Digifence vs. Wixey Digital Fence readout?

[Dan Barr]

Just wanted to get the collective's opinion here.

The only real difference i can see thus far is that the Digifence will read 1/64" increments while the Wixey only reads out to 1/32"

Wixey: $99.00 on sale at woodcraft, 129.00 at other stores

Digifence: $159.00 (have not seen any sale prices)


v/r

dan

[frank shic]

the instructions for the digifence are incredibly good and email support is prompt, not to mention that the fence unit comes in one piece and is extremely well-packaged. almost all the tools you need for installation are included.

[Jack Clay]

The information I seen you can not take the fence off with out removing the DigiFence head unit that is bolted on. TheWixey head unit is held on by a magnet. I am looking at the two also. I hope some others can give information on the two.

[Alan Schaffter]

Take a look at the operating manuals for each.

The biggest differences:

1. The Wixey is auto-calibrating - run your fence up until it just kisses the blade, then hit "Cal", that's it. It is that simple! You can easily and quickly recalibrate if you switch to another fence orientation (Unifence) or are using a sacrificial fence. You must manually calibrate the Digifence- you lock the fence, cut a block of wood, measure the block with a set of calipers, then manually enter the size of the block "as measured with the calipers" into the Digifence's readout- two chances for error with the Digifence procedure.

2. With the Digifence, you must always leave your fence on the saw or it loses calibration and must be recalibrated each time (removing the fence is more complicated!) With the Wixey, the measuring unit and readout are a single unit that rides and always stays on the sensor strip. It is coupled to the fence via rare earth magnets. You can easily and instantly remove and reinstall your fence without losing calibration. Great if you are switching from fence to cross cut sled and back again.

3. Look closely at the resolution of both units- while the Wixey fractional resolution (and readout) is only 1/32" its readout simultaneously displays fractions and decimal inches. The decimal resolution is .005 (that's 1/200th of an inch). Accuracy- Wixey .002" per foot, Digifence- .01" per ?? Both units use the same technology, difference is in the application.

I have had a Wixey for over two years (Beta model initially) and it has always performed superbly. The only negative, and this applies to both- is that since you have the ability to set the fence to a precise position, you tend to do just that- it is not easy to move a fence only a few thousandths of an inch- you spend a bit of time tap, tap, tapping on the fence. I don't have a micro-adjuster, but that might help.

The difficulty mounting any of these units is caused by such a variety of fences on the market. The easiest mounting is to the Unifence with the newer style front rail with a T-slot in the bottom- no drilling required.



Read the recent reviews elsewhere on this site.

[Alan Schaffter]

the instructions for the digifence are incredibly good and email support is prompt, not to mention that the fence unit comes in one piece and is extremely well-packaged. almost all the tools you need for installation are included.

The Wixey fence sensor strip and mounting rail come in sections for shipping safety and cost. Both ends of each section of sensor strip have a registration hole. A neat little gauge spacer is supplied with the kit that makes precise installation of multiple sections quick and easy. You can buy extra sections if you have a VERY LONG fence rail application, also.

[Jack Clay]

Allen,
Have you had any issues were you have hit the read tape? It looked like the Digifence had the tape flat under the fence rail. I really liked that but there is no way I could be stuck with the fence on the saw.

[Alan Schaffter]

Alan,
Have you had any issues were you have hit the read tape? It looked like the Digifence had the tape flat under the fence rail. I really liked that but there is no way I could be stuck with the fence on the saw.

On my Wixey the track with applied sensor strip mounts under the front fence rail of your saw fence with short stand-offs. Absolutely no problem with hitting the sensor track. I don't know about the Digifence mounting- go to their web site.

Believe me, I take my fence on and off all the time- I'm not organized with the sequence of my operations, so would not like the Digifence.

[frank shic]

you can definitely remove the digifence but it's a little trickier because some of the mounting hardware gets in the way.

[Jim Kountz]

Well I have only had my Wixey for a few days now but Im in love!! I can echo the praises others have already stated here about it and add this much....
The part about having to recalibrate the Digifence was a deal killer for me. I mean, one of the biggest reasons I got a Bies in the first place was for its ease of remove/replace. I was worried at first about the Wixey attaching with just a magnet but the thing moves so smooth and glides effortlessly, the magnet is all it needs.
I had an occassion to use my dado head yesterday and loved the fact that I could simply zero the Wixey right into it then back again to my regular blade with the touch of a button. Very handy for getting accurate dado positions. And like someone else mentioned it was even handier when I used the sacrificial fence for rabbeting. Just slide it over till it touched the blade, hit the button and I was good to go.
Im thrilled to pieces with this thing, I cant remember the last time I got this excited over a new purchase!!

[Jim Kountz]

Allow me to add more to what I said in my previous post just to clarify. I use a 7/8" wide sacrificial fence to make sure if need be, I can cover the entire dado head. What I did yesterday was slide the SF fence to the "left side of the dado, thus covering it completley. Then I hit the zero buttom. This way I can read the exact width of the rabbet right on the Wixey readout. No measuring. Just too damn cool man!

[Steve Clardy]

Ordered the Wixey deal from Woodcraft last night.
Now I'll have 2 angles gauges

[Jim Becker]

I have a Digi on the planer portion of my J/P and agree that the recallibration is a pain. If I were going to do my TS fence, the W has a major advantage in that respect.

[Gary Muto]

It appears to me that the Digifence would have the advantage by allowing the input of the value of a piece that was actually cut/planed and compensate for any blade wobble or flexure. I guess the Wixey is close enough, for me anyway, but the digifence proceedure seems exact.

[frank shic]

here's another link in case anyone is on the fence (yuk yuk yuk...)

http://benchmark.20m.com/reviews/Dig...kitreview.html

[Roger Bolen]

Jack,

I had the same concern about the fence being captured by the DigiFence, here is the response that I received from Accurate Technology, Inc.

Roger,

Thank you for contacting us.
On the Unifence, the fence is removed by twisting a locking lever on the
front of the fence.

When complete, the only part that ties the electronics to the saw is the
cable between the sensor and the readout. There are two common ways of
working with this:

1. Disconnect the sensor from the readout before removing the fence (the
readout stays attached to the fence). When re-installing the fence, the
sensor should be plugged back into the readout, and the system will need
to be recalibrated.

2. Mount the readout to the fence using Velcro. When removing the fence,
the readout stays with the saw. When the fence is re-installed, the
readout is placed back in place, and no calibration data is lost.

(I prefer #2 when using my Unifence.)

Mike Fiantaca
Accurate Technology, Inc.

Hope this helps
Roger