Biesemeyer Fence Out of Square Vertically

[Mike Henderson]

Years ago (certainly more than 10) I bought a Biesemeyer fence system for the saw I was using at that time. I eventually upgraded to a SawStop and was able to purchase it without a fence (I don't think they will do that anymore). I moved the Biesemeyer fence to the SawStop.

So I've used the fence for many years.

On a project recently, I was cutting a small piece of ebony and noticed that it was thicker on one end than on the other. So I started working to find out why.

Here's my fence setup (kind of messy, I know). I have a square on the side of the fence.
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Low and behold, the side of the fence is not square vertically. You can see daylight between the fence and the upper part of the square.
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Then I checked the other side of the fence. I never use that side.
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It's even worse, but it's in the opposite direction. So it appears that the fence was turned slightly when the fence was made. Through some trial and error, I found that if I put a 6" rule under one side of the "T" of the fence, the left side would be about square. But I can't keep slipping a rule under the "T" every time I use the fence - I need to find out why.

My first thought was that the plastic pads that the fence rides on might have worn more on one side. So I turned the fence over to examine them. You can see the two plastic pads on each end of the "T".
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Continued on next post due to the limit on number of pictures in one post.

[Mike Henderson]

I used a caliper to measure the thickness of the plastic pad and the metal "T". I couldn't measure the plastic by itself. Here's one side (the right side).
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It's a bit more than 1/64" less than 3/8". Now, the other side.
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Exactly the same. If they wore, they wore the same.

So to fix the problem, I made a piece that I attached to the side of the fence with some clamps that LV had for sale. I cut the plywood at a slight angle, to offset the angle of the side of the Biesemeyer fence.
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You can see that it's now square.
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I imagine it was like that from new and I never noticed it until now. No sense in contacting Biesemeyer because Delta bought them some time back.

Mike

[mreza Salav]

Mike,
Good to see you have found an easy solution. The sawstop fence is very similar to the Biesemeyer but one adjustable feature (among others) they have is that right above those plastic white pads there are two set screws that you can adjust the pads up/down, which will twist the fence left/right to make it square to the table.

[Mike Henderson]

Mike,
Good to see you have found an easy solution. The sawstop fence is very similar to the Biesemeyer but one adjustable feature (among others) they have is that right above those plastic white pads there are two set screws that you can adjust the pads up/down, which will twist the fence left/right to make it square to the table.

Thanks for the information, Mreza. Just to be sure, I went and checked my fence again. There are two set screws that are used to align the fence with the blade (or the miter slot), but nothing to twist the fence to make it square vertically.

I'm just amazed that I never noticed this problem before.

Mike

[Lee Schierer]

You could shim the glide pad on the side that needs raised up with some UHMW tape. Or determine the height needed to bring it square to the table and carefully remove the glide pad and place a shim made of metal or Formica between the pad and the steel to raise up the low side. Glue the shim to the underside of the steel and put holes in it to match the tabs on the glide and you should be good to go.

When I installed my Beismeyer fence on my craftsman saw the rear glide on the fence didn't touch the table so I carefully removed it and drilled new holes where it would ride on the table.

[Jeff Bartley]

I have an Exacta fence on the Jet saw that I bought some years ago. It has two 'levelers' on the 'T' section of the fence but they wouldn't fix a twist, nor a fence that was out of parallel from side to side.
Lee's solutio sounds great. I had to shim the fence on my mortiser.

[Andrew Hughes]

I did as Lee suggested when I had my unisaw,The Uhmw tape worked perfect.
The plywood fence with all the metal clamps doesn't look very friendly.

[Mike Henderson]

I ordered some UHMW tape and I'll try that. You're right, Andrew, it would be better without those clamps.

Mike

[John Kananis]

Hey Mike, I had this issue once on an old Delta I had (with Biesemeyer fence) - turns out that the rails were the cause. Check to ensure that the rail has the same relief on both right and left sides of the saw (seems that the left may be sitting a little higher than the right).

[Mike Henderson]

Hey Mike, I had this issue once on an old Delta I had (with Biesemeyer fence) - turns out that the rails were the cause. Check to ensure that the rail has the same relief on both right and left sides of the saw (seems that the left may be sitting a little higher than the right).

Good idea, John. I'll check that. Hadn't thought of that. I had to drill holes to mount the rails on the SS. I remember measuring carefully but that was long ago.

Mike

[mark kosse]

Didn't a Biesemeyer fence come with a tool so you can set the rails to parallel with the table? If you bought it used you may not have gotten it. Delta bought biesemeyer in '93 if I remember right.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Peel the laminate off the face of fence, which will give you access to screws holding ply on. Loosed screws,and shim ply to make fence square to table. Use a straight edge and check down length of fence also. Tighten and check fence face. If all's good, reattach laminate. On my shop made Biese clone, I haven't fastened laminate yet. I've only been using it since 1996 .

