Sweet ! Finally got Wixey installed on my PM2000

[Lewis Cobb]

I finally got my Wixey installed on my PM2000 fence today. It was purchased about 2 years ago, but I just never got around to it until now. Kicking myself for not doing it sooner - this gadget is sweet indeed.

I thought there might be something wrong when I first installed it - it was hellish stiff and hard to slide back and forth. I fiddled with the screws on the back of the head like the instructions said, but the main thing is just to wear it in - I slid it manually back and forth from one end of the sensor rail to the other about 50 times and it's sliding quite well now. Before, the magnet would not even hold it properly when moving the fence to the left, but now it just tags along with the fence in both directions no problem. If anyone is about to install one, keep this "break in period" in mind.

I think I am more excited about this than the purchase of the actual saw itself. There is just something about things digital and the repeatability that I like. Not to mention the incremental feature where I can now nudge the fence .010" to the left and know that it really is .010".

I got a bit carried away and designed up some brackets that I had a friend machine at his place of work - the sensor rail is snug up against the fence rail as a result and it's all neat and tidy.

Here's a little sketchup render I did that shows how the brackets work and a few pics. I made the brackets so they use the existing mounting bolt holes for the fence rail.

Thanks for looking.

Lewis

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/LHC_02/PM2000/WixeyBracketInstallationRendering1.jpg

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/LHC_02/PM2000/3.jpg

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/LHC_02/PM2000/1.jpg

[Ken Peluso]

Looks great! Good inspiration for me as mine has been sitting in it's box under my bench for almost two years as well.

[Glen Butler]

TIP: Mine was stiff as well and I had to loosen the screws. It had a problem losing inches sometimes. I found that the felt pads had worn in and this allowed the unit to pull away from the green graduated strip. I was able to tighten the screws back up. It holds its reading just fine now.

[Ellen Lewis]

Installed mine yesterday... can't wait to try it!

[Gary Muto]

It's a great tool. I installed mine a couple of years ago when I got it. That was great but it hangs down about an inch. I hadn't thought about flipping over the track and read about doing that a couple of months later. since I had already installed the sensor strip, I'm unable to flip it at this point.
Anyway, it's a great tool and it cahnged the way I work. The table saw is much easier to use than the miter saw or router table beacasue it's so fast to set up a cut with extreme accuracy.

[Lewis Cobb]

I got a couple of PMs on the details of this bracket so I am posting up a little drawing that I had my friend machine for me.

The material is just some mild steel flat bar stock that I had kicking around the shop but you can probably find it at a local scrapyard easy enough. It started out as a piece 3 1/16” long x 0.5” thick x 1.5” wide. My buddy milled it to the dimensions shown in the diagram.

Note that the “hole” in the end that mounts to the wixey rail is actually a slot – I show it as a hole with a little extra milled in the long dimension on the drawing. This was to allow a small amount of wiggle room to move the rail in and out once I had everything in place on the machine. Both holes are ¼” diameter with the elongated one slotted an extra .050” in the direction shown.


This was designed from some caliper measurements I made on my PM2000 and in the end there’s about .010-.015” of clearance from the wixey rail to the fence rail – i.e. it’s not jammed up against the underside of the fence rail. You might want to check the dimensions of your machine to make sure that you don’t get caught with any dimensional tolerances that exist from one PM2000 to the next if you decide to make a bracket like this.

I’ve also got a sketchup file for those of you that are SU-literate but it seems it's too big to attach to the post. If anyone wants it, PM me with an e-mail address and I'll flick 'er off to you.


Hope this helps.


Cheers,
Lewis
http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/LHC_02/PM2000/WixeyBracketDesign1.jpg

[Salem Ganzhorn]

If Wixey elongated some of the holes this method would work on most besse style fences. Hopefully Wixey is watching and if/when I ever buy one of these they will provide the hardware :).

[Neil Brooks]

I've got a couple of Wixey products, and the digital fence gauge that Bosch puts on its 4100 saw, so ... I hear ya'.

But ... if you're TRULY more excited about the Wixey than you are about the PM2000 ... I'll send you ALL MY Wixey products in exchange for your saw.

We good ??

;)

The Bosch has a downside that ... I dunno if the Wixey does: if you MOVE the fence AFTER the digital rip fence gauge has powered down ... the gauge doesn't "keep track," and you have to zero it out again.

MINOR pita.

Congrats!

[Robert Reece]

Make sure you order a 10 pack of batteries now. I have the wixey TS readout and it runs through some batteries. Good product though, I like the functionality.