Magnetic Bies fence clamp

[Gary McKown]

Not sure if this is a new idea or one I saw somewhere. After 25 years of using a locking fence, I was looking for ways to lock down the far end of the new/old Griz with Shopfox Bies clone (thanks, David Romesco), because I nearly always use Board Buddies or a featherboard hold-down of some type. I know the typical method is to apply a clamp, but that would seem to be a pain if the fence is moved a lot, and requires an offset or cutout in the outfeed table.

Anyhoo, last night I threw a HF $6 magnetic base on the table, clamped it to the back side of the fence, and threw the on-off switch to on. Simply amazing how powerfully it held in place. Flip the switch to off and it instantly lets go.

This would only work as long as the rear side of the fence is on the steel table, but the need for hold-downs is lessened in the case of very wide rips anyway.

Now to figure a way to attach the base to the fence without clamping. It could be permanently mounted, but I'm thinking of a small steel plate embedded in the fence face, or an overlaid aux. face with a steel plate in it, or even a piece of angle iron affixed to T-track on top of the fence.

[Ben Grunow]

How about a little double stick tape? The only force on the mag is down when it is on right so unless you really hit it with something it should stay put. Maybe Velcro so it could be removed for other fence riders.

[Gary McKown]

O.K., update.

I clamped a small piece of angle iron across the top of the fence (like you would mount it on T-track). Since the mag. clamp is activated both on the bottom milled surface (on the table top) and on the milled side (next to the angle iron), it worked great.