[Mike Henderson]

Peel the laminate off the face of fence, which will give you access to screws holding ply on. Loosed screws,and shim ply to make fence square to table. Use a straight edge and check down length of fence also. Tighten and check fence face. If all's good, reattach laminate. On my shop made Biese clone, I haven't fastened laminate yet. I've only been using it since 1996 .

Thanks for the suggestion, Bruce. Before I go through all of that, I'm going to try the UHMW tape first. I only need the left side to be square and the tape solution is a lot less work. If that doesn't solve the problem I'll go your route. Thanks again.

Mike

[Mike Henderson]

Didn't a Biesemeyer fence come with a tool so you can set the rails to parallel with the table? If you bought it used you may not have gotten it. Delta bought biesemeyer in '93 if I remember right.

The only setting on my fence is to make the fence parallel with the blade (or the miter slot). No adjustments for square to the table top.

Yeah, Delta bought them in the 90's - and with Delta's present reputation, there's no sense in even asking them about the issue. Plus the fence is too old to make any claims. I should have noticed the problem long ago.

Mike

[glenn bradley]

I believe improved adjustability is what spawned the term "Better-than-Bies" for some of the clones including the Saw Stop. The perpendicular adjustment for the Beisemeyer Commercial fence from the manual is to adjust the plane of the front rail; the whole rail. The fence comes (or came) with a small hardwood template for setting the height of the rail referencing off the top of the saw table and wings. This assumes your top and wings are already aligned and on a common plane.

Figure 16 on page 7 here. (http://documents2.dewalt.com/documents/English/Instruction%20Manual/Biesemeyer/1352432.pdf)

The saving grace is that once set, you never need to touch it again ;-) My saw that had a Beisemeyer on it went to my dad. I set it up for him years ago. I used it the other day and it still moves like silk and is still dialed in.

[Matt Day]

Now you can finally blame all those less than perfect cuts on something!

[Mike Henderson]

Now you can finally blame all those less than perfect cuts on something!

You're right! But what do I do once I fix it? I'll have to find some other excuse:)

Mike

[Warren Lake]

you got a good one, mine isnt square to the table or even straight over its length, I had to file it years back to make it reasonably straight. will be gone when I have more time or if i keep that saw ill just make my own

[Bruce Wrenn]

Biese fences were made with ordinary 2 X 3 tubing. It wasn't ground flat. So some were out of square to table, some bent over their length, and for the lucky ones, both. Removing faces and shimming solves both problems.

[Mike Henderson]

Well, the winner is Lee Schierer and the UHMW tape. I received the tape today and applied 8 layers on the right side - and it brought the left side up to square. The right side of the fence is still out but I never use that side.

Now, I just have to see if the tape survives usage over time. I think it will.

Thank you to everyone who posted suggestions.

Mike

[Jason White]

I had this problem on my Biesemeyer. Use a heat gun and gently remove the plastic laminate from one or both faces. Remove the sheet metal screws, remove the plywood faces, then shim the plywood with masking tape along its length until square with the table. Reattach the plywood faces with the sheet metal screws and then reattach the laminate with contact cement. Worked great for me.



I used a caliper to measure the thickness of the plastic pad and the metal "T". I couldn't measure the plastic by itself. Here's one side (the right side).
321356

It's a bit more than 1/64" less than 3/8". Now, the other side.
321355

Exactly the same. If they wore, they wore the same.

So to fix the problem, I made a piece that I attached to the side of the fence with some clamps that LV had for sale. I cut the plywood at a slight angle, to offset the angle of the side of the Biesemeyer fence.
321357

You can see that it's now square.
321358

I imagine it was like that from new and I never noticed it until now. No sense in contacting Biesemeyer because Delta bought them some time back.

Mike

[Mike Henderson]

I had this problem on my Biesemeyer. Use a heat gun and remove the plastic laminate from one or both faces. Loosen the nuts, remove the plywood, then shim the plywood with masking tape along its length until square with the table. Then get some contact cement and reattach the laminate faces. Worked great for me.
Thanks for your suggestion, Jason. The UHMW tape was a lot easier. If it doesn't hold up over time, I'll try doing what you suggest.

Mike

[Lee Schierer]

Thanks for your suggestion, Jason. The UHMW tape was a lot easier. If it doesn't hold up over time, I'll try doing what you suggest.

Mike

The miter slots on my TS are about .005" wider than my miter gauge bars. I was able to put some .003 thick UHMW tape along the side of my miter bars to remove the slop. It lasts for years and is easy to replace if it does get messed up. The bonus is the miter gauge slides like it was just waxed with no side to side movement.