Question for people with new Biesemeyer fences (How do you like it?)

[Wes Billups]

I've been rebuilding a 30 yr old Unisaw I purchased without a fence. I purchased a set of rails locally that I'm 99% certain are for the newer Biesemeyer fence that Delta manufactures. I am now at the point of looking for a fence to go with this saw. My other saw is a Sawstop and it's fence works perfectly on the Biesemeyer rails. I can buy a new fence from Sawstop for $195 delivered. My other option is to get the actual fence that is supposed to go with these rails. There is an ebay seller that sells the below fence for $210 delivered.

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For those of you with this newer style Biesemeyer fence, are you happy with it?



The reason I ask is the reviews on Amazon are pretty poor but I trust the people here more than what I read over there.

I will say I am very happy with my Sawstop fence but would prefer to keep the Unisaw and all of it's parts as accurate as possible. Plus the Biesemeyer will come with two support legs which will cost me about $10 to build plus my time. Ultimately I believe the cost is a wash between the two fences.

Just looking for feedback as my research here shows there are a lot of Creeker's that bought these fences when Lowe's clearanced them out years ago.

Thanks,
Wes

[glenn bradley]

I have owned both the Biesemeyer Commercial and the Saw Stop T-Glide. I will first confess a sentimental attachment to the Beis for the sake of transparency :rolleyes:

The Saw Stop (and others) are what people refer to as 'better-than-Bies' clones. This term used to irk me. Now that I have used the T-Glide for nearly as long as I used the Bies I feel I can comment on the "better-than" factor. The T-Glide is much easier to adjust although once adjusted you can pretty much take the Bies off the rails and drive nails with it, put it back on the saw and pick up where you left off . . . you see, there's that sentimentality kicking in :o

The T-Glide faces are easily removable, you can swap them for t-track extrusions, add sac-fences and put the originals back on without much fuss. You have to pretty much destroy the Bies faces to remove them and then you are faced with attaching the replacements.

In short, I like the T-Glide better. I am glad that the Bies lives on dad's saw now so I can go and visit. :D

[Frank Pratt]

I bought a saw 20 years ago with a Biesmeyer fence & liked it a lot. the one complaint with it is that it was a major operation to replace the faces on the sides of the fence. I never had to do it thank goodness. But a few years later, as Delta integrated the fence into it's own manufacturing stream, quality apparently went downhill considerably.

I currently have a SawStop fence & find it to be a little better than my old Biesmeyer was. The only minor issue is that the handle, when in the locked position sticks straight out & I occasionally bump into it. I did a mod to have it pointed down when locked.

[mike stenson]

Other than the color, what else makes this a new version? (I haven't used a Biese since I traded my last one for a Unifence almost 2 decades ago)

[Andy D Jones]

Been happily using a Unifence for almost 30 years. Versatile, durable, and accurate.

They are still available on the used market.

-- Andy - Arlington TX

[Tom M King]

I've been using a Bies on an old Unisaw for a good while. It stays straight, and square, but beyond that, it leaves a few things to be desired. It has no fine adjustment, and when you move it, the fence doesn't stay tight to the "track", so it's not exactly where you want it when you stop moving it. You have to do a multi-step clamp, unclamp, tap, and so forth. If it had a fine adjustment, that you could adjust after it was clamped in place, I'd say it would be great.

[Matt Day]

Pretty sure the newer version is less robust than the older ones. Thinner steel basically.

I have two older ones on my Unisaws.

[Andrew Hughes]

I had a unisaw with a Biesemeyer fence. It was lumpy not flat at all. I had to add a wood face to it.
Terrible saw terrible fence.

[Matt Day]

I had a unisaw with a Biesemeyer fence. It was lumpy not flat at all. I had to add a wood face to it.
Terrible saw terrible fence.

Hadn’t heard that one before. Yes, the laminated plywood fence isn’t ideal, but I simply add a piece of mdf to it. Can also add extruded aluminum or uhmw.

The Unisaw on the other hand, what went wrong there?

[Andrew Hughes]

I didn’t like the way it thumped when it started.
The top was not flat esp around the throat plate. The metal part of the fence was not straight so anything attach would take on the shape. I remember trying Mdf and fiddling with shims.
The final straw for some reason the saw would pickup small cut offs and throw them at me. I guessing it has something to do with the dished top.
It was a Delta x5 unisaw. I think it was made Taiwan?
Bad saw

[Matt Day]

That does sound like a bad saw. Just wanted to make sure you weren’t generalizing that all Uni’s are bad saws.

