Wood Show Band Saw Fence Gloat

[John Weber]

Well it was totally impulse and not anywhere near the top of the to-buy list, but one of the items in my bag after the Columbus wood show was the Kreg Precision Band Saw Fence. Kreg had a huge booth this year and I always catch a little of the demo. However this year they had some new products, more specifically a very nice looking miter gauge system and the band saw fence.

The fence seems to be an improved FastTrak fence system. The head is much larger and allows for more adjustment and the fence no longer interferes with the miter gauge slot. It comes drilled and with hardware, but on my Powermatic 141 14” saw I needed to drill a couple holes in the rail and use my own hardware. Otherwise installation is a snap. The show special included the resaw fence and I added the micro adjust option as well. Mark Duginske was involved in the design and I’ve always liked his books.

I’ve not used it much yet, but am hoping it will help me get more use out of my band saw. There is a little deflection at the far end on the fence, but I don’t believe it will have any impact on actual performance. The parts, while fairly simple, are well made in the US, and I know Kreg stands behind their products.

I was initially looking for a set of forstner bits. When I didn’t find any I liked at the show, that left a little tool show cash burning a hole in my pocket – I don’t think I did too bad.

John

P.S. My other gloat is a Lee Valley bull nose plane, but it won’t ship until February, so no pics until next month…

http://www.weberwoodworking.com/pond/bskregfence1.jpg

http://www.weberwoodworking.com/pond/bskregfence2.jpg

[John Miliunas]

Well, at least you didn't leave the show empty-handed!:D Nice looking fence and, as long as it's better than the stock one, you done good. I'm pretty happy with the stock fence on the Laguna. Pretty solid, though something like a micro-adjust would be nice. Might just have to figure something out for that!:) :cool:

[John Weber]

John,

I'm pleased, I don't know if it's better then the factory fence as the Powermatic fence for my saw is cast iron with I believe front and rear rails. The problem is if you could even find one, it would set you back 2 or 3 hundred I guess - a little steep for me. I've seen the Laguna and other factory fences on the larger saws and they do look nice, but for the money I think it will serve me well.

John

[Scott Loven]

What was the show price for the items you purchased? Also what do you think of the micro adjust device?
Thanks
Scott

[James Carmichael]

Nice-looking fence, it also resembles Woodhaven's, which is also an improved FastTrak. Is there any deflection on the outfeed end?

I'm none too pleased with the FastTrak due to the aforementioned deflection, plus I find it silly that with 4 t-slots available on the rail (a piece of DP Trak), there's one measly t-nut to lock the fence down and nothing to hold it in alignment when it's not locked, it flops around making it a pain to set. I added UHMW runners to the slots to take care of that, but after identifying all of the tweaks I wanted to this fence, decided it's not worth it.

[Darren Ford]

John, why don't you move the fence rails a bit to the right and build a router table into that bandsaw? :):):)

[John Weber]

Scott,

The show price was $99 with a free resaw guide. The micro adjust was around $15. I haven't really used the mirco adjust, and it seems like it's not really neccessary, but I bought it anyway.

James,

The deflection does not seem like it will interfere with use. If I push on the unsupported end it will deflect a little, but in actual use I don't see it causing any problems. I guess it depends on what you are doing. If I needed it to be rock solid for a particular cut I could always throw a clamp on the far end. That is what my old fence was, a piece of aluminum extrusion clamped on both ends.

John

[Aaron Heck]

All that new Kreg stuff looks pretty nice. I'm planning on taking a good look at the new Kreg miter gauge and the miter saw fence (w/ stop) at the upcoming Orlando show.

[John Weber]

Aaron,

The miter guage packages were selling like hot cakes in Columbus, it looks like a slick system.

John

[Aaron Heck]

Aaron,

The miter guage packages were selling like hot cakes in Columbus, it looks like a slick system.

John

You don't happen to remmeber the price off hand, do ya? On either that or the miter saw fence system?

[John Weber]

Aaron,

No not for sure, $139 and $159 seem to stick in my mind, but they had several options and extras, some of which were included. They were selling like crazy though. I bet they were almost selling as well as the Kreg jig package that was $124 and had a couple nice extras. The band saw fence was about $28 less then Woodcraft, so I would assume a similar discount for the miter packages.

John