Shopsmith Forums

I purchased the bandsaw fence when it was on special last. I installed it right away and got it setup to do some resawing. Tonight I wanted to cut a piece with the miter gauge and my heart sank. The miter gauge bar is hitting the bar for the fence. I checked the instructions and appears to be installed correctly. It looks like the notch wasn't milled deep enough. Any thoughts on a fix? Washers between the fence bar and table? Will that mess up the fence?

At least the notch in yours appears to have been "milled". The two that I have look like they were done with a rasp. Which is probably your solution. A file.

Yes filing will correct the interference.

However, I would shim instead. Table shim washers come to mind or the Thinnest flat washers you can find.

A small vertical relocation should not affect fence clamping.

That would allow quick workaround while you negotiate with the MS re this manufacturing 'defect'.

Shims would do the trick but

The way the rail is attached it makes contact with the full width of the table. If shims are used to lower the rail (to provide the required clearance) that contact would be reduced to the locations of the three attaching bolts and the area of the shims (washers).

If shimming is the chosen solution, I recommend a shim the full width of the table (length of the rail where it contacts the table.

Just out of curiosity, how deep is the milled notch and how far below the work surface is the bottom of the notch.

The notches in my two rails are .075" and .073" deep.

The bottoms of the notches .290" and .293" below the table tops. Which is which I did not record; very poor data collection techniques.

Thank you for the helpful replies.
I was thinking the entire rail was high because the fence when clamped down is high on the backside.
I don't have any gauges but I guess I could use some dado set shims to determine the gap between the fence bottom and table top.
Ok, using the depth gauge on my calipers I was getting .0775 - .0755 from left to right for the notch depth. From the table top to the notch bottom I was getting .3590.

Those measurements seem to be adequate.

The fence to table distance is not relevant. The bevel on the rail and base eliminate that(the fence typically clears the table top slightly).

The clamping action of the fence squeezes the rail and causes the base to ride up on the rail.

I doubt the clamp would deflect the rail vertically.

So this is not explained. Looked at the end of the miter gauge bar? Burrs????

Whether a straight edge resting in the bottom of the t slots clears the rail notch would be informative.

Took another look at the first pix. The top of the miter slot extrusion appears to be too low (milled table slot too deep?)

Perhaps shimming the extrusion is a better 'workaround'?)

JPG wrote:Took another look at the first pix. The top of the miter slot extrusion appears to be too low (milled table slot too deep?)

Perhaps shimming the extrusion is a better 'workaround'?)

I like this idea better. I have .0545 from table top to extrusion top. Some wiggle room to shims it up.

Removed the extrusion screws and slid it over to get a depth difference from bottom of the notch to the extrusion bottom of .0235. Could I just use some long strips of paper to shim? I'm thinking it isn't critical that the shim is a hard non-compressive material.

Skizzity wrote:Removed the extrusion screws and slid it over to get a depth difference from bottom of the notch to the extrusion bottom of .0235. Could I just use some long strips of paper to shim? I'm thinking it isn't critical that the shim is a hard non-compressive material.

Not clear what the .0235 is, but I think paper shims would work. Heavier weight, the better(thicker)(think pasteboard). Clean punched holes recommended.