Laguna Driftmaster Fence

Ive had an interest in this fence for awhile, because my OEM Laguna LT20 fence is a very stubby cast iron fence. The OEM fence is fine, ive made a lot of furniture with it, but it doesnt adjust easily in either direction. The fence face is slightly out of 90° to the table/blade, and ive just dealt with it. Aside from grinding the cast iron foot to the base of the fence, i dont think i could adjust the fence to match the blade. Next, i wish the fence was longer to register workpieces to. The current fence is maybe 10-12" long, and barely extends past the back of the blade. I have no interest in the drift adjustment of the fence. My bandsaw blade doesnt drift.

Is it a worthwhile pick up? There is a used one on the route of my road trip tomorrow that i could pick up for $200. I figure for the price it would be a good addition for the taller and longer fence. I might use the fine adjustment every once in awhile as well.

No firsthand experience but several customers bought them to retrofit to their machines during my bandsaw days. Feedback was positive from what I recall. I think price was the biggest obstacle.

Erik

A couple of things before you throw money at it. Most bandsaw alignment is done by moving the table. Similar to aligning a cabinet saw top. If the fence is out of alignment with the miter slot on the table a very thin shim where one post of the fence rod mounts to the table will result in a large difference by the time you get to the fence. Just a couple simple things to try.

I have one, it is ok. It isn't a game changer, I just wanted it.

I have one also, I like that you can easily swap between a high and low fence. And the micro adjust is nice......but I don't always bother with it. Much of the time I'm able to just move it a tiny bit if needed.

I ended up going for it. I figured, what the heck, I can always resell it.

Initial 10 second observation is the unit feels quite nice. The whole assembly is heavier than it looks. Interested in how it performs once it’s on the saw, but so far it looks like a considerable upgrade.

I'd be interested if Laguna fixed the issue on how to install it. When I had it on my 14SUV, it was a total ugly kludge installing it on the machine. I do know they made changes. Hopefully it works great for you, but I'd love to hear about installation.

haha oh no, sounds like im in for a royal PITA depending on the age of this one, Alan.

The guy selling it had it on an LT18 of similar vintage to my LT20. He made it seem like it was pretty plug and play with the existing mounting holes. He was in the process of parting out every aspect of his shop that didnt involve turning. Had a nice Oneway 2436 lathe.

I had one on two different bandsaws, a Laguna LT18 and a Centauro 24".

I highly recommend it. I did quite a bit of joinery using those saws and the Driftmaster was great.