Now I'm cutting iron and brass for the  L fence.

It's going to have a hunk of Aluminum extrusion as the main fence component but it'll lock to the guide rails  mush like ( only way far better than ) a Biesemeyer.

 

I plan on fabricating an eccentric cam  clamp using ball bearings  to eliminate scrub wear.

 

 

Can't use a Bies' or a Vega because it's a Euro saw and the T style won't do. It's  got to be an L style

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lew]

Lookin' Good so far!

[Courtland]

Cliff I love your improv with this stuff, you have done this before and I enjoy seeing it all.

Are you going to paint the guide?

[Gene Howe]

As my pop would say, "That's hellferstout". 

Looking forward to seeing it in operation. 

 

John...Paint?????   Powder coat that master piece!!!

[Ron Dudelston]

That is a "substantial" piece of equipment Cliff.  Did you have to put an overhead crane up to install it?

[Courtland]

As my pop would say, "That's hellferstout". 

Looking forward to seeing it in operation. 

 

John...Paint?????   Powder coat that master piece!!!

That is exactly what I was thinking Gene, but knowing how Cliff loves doing these things all from scratch, and I don't think powder coating can be done from home, or can it? I was going with the common rattle can assumption that Cliff may do.

[Cliff]

 

Are you going to paint the guide?

 

 

Paint???

You think I'm EVER going to actually finish a project?

 

I don't know if I'll apply a finish.  The contact surface between the brass glides and the steel tube will have to be bare meta.

But the rest of it   - - -

 

LEMETELLYA  descaling that great long  hunk of 1/4" X 3" X 3" angle has proved to be a bigger job  than me.

 The black oxide millscale is deep in pits and grindering it all off is not much of an option. I spent a few hours at it and  - - well that in the pix is a good as I got.

I tried some  real muriatic ( 20% technical HCl) not the stuff they sell at the BORG but the real stuff. But because the angle is so long I couldn't do a real pickle and  brushing acid on is not an option.  I tried.  It just doesn't get the job done.

 

So I got most of it off, but not all.  That sort of says that a paint is a doomed effort.

Maybe wax is the way to go.

 

Maybe sand blasting will do it?

I have a little blaster, but  I can only bring 120 pounds of air to the party and that'll only cover an area about 1/2" diameter so it'd be a S-L-O-W process.

[Cliff]

That is a "substantial" piece of equipment Cliff.  Did you have to put an overhead crane up to install it?

 

It's HEAVY~!!

A tad more heavy than I anticipated.

But then I'm the kid whose eyes were always bigger than his stomach.

[Ron Dudelston]

There are a ton of jokes that I could throw in here but I won't.

[Cliff]

I'm going to need a way to mount the shaft that will be the eccentric cam.

 

 OK  I considered welding something up but I got this hunk of steel  an angle  about 5' long  and about 6" x 6" on the flange  sides by 3/8" thick

 

So I'll cut some angle off that.  It'll be thick enough ( ya think???) Well the bearing are 3/8" thick so it sort of makes sense.

Yah it's heavy, but I only want to make this once.

 

So I cut of some bots of that angle with my grinder and chopsaw.   Then I tossed it in some acid to decsale it.

 But how to get the hole for the bearing??

 

I mean I need a hole that is exactly and precisely 1.375 plus nothing  minus 0.001 and zero tenths.   IT's press fit for the bearing.  I don't want slop.

And it's 3/8" thick

And my little Walker Turner Drill Press is tapped out at anything around 3/4" in steel and drilling won't cut it anyways coz I need   hold a tight tight tolerance.

 

Well, I got an Elgin jewelers lathe that I got for free. I got a 4  jaw chuck.

It'll be a stretch but I think I can do it.

 

Here it is being  positioned in the 4-jaw. I'm using a center to get it ball parked

 

 

Squaring up the face and then the  hole which was done in the Drill Press

 

 

It's going to be close~!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Whirrr

 

 

 

Measuring the bore - I'm working to within a half a thou'

 

 

 

I been to this rodeo before

It's going in nicely ( I need to  do this one more time)

 

 

 

Mind you I considered the logic of working to such tolerances to get a press fit on a bearing that is going to be installed in ANGLE IRON~!!!

 

Yah I know the angle of the Angle Iron is not going to be square to start with.  And I lack a milling machine or a grinder.

So when I press fit the shaft  into the bearing  ( it'll be a very light fit maybe 0.0005" interference) the contact surfaces of the two angles will be wildly out of plane with each other.

But, I have a plan.

It calls for abrasives and patience.

 

 

 

[Gene Howe]

I'll bet it works.

[Cliff]

Well, I got the  work done on my little custom pedestal bearing blocks. they are all flat and squared up

And I made the eccentric cam clamp shaft.

It's about 8" long between the bearings.  I figure this'll give me lots of Spring to accomplish a real stiff clamping action.

