Bob Borzelleri
12-12-2022, 4:10 PM
Back in late 2014, I was leafing through a Wood Magazine issue and happened upon a page entitled “Innov8”. It highlighted eight or nine workshop innovations that the writer thought worthy of promotion.
The first one listed was a fence that was designed to rip narrow stock in those instances where the fence was too close to the blade to utilize a push stick. It contained a mechanism to drive a small foot along the bottom of the fence and against two hold downs and one lateral holder.
I showed the picture to my wife and forgot about it until Christmas when I finally figured out what the 3 foot long box that had appeared under the tree actually was. And, this is where the story took a turn that was out of character for me. I didn’t open the box on Christmas and took it out to the shop and stuck it in the dust collector closet where it sat until the day before yesterday.
Perhaps there are more than a few folks who can relate to life getting in the way of doing things that are simply rewarding and that reality contributed to my shop transitioning to a place to maintain chain saws, garden tools and motorcycles. Eventually, it took on the role of an additional storage shed. And, while that was going on, the Deulen Safety Fence faded farther back into the recess of the dust collection closet.
Two weeks ago, I decided to reclaim the shop. First things first, I had to find a home for or get rid of everything that was taking up space that was not remotely related to woodworking. I am currently running at about 90% success on that front.
Then came the reality that virtually all the power tools needed cleaning, lubrication and adjustment. So far the table saw, jointer and sliding compound miter saw (talk about a floor space hog) and the band saw are back up to snuff. Next up is the lathe, but I had recently replaced the step belt motor arrangement with the DVR upgrade and had been using it off and on so it was in pretty good shape.
As I was checking out the dust collection system, I discovered the eight year old unopened shipping box containing the Deulen Safety Fence and yesterday, I set it up.
It appears to do what it was described to do. I have never liked ripping narrow cuts and this thing allowed for a nearly hands off approach other than turning the crank. Which gets me to the phone conversation I had this morning with Dan Deulen.
Despite production of the original fence having ceased, Dan told me that he has a working model of a new version that utilizes a stepper motor instead of the hand crank and that the operation will be programmable. For those who bought the originals, the mods are designed to upgrade the older unit.
The first photo is from the 2014 Wood Mag article and the second shows a more refined version that I have.
The first one listed was a fence that was designed to rip narrow stock in those instances where the fence was too close to the blade to utilize a push stick. It contained a mechanism to drive a small foot along the bottom of the fence and against two hold downs and one lateral holder.
I showed the picture to my wife and forgot about it until Christmas when I finally figured out what the 3 foot long box that had appeared under the tree actually was. And, this is where the story took a turn that was out of character for me. I didn’t open the box on Christmas and took it out to the shop and stuck it in the dust collector closet where it sat until the day before yesterday.
Perhaps there are more than a few folks who can relate to life getting in the way of doing things that are simply rewarding and that reality contributed to my shop transitioning to a place to maintain chain saws, garden tools and motorcycles. Eventually, it took on the role of an additional storage shed. And, while that was going on, the Deulen Safety Fence faded farther back into the recess of the dust collection closet.
Two weeks ago, I decided to reclaim the shop. First things first, I had to find a home for or get rid of everything that was taking up space that was not remotely related to woodworking. I am currently running at about 90% success on that front.
Then came the reality that virtually all the power tools needed cleaning, lubrication and adjustment. So far the table saw, jointer and sliding compound miter saw (talk about a floor space hog) and the band saw are back up to snuff. Next up is the lathe, but I had recently replaced the step belt motor arrangement with the DVR upgrade and had been using it off and on so it was in pretty good shape.
As I was checking out the dust collection system, I discovered the eight year old unopened shipping box containing the Deulen Safety Fence and yesterday, I set it up.
It appears to do what it was described to do. I have never liked ripping narrow cuts and this thing allowed for a nearly hands off approach other than turning the crank. Which gets me to the phone conversation I had this morning with Dan Deulen.
Despite production of the original fence having ceased, Dan told me that he has a working model of a new version that utilizes a stepper motor instead of the hand crank and that the operation will be programmable. For those who bought the originals, the mods are designed to upgrade the older unit.
The first photo is from the 2014 Wood Mag article and the second shows a more refined version that I have.