And in your defense, most Bies fence tubes aren’t perfect. If you out a dial indicator agains the tube there will normally be a few - 5ish thou in and out along its length. Shimming can help, but also that is good enough for woodworking really.

[Tom M King]

If I needed a new fence, I'd probably go with the VCST fence.

[Rod Sheridan]

I would buy the Unifence, it provides the safety aspect of being able to end at the saw blade for increased safety during ripping...........Rod.

[Gregory Bogardo]

Will second the Unifence, I have had both fences and the Unifence wins for me hands down. My biggest complaint is trying to make jigs for the fence so I went one step further and added a Uni-T Fence from Peachtree https://www.ptreeusa.com/tablesaw_unifence.html and now have the best of both worlds.

[Wes Billups]

I appreciate the feedback. I decided on the SawStop fence as I found it with free shipping on ebay which brought the cost down under $160.

I know a bunch of people recommended the Unifence and having used one for 15 years I agree it is a great option just not realistic since they aren't made any more. There is one 180 miles from me that the seller wants $250 for which puts it out of my price range and not worth the travel time.

I do thank everyone for giving me their thoughts.

Once I get the fence and build out the extension table I'll post some pictures as this project is nearing completion.

[Wes Billups]

Here is the completed saw with fence. The Sawstop Fence works perfectly with the Biesemeyer rails. Thanks for everyone's input.

439797 439798

Below is what I started with. Paid $25 for the saw and ended up putting another $510 into it in order to get to the point you see above. Not a great deal but I'm very happy with what I learned as well as the quality of the saw now that everything has been fixed, cleaned, and aligned.
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Thanks,
Wes

[mike stenson]

$535 is less than I have into my Unisaw ;) The fence looks great, nice!

[Frank Pratt]

Below is what I started with. Paid $25 for the saw and ended up putting another $510 into it in order to get to the point you see above. Not a great deal but I'm very happy with what I learned as well as the quality of the saw now that everything has been fixed, cleaned, and aligned.

I think you did very well. The only thing lacking to make it a great saw is a good guard & riving knife. I'm pretty sure there are aftermarket ones available for that saw.

[Wes Billups]

I think you did very well. The only thing lacking to make it a great saw is a good guard & riving knife. I'm pretty sure there are aftermarket ones available for that saw.

Frank, this saw will primarily be dedicated with a dado blade. I'll keep my eyes open for a good guard and/or riving knife/splitter but don't anticipate using it very often where those items would be beneficial.

Thanks.

[Frank Pratt]

Frank, this saw will primarily be dedicated with a dado blade. I'll keep my eyes open for a good guard and/or riving knife/splitter but don't anticipate using it very often where those items would be beneficial.

Thanks.

It's just about perfect as it is then.

[Ben Rivel]

I have owned both the Biesemeyer Commercial and the Saw Stop T-Glide. I will first confess a sentimental attachment to the Beis for the sake of transparency :rolleyes:

The Saw Stop (and others) are what people refer to as 'better-than-Bies' clones. This term used to irk me. Now that I have used the T-Glide for nearly as long as I used the Bies I feel I can comment on the "better-than" factor. The T-Glide is much easier to adjust although once adjusted you can pretty much take the Bies off the rails and drive nails with it, put it back on the saw and pick up where you left off . . . you see, there's that sentimentality kicking in :o

The T-Glide faces are easily removable, you can swap them for t-track extrusions, add sac-fences and put the originals back on without much fuss. You have to pretty much destroy the Bies faces to remove them and then you are faced with attaching the replacements.

In short, I like the T-Glide better. I am glad that the Bies lives on dad's saw now so I can go and visit. :D
Have you done that? How did that work? Got any pics?

[Jim Becker]

I've used both the T-type (Biesemeyer type design) and the high/low type (UniFence, Euro, etc) and prefer the latter. There's nothing "wrong" with the Tee-type fences, but I like and utilize the high/low and sliding nature of the UniFence/Euro type design. I mostly use the fence in the low position and pulled back which eliminates any chance of binding behind the blade. While I'm using a slider now with this fence setup, the Delta saw I owned two saws back had the UniFence and I used it in the same way. When I move to the cabinet saw and "lost" that set of features, I did my work, but really missed what I considered a more advanced and versatile fence setup.