Biesmeyer on SawStop - Experience?

[Alan Turner]

On the SawStop at Philadelphia Furniture Workshop, we are installing a new Biesmeyer commercial fence. Has anyone done this? Any tricks of the trade here, or just slog through it? We are thinking that it will be easier to drill the front fence rail than the saw. Has anyone done it this way?

Thanks in advance.

[Russ Massery]

Hi Alan, I don't have a Sawstop but I install one on my old Craftsman. I used the holes that did line up. And drilled the rail for others. I felt drilling the rail was easier. I didn't like idea of drilling into the saw. I felt if I did screw it up the rail was easier to get replaced.

[Roy Wall]

Alan -

I take it the SS fence has never lived up to your expectations....any good CS from the folks at SS??

[John Kain]

Hey Alan, quick question.........

Did you find Sawstop's fence to be inadequate or are you replacing for other reasons?

[Alan Turner]

I will just say that the SS fence was not to my liking.

[Greg Koch]

I just installed a Home Shop version on my Delta. Not a problem with the rails, but I would suggest that you mount the Guide Tube once on the front rail before installing the rail. I found the bolts a bit tight and it would have been easier to "break in" the holes/bolts once with them in an easier postion than from below the rail.

I also found that the front rail needed a slight adjustment after mounting everything... the bottom of the fence was just a tiny bit too low and would touch the table top (flat but not perfect..) toward the edge. Raising just a tad fixed it. You won't know this until everything is put together.

Take your time, don't tighten the guide tube bolts until all are in, then do a bit at a time similiar to how you do lug nuts on a wheel. Left end, right end, center, etc. etc. Clean and wax the inside metal surface of the tube before you install.

Remember, you don't use the little "jig" to align the rear rail. The inch spec will be in the instructions.

Enjoy...

Greg

[Joe Jensen]

I will just say that the SS fence was not to my liking.

Alan, can you elaborate? I've used Biesemeyer for 20 years, until I bought the Sawstop saw. In the showroom their clone looked to be a little improved over my old Biesemeyer so I went with the Sawstop fence. So far (only a couple of months) I'm happy with the decision. What didn't you like?...joe

[Don Frambach]

I have a Biesemeyer Fence that fits just fine on my SawStop Rails. Just need to set the "zero". I use both fences (made a permanent modification to the SawStop Fence).

[Jerry White]

Alan,

Now I am confused. I just attended a SawStop demonstration, and the fence that on the model they were using was essentially the same fence as the Biesmeyer professional that I have on my Delta Unisaw. Because I have heard a bit of negative comments about the fence that comes standard on this saw, I asked the SawStop representative if that was an upgrade. She said no, that this was the standard fence. Could they have made a change since you bought, or was I not seeing what I thought? :confused:

Good luck,

Jerry

[Alan Turner]

We found that the SS fence was difficult to get flat, what with the odd angled arrangement of the attaching screws. It did not come flat.
Furhter, fine adjustments put the fence way out of parallel, whereas the Bies, which we now have installed, works fine. At first we just put the bies on the SS rail, but that did not seem smooth. So, I drilled and tapped the SS table and wing, and installed the Bies hardware top to bottom. Works fine now.
Whether SS has changed the fence I do not know. Mine shipped July 2005, if I recall correctly.