It's gonna be a Wixey Weekend

[Doug Shepard]

I've had a couple boxes of Wixey stuff sitting around for way too long due to being busy on other projects and I'm planning on getting these put on this weekend. Haven't made it through the past post searches on both units but:

Fence Readout bought back in November and is finally going on my PM66.
Posts I've seen say:
- Forego the self-tapping bolts and tap your holes (no problem as I've got a metric tap/die set).
- Might need to file a bit on the wedge setup to get the 2 track pieces aligned.
- Might need to loosen some small jewelers size screws to get the readout to slide smoothly then re-tighten.
Anything else for a PM66 install that I might have missed?

Planer readout received 2 Christmases ago (I know, I know:() is finally going on my DW733.
Haven't weeded thru enough Wixey posts yet to find anything specific to the DW733. Any surprises there that aren't mentioned in the instructions?

[Matt Meiser]

Doug, too bad you are almost 2 hours away as we could have gotten together to do the planer--I just got a Wixey for my DW733 tonight. If I get it installed before the weekend, I'll report back here on how it went. I got the angle gauge too.

[Mike Goetzke]

I put one on my Uni-Biese during the big $99 sale. I came up with a super compact way to attach it. I needed to since I have a drawer that comes clost to the fence rail (I ended up removing the walnut trim from the top drawer since it would hit the gauge):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/mbg/My%20Tools/Wixey%20TS%20Gauge/IMG_1669_4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/mbg/My%20Tools/Wixey%20TS%20Gauge/IMG_1668_5.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/mbg/My%20Tools/Wixey%20TS%20Gauge/IMG_1667_3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/mbg/My%20Tools/Wixey%20TS%20Gauge/IMG_1666_2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/mbg/My%20Tools/Wixey%20TS%20Gauge/IMG_1664_1.jpg

[Matt Meiser]

Hartville Tool (http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/12751) still has them for $99, plus free shipping for the rest of this month. I was tempted but for the planer, I was bordering on need since the factory scale on mine is messed up.

[Alan Schaffter]

Doug,

Too bad your planer unit is so old. The new model has a slanted readout. The good news is you can buy the new readout from Wixey (http://www.wixey.com/planer/index.html) to upgrade your old unit for only $20. The slanted readout is much easier to read than the older vertical readout.

http://www.wixey.com/planer/gallery/images/large01.jpg

[Jeff Wright]

Has anyone come out with an affordable, workable, reliable, durable digital scale for a Euro slider?

While my MM combo is very accurate using its manual readout, I'm a sucker for any new toys and the added precision and ease-of-use would be nice. :)

[Doug Shepard]

Doug,

Too bad your planer unit is so old. The new model has a slanted readout. The good news is you can buy the new readout from Wixey (http://www.wixey.com/planer/index.html) to upgrade your old unit for only $20. The slanted readout is much easier to read than the older vertical readout.



There ya go - costin me money agin:D
I'm ordering that today. Hopefully it'll arrive before the weekend.
You can always count on Creekers to help you spend your money on tools:rolleyes:

[Chris Parks]

I did exactly what Mike G. did and for the same reason, much neater and a far better result than using the stock brackets. The stock brackets on mine used the existing bolts holding the rails onto the angle iron they sit on and I had no need to drill new holes.

[Jeremy Monge]

I just installed mine on my saw this past week and had a heck of a time. I have the Vega fence with a micro adjust so I had to get creative to figure out how to mount it, I even ended up putting a few needless holes in the fence :mad:. I guess I have to fill with epoxy now and bust out the sharpie :rolleyes:. One thing to expect is possibly finding out that the tape on your saw fence isn't accurate. I was going crazy when I started trying to dial it in after installing it. At first I thought mine was defective so I gave up for the day and decided to email Wixey. The next day I got a response. Turns out that quite often people think the same, Barry Wixey informed me it was probably my saw fence tape and gave me a few pointers to get it dialed in. That's one great thing about Wixey is that they stand behind their products and are quick to reply to your emails. After spending more time with mine and coming back fresh to finish the install it works great.

[Matt Meiser]

Update: I just installed mine. Took about a 1/2 hour, and probably 10 minutes of that was finding a screw to attach the bracket to the electronics box since it was missing from the package.

I didn't bother with the self-stick tape as I might not keep this planer too much longer. Just the two screws. The pictures on the package of mine were of a Dewalt so it was really easy to do.

