All the UHMW I bought has been smooth and had good results using 1/2" and 3/4" for fences attached with screws. The stuff is slick and I thick it is self lubricating.
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All the UHMW I bought has been smooth and had good results using 1/2" and 3/4" for fences attached with screws. The stuff is slick and I thick it is self lubricating.
Quarter inch is pretty thin for use on fence. My pm2000 has close to half inch thick piece and is flat after 15years.
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No way to argue with BB + laminate. Got it on my Biesemeyer and it's fine.Originally Posted by Frank Pratt
But if you wanted a UHMW face, it seems like you could make the UHMW lay flat and parallel (after fastening mechanically) with a hand plane and a set of calipers.
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My Powermatic 66 fence had the UHMW on the fence sides, I did not like for some reason and changed it with the laminated Phenolic faced Baltic Birch sold at Woodcraft. i am much happier with the look and it was easy to machine the same type of slots in it to attach it the same way.
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Thread Resurrection: I just bought a saw with a Biesemeyer fence on it which I'm wanting to face with "something", I prefer to DIY my solution. A guy on ebay is sellling HDPE saw fence faces that he CNC machines the fastner slots into them, sells for like $120 plus s/h.
I see Peachtree and others sell plastic for such purpose.
Prospecting for ideas? Thanks in advance!
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So Michael, what about your existing fence don’t you like? That might get give your readers some basis for suggestions.
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E3DC8595-1CC5-4B1A-B083-739E849C7FC5.jpegI bought a roll of this a long time ago. I press it on with a small laminate roller when possible. I just use it for some jig components so not sure how well it will hold up on a fence
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My $.02. When I was table saw shopping a few years ago, every fence I looked at with HDPE or UHMW facing on the fence was not terribly flat. The stuff just isn't rigid enough to stay straight when it's screwed to the substrate. I think it would be fine if glued to a flat piece of MDF or BB ply though.
A melamine faced board make a better fence. I just wax mine a few times a year & it's stays very slick.
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Look at McMaster-Carr. They offer a large variety of plastics and you can fabricate your own fence faces.
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Given that it's still on a trailer from a long trip (slept 3 hrs in a parking lot in VA yesterday) to fetch the saw it's never been used by me as yet. I like the notion of improving the original Biesemeyer faces, that's it. Is that not a commonly done improvement, so why do i need to embellish my comments after I use it? In the end, it's a simple thought I came up with and as suggested already-> "I am prospecting for ideas"...
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Frank, I've read variable comments on flatness depending on fasteners & thickness. The material I see sold on these fences (newer than my fence) is flat I would assume?
Steve, FWIW, I am not allowed access to your link, but it's the commonly sold slick tape?
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Lisa, I found several plastic specific suppliers that sell cuts in my called for spec that are also cheaper than MCMaster.
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When I got my saw with a Beisemeyer fence the factory laminates were pretty well torn up, so I removed them and glued shop-sawn quartersawn white oak veneers (about 1/8" thick) to the original plywood. I made matching holes in the veneers for the sheetmetal screws that attach the plywood to the fence bar, so now the faces can be removed without removing any laminates or veneer.
After installing the veneered fence faces I hand planed them flat and square to the table, then applied some shellac. Being able to do that is a big advantage to wooden faces. Pretty happy with the results, and the sliding action is very good. I see no need for UHMW and I do think you'd have trouble attaching it.
I think that because I also had to replace the factory teflon (?) contact pads that ride on the front rail. My original plan was to make new pads out of 1/8" thick UHMW. They needed to be 1/8" thick to match the old ones, but that's too thin to use fasteners. To attach them to the fence base I tried various kinds of double stick tape and glues. E6000 glue worked the best but with all methods eventually the pads would slide around and adhesive get residue all over the front rail. Then I tried gluing thin strips of white oak as pads and then sticking some 0.010" UHMW tape on the wood. Same issue, the tape would eventually slide off the wooden strips. I ended up removing the tape and adhesive residue and just waxing the white oak pads and running the fence on those. Works great. Slides fine.
So based on my experience I would not count on any glue bond lasting with UHMW even when it seems like a good bond at first. If you must use UHMW for the fence I would only rely on fasteners to hold it. I just don't think it would be an improvement upon what I did in terms of flatness or solidity, and any advantage in slickness amounts to little more than a shrug in use.
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I wouldn't either ...
...but...
FWIW, the Gougeon guys (of West System epoxy fame) have said that they have successfully glued PE. Apparently, PE is technically a wax, with either a polar or non-polar molecule (I forget which) and the key to getting glue to adhere to it is to change the molecules at the bonding surface from polar to non-polar (or visa-versa). The way the West System folks did that is by scorching the PE with a propane torch, then rapidly gluing it.
I don't think you need to melt or blacken the PE ... just heat it quickly until its sheen changes slightly...then glue it quickly (because I believe the molecules change back to their original state or whatever)...YMMV and good luck.
Contributor
Ha, I actually had read about that and tried it with those fence pads. At first it seemed to have worked, but it still failed in shear relatively quickly when placed in service.
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