Biesemeyer fence rail bare metal stripe?

[Dolfo Picanco]

Hi All,
I'm rehabbing a PM66 and need to refinish the fence rail. As I look things up about refinishing the fence rails I do not see a lot of info about the stripe of bare metal along the face of the rail. I see most people who repaint their rails just paint right over it, yet just about all the new ones still have that strip of bare metal. I assume the bare metal is for better contact between the rail and the locking cam on the fence, but is it necessary? I'm leaning towards taping it off and keeping it, but I'd like to know the thought process behind WHY it'd there, and why people paint over them.

Thanks!

[Dave Mills]

I'm just guessing that if they came painted or powdercoated from the factory, over a relatively short time the action of the locking cam would be chipping and scratching the fence tube up all along that area. That would generate lots of customer complaints. Maybe it even did on the first generation of fences. So some smart guy decided if it wasn't painted, it would just look like a cool shiny strip, and nobody would notice the little dings and scratches on it.

[Robert Hayward]

I do not know the engineering reason why it is there but I am guessing it is for the reason you stated. Also no paint to chip with future locking cam use and resultant customer complaints. My second guess is people paint over it because it is easier than running a straight tape line.

[glenn bradley]

The surfaces where the pads ride and lock are bare. On my mid-2000's Commercial version this is the front, top and rear surfaces; a strip wide enough for the pads the length of the tube.

[jamil mehdi]

I'm pretty sure the bare metal is machined flat so your fence will stay square. Stock tubing is rarely perfectly straight.

[glenn bradley]

I'm pretty sure the bare metal is machined flat so your fence will stay square. Stock tubing is rarely perfectly straight.

Thank you for speaking up. I felt that way too but, my Saw Stop Bies clone tubes are straight enough that I couldn't be sure about that. IIRC I measured my old Bies tube during a similar discussion and found this to be true. The discussion was about where shop made tubes fail since you are depending on the source to have a "straight" piece of 2 x 3 tube. Alas, father time is drawing a curtain before my view into the past and I was not sure enough to speak up.

[Robert Hazelwood]

I restored an '84 PM66 with a 72" Beisemeyer. I took it down to bare metal, and prior to painting I masked over the areas where the fence pads and locking cam make contact. So there are actually bare metal strips on three sides. I'm not sure if it came like that or not, but it made sense to me. The fence pads will run a lot nicer on waxed metal than on paint, and you won't tear up the paint.

Pretty sure the rail tubing is not machined at all, at least on my 80's Beisemeyer. I stripped all of the paint while restoring and never saw any machining marks. There's not much wall thickness to work with anyways.

[mike stenson]

As far as I can remember it's pretty much just standard 2x3 .120 wall ERW tubing.

[Marc Fenneuff]

As far as I can remember it's pretty much just standard 2x3 .120 wall ERW tubing.

I restored an '84 PM66 with a 72" Beisemeyer. I took it down to bare metal, and prior to painting I masked over the areas where the fence pads and locking cam make contact. So there are actually bare metal strips on three sides. I'm not sure if it came like that or not, but it made sense to me. The fence pads will run a lot nicer on waxed metal than on paint, and you won't tear up the paint.

Yes and yes - I would mask off the stripes and paint.