[Doug Shepard]

Mike/Chris
I'm having a tough time figuring out how Mike's pics and Chris' description differ from the illustrations in the instructions and from each other. Mike's pics look like the track is directly screwed to the fence rail without brackets (I'm going by the pic of a screw thru the dovetailed part of the extrusion)? But Chris post says you're still using the stock brackets just not the same way as the instructions? Are your installs the same? And I think I'm seeing Mike's readout put on to the side of the fence lock rather than beneath as the instructions show? So does that mean you can only use the readout with fence to the right of the blade or isnt that affected by the location? It's not normally to the left on mine, but has been known to happen for a few special cuts.




Update: I just installed mine. Took about a 1/2 hour....
Sounds good to me.

...I might not keep this planer too much longer.
That's actually the main reason I hadn't installed this yet after more than a year. Kept thinking I might upgrade to a DW735 or maybe Delta 2-speed. But the 733 keeps chugging along no matter how crotchety it's getting, so I'll hang on for a while.

[Michael Lutz]

You may have difficulty duplicating what Mike did on a PM66 if you have the Accufence. I tried it that way first, but I ended up mounting it per the instructions. To the left of the blade it would just read a negative position provided you reset your zero. On the accufence the sensor buts right up against the fence with out the use of any of the extraneous brackets supplied with the unit.

Mike

[Chris Parks]

My apologies for the confusion. I initially installed it using the stock brackets but when I built a cabinet to install between the rails I had to re-install it without the brackets. I simply clamped it up flush under the rail and drilled straight through the aluminium extrusion from underneath and tapped holes in the rail. it is a much neater solution than brackets but has one draw back, that being sawdust gets trapped between the rail and the Wixey extrusion.

[Mike Goetzke]

Mine was done w/o the brackets. I did get an alternative sketch from Barry Wixey that may help:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/mbg/My%20Tools/Wixey%20TS%20Gauge/wixey.jpg


Also, I had to modify the bracket to make my mod work. Guess you could make another bracket if you need to use it on either side.

Mike

[Chris Parks]

It is a pity that the instructions do not match the performance of the product. The best I can say about the instructions is that they are woeful and that is being kind. If there are two ways they recommend to mount the product then both should be in the instructions. Having said that they may be but I can't tell by reading them.

[Doug Shepard]

Thanks guys. This is getting much clrarer now. Sounds like they ought to show a 3rd way (bracketless) in the instruction as well.

[Gary Muto]

Doug,

You're going to love the Wixey Digital Fence readout. I got last November with the angle gauge for $100 and it's changed the way I work. It make the TS so convenient for Rips, Dados and grooves. Set ups take a split second. I still do test cuts but rarely if ever have to correct since I'm easily within 0.005" every time. If only I had a digital blade height indicator built into the saw...
I have the old readout and never noticed a problem reading it, except for some sawdust. Mine is on a Delta cabinet saw. I set up the conventional way since I didn't know about the close-coupled mounting and I already have the indicator strips stuck to the Aluminum extrusions so I won't change it. I do get a lot dust in that gap so I would go to the trouble of close-coupling if I was starting from scratch. I think my installation took me 1/2 hour which was nice though.

Good Luck and enjoy.
I don't have the planer gauge, so can't comment on that.

[Doug Shepard]

Took a couple trips to the hardware store but I wrapped the harder one up this morning,
892028920389204

[Chris Parks]

I think that fixing it directly to the under side of the fence as you have done is the best way in the end it just takes a bit longer.

[Matt Meiser]

Thanks for posting pics. It looks like I'll be doing the same job in a few weeks as someone offered me a brand new one that he can't use for $75.

[Doug Shepard]

To satisfy the picture police:
8923989240

Ran the calibration setup and got 1.565 on the planer gauge and 1.569 or 1.570 on my digital calipers. I'm going to check tomorrow to see if I've got 4-5 thou off on the leveling bolt or to mark my setup board and make sure I'm measuring the exact same spot, but otherwise it appears to be working.
Haven't had a chance to power up the TS for test cuts and calibrating yet.

[Doug Shepard]

On the TS install, one thing worth mentioning is that at least on a PM66 it's a pretty close fit doing it this way. Dont have the track protruding enough from the fence and the readout wont slide. Protrude too much and it interferes with fence travel. I've got maybe around 3/64" gap between the fence and the track. I ended up using 10-24 1" flat head phillips machine screws and tapped the holes on the fence rail. I drilled/countersunk and tapped the rail for 6, but when I used a transfer punch to mark the rail holes thru the track I got the mark askew from vertical (it's tough working upside-down or on your back) on two of them and couldn't thread them in without binding or pulling the track out alignment. I tried it with just 4 and it seemed sufficient so I quit while I was ahead.