Laguna DXIII bandsaw fence

[Mark Visconti]

Just some initial comments if anyone else is looking at this...

I have a 18BX 220v and have the original fence with the set screw modification someone from SMC posted a few years back.

DXIII arrived. The main aluminum Fence had come loose in the packaging and beat itself up. It's the same fence that comes with the 18BX other than some plastic pieces on the end (which the original fence may have supposed to have had, but mine didn't). I just used my original fence while I wait for Laguna to see what they want to do. Oh, the DXIII fence stop appears to be just the 18BX fence stop so save your 50 bucks if you already have the original fence.

Install is pretty simple. Remove old fence. Put on two brackets - a long and a short (lots of adjustment for other saws) - on the 18BX, they're only supported on one side by a bolt but the fence track mechanism spans both brackets so it ends up being completely supported. There is some fiddliness getting the height of the brackets correct since they're adjustable, but the manual says shoot for 2" from the top of the bandsaw table. There is an adjustable metal imperial and metric "tape" on the linear guide portion of the fence as well as a sliding stop.

There are a bunch of knobs and lever screws - two to set tighten up the fence to the bracket. The fence permits a tall and a short mode so these two knobs allow one to switch between the two as well as set the depth of the fence. Then there are two "levers" that tighten up the fence after adjusting the drift. There's another one for stopping the fence travel on the linear guide mechanism. Finally, there is a lever to stop the micro adjust, although I haven't quite figured this one out yet. There are also some adjustments on the linear guide to adjust the height and angle of the fence, but I did not need to adjust these (or maybe I need to and don't know it).

There is a similar nylon screw to adjust the height of the fence from the table as on the original 18BX (which claims to be 6mm, but the 6mm hex key I was using for my original fence didn't fit, so I suspect the manual is wrong). Then there is a 3mm set screw to adjust the fence to square relative to the table.

So, very adjustable, BUT... keeping the fence at 90 to the surface of the table is not so much fun. Basically, adjusting many of the knobs or levers changes the squareness of the fence. What's not clear yet (as I haven't had any time to actually use the fence), is that if the fence will return to square after adjustment and retightening each of the knobs.

To square the fence, some of the knobs needed to be loosened, the 3mm set screw turned and then the knobs retightened and squareness checked. Loosening up the fence drift would also affect squareness. There is definitely enough adjustment that I think you can always get the fence to square, but whether or not you have to fiddle with it after each adjustment is still TBD.

The mechanism to move the fence along the linear guide is fine as is the drift adjustment.

Hopefully, I will get some time to actually use the fence in the next week or two.

Looking forward to hearing from others on their experience.

[Brian Gouldman]

I also installed one this weekend on my 14/12. A very nice upgrade over the original fence that it came with. I also noticed the issues you described about needing to lock the fence to measure squareness during setup and tweaking various set screws. From what I could tell tuning it up, it always returned to square once everything was tightened up and locked in. In all it only took me 30-45min beginning to end to remove the old fence and have this one dialed in.

I also went ahead and got the depth stop which included a scale that fits in the top of the extrusion. One thing it didn’t include is a nut and set screw to put in the channel the fence slides along the base. So I can’t currently repeatably put the fence back to exactly where it was if I were to move it, and thus return the fence and stop scale back to where it was set to the front edge of the blade. But that is a simple fix with a trip to the hardware store I’ll do this weekend.

I haven’t put it through its paces yet but I already love the smooth motion of the rack and pinion movement and ability to easily dial in position, as well as the ability to unlock and disengage the mechanism to move it in/out quickly along the table.

[eugene thomas]

what did the flip stop coast. bought fence last fall and had no excesorys then.