 

I turned it between a 4 jaw chuck and a  live center

 

There's a video of it  and it works

 

 

Here it is  in the lathe

 

 

 

 

Close up of the eccentric part of the eccentric

 

 

 

The sub assembly Pre fit

 

 

 

I left the ends long to get a wrench around for when I fit it with a handle and set the loading

 

 

[Cliff]

https://youtu.be/ky88ga8i-zo

 

[Courtland]

Man of all trades you are Cliff. Way to go sir. I have never turned anything on lathe other than wood. That is a whole different discipline that I know nothing about and respect.

That being said, my pea brain is lost on this one, what is the purpose of the cam? Is this for tightening down the fence?

[Cliff]

 what is the purpose of the cam? Is this for tightening down the fence?

 

Yah exactly.

 

It'll hang underneath  and the large bearings will bear against the 3x3 steel  guide tube.  Of course there'll be brass glide stock and a metal hinged piece adding a little more thickness.

I'll add a clamping handle to the shaft.  Prolly a hunk of  half inch shaft and make a knob for the end. Then set it so that just as the bearign passes the TDC against the guide tube it'll be flexing the whole system up a bit then  the eccentric shaft will hit a stop and lock. 

 

Sort of exactly similar  to how a Biesemyer Cam lock works only with bearings and a shaft to get some flex.  It'll be lots heavier too.

 

[Courtland]

Yah exactly.

 

It'll hang underneath  and the large bearings will bear against the 3x3 steel  guide tube.  Of course there'll be brass glide stock and a metal hinged piece adding a little more thickness.

I'll add a clamping handle to the shaft.  Prolly a hunk of  half inch shaft and make a knob for the end. Then set it so that just as the bearign passes the TDC against the guide tube it'll be flexing the whole system up a bit then  the eccentric shaft will hit a stop and lock. 

 

Sort of exactly similar  to how a Biesemyer Cam lock works only with bearings and a shaft to get some flex.  It'll be lots heavier too.

 

Wholly Cow you'll be able to clamp it so a Mack truck could not move it. Nice job Cliff. Is this design similar to anything out there today in saw fences?

[lew]

My Vega fence locks with a cam, too. The "micro" adjustment uses a second similar cam lock, unfortunately the tightening lever is too short to get enough locking force. I typically use a piece of wood and give it a good whack to tighten. Seeing what you are doing, I may just have to sub in machine shop and make a longer lever shaft.

[Cliff]

Wholly Cow you'll be able to clamp it so a Mack truck could not move it. Nice job Cliff. Is this design similar to anything out there today in saw fences?

Thanks.

 

 There's not anything that I have seen using a  the long cam  clamp shaft.  The whole design is one forced upon me by  the Euro style Sliding Saw where the slider prevents one form having a fence guide that runs to the left of the blade.

 The Beisemyer and clones has the Fence proper projecting from the center of the fence locking head.   That won't do for a Euro saw.

I I had to off set  the fence itself.

They sell one for Euro Saws and there's a guy  with VSCTools - DOT - com has one for about $400, but you gotta build your own steel tube guide system and that seemed to me to be half the battle right there.  So I decided to go every one  - one or two or maybe three better.

 

But if I wanted a three point clamp  ( how all the Beis and clones work) I needed to clamp from the center.  This gizmo with all the bearings  sort of evolved as I considered scrub wear on the clamping mechanism.  I figured  bearings might just be the ticket and then   - as they say-  it was all history.

 

 

And on the up side it'll be heavy enough that  I can use the removable  T fence as  exercise  equipment  && a home defense weapon too.

[Cliff]

Oh my blessed Saints Hubertus and  Eligius  It  is coming together~!!!

 

I put an indicator on the end of the T fence.  Slid it into position to touch the indicator and locked the lock and the dial moved not so much as one thousandth.

 

And I can't budge it once it is locked in position

 

Here pix

 

In this one you can see it upside down with the five brass glides.

Up by the red pen you can see the little 1.75" dia delrin wheel I turned to  mount on the end of the fence main support bar  to keep the thing from dragging on the tables.

You can see the wood handle I turned for the lever, it's not yet mounted.

You can see the two leveling  jack screws over by the orange handled screwdriver.  They are brass lock nuts I made with little brass washers and  each has a 5/16-18 rather long grub-screw that will bear against  a little steel washer epoxied into a spot face in the brass glided to adjust the angle of the Final  Aluminum Extrusion Fence. In a lower pix the wheel and leveling jacks are mounted

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Couldn't resist a sexy close up

 

 

 

 

 

POOF  it's mounted on the  saw.  See the two leveling jack screws?  They will be shortened.  I adjust with an allen wrench and tighten the brass lock nut to set it in place.

 

 

 

 

 

Crummy  close up picture of the Delrin whell that prevents it from dragging on the tables

 

 

There is the wheel mounted on the end of the main  support bar

There is a 12" length  of   3 x 2 steel tube that I'll bolt to this main support bar which lets me adjust the angle  to the blade.

Some folks prefer  set their fence  as close to dead Parallel to the blade as they can. I  prefer  a slight drift away of a couple thou' to prevent binding.

 

 

Video to follow as soon as Google is  ready to show it.

 

 

 

 

 

[lew]

Patent Pending??