Fasttrak fence on a Laguna 16

wrong place to ask this

Tom Sontag - St. Louis

>This is the hand tool messageboard. You will get more responses on the main messageboard ("messages" on your left).

Re: wrong place to ask this

Steve Wargo

>FWIW. The Laguna Fence Systems are outstanding and the Fast Tracks a fair at best. Spend the extra $$$ for the Laguna.

Re: wrong place to ask this

Mike in Mystic

>Well, I have the Fast-track bandsaw fence (albeit on my Jet 14" w/riser - a very far cry from the Laguna, I know) and I would say that this fence is great, not merely fair.

thanks

davidewhiting

>

Re: wrong place to ask this

Greg Sloop

>Mike...

Don't you have a lot (>1/16") deflection at the tail of the fence? If not, what am I doing wrong?

I also find the drift adjust procedure pretty cheezy, but again, perhaps there's a better way.

I'm not saying the fence is trash, it's not. It's not half bad. But I've got an Incra on my TS and that's kind of the standard I expect. Thus, the FT didn't really match my expectations.

TIA for any response.

Greg

Re: wrong place to ask this

Mike in Mystic

>Hi Greg,

There is a bit of deflection, but I don't think it is as much as 1/16" on my bandsaw. I'll try to remember to check when I'm in the shop tonight.

As far as adjusting for blade drift - I've never had to do it. I set it up parallel to the blade and I use Timberwolf blades, which are tensioned very low (which you probably know). With this set up I simply lock the fence down and resaw as much as I want and never have a problem.

The thing about bandsaw fences, in my opinion anyway, is there is no reason to really put a lot of force against the fence. When I resaw, I always cut at least 1/16" 'fat' and clean it up in my planer or with hand planes. Often I go 1/8" or so thick. In this situation, a small amount of deflection is acceptable. I'd never expect it to be as accurate as my table saw.

So, perhaps my impression of the Fast-track fence is simply due to my expectations. I think of a bandsaw as a roughing out tool, so I don't need it to be quite as precise. Still, I've used this fence to cut dovetails on the bandsaw; I routinely use it to cut tenon shoulders and things like that.

Do people out there really cut boards to precise widths or lengths on a bandsaw using the fence??

Mike