digital fence

[charlese]

Good point you dship! I think you are coming close to agreeing with those of us that have no use for measurements in thousandths of inches. Actually, after sizing, I don't have much use for measurements. A sliding story stick (or even two) will give very active results. With their use you can make duplicates of almost anything that come out so close, you can't hardly measure any difference. Story sticks even work to set the rip fence and setting stop blocks on miter fences.

[Ed in Tampa]

One of the things I like about wood working is that no two items are exactly the same. When making a box I make two ends and two sides. I use the same set up for the pairs. No if I duplicate the box and measure close, make two ends and two sides the box is not exactly the same, close but not exactly. I have an Early Inca fence I am getting ready to put on Ebay as I never use it. Similar to the jointech as close as I can tell, but a waste of money since I do not care to spend that much time setting every thing so I can get exact duplicates. If I wanted factory (exact) made furniture I could buy furniture made in a Chinese factory.

You hit one of my hot buttons. I sometimes allow the quest for perfection to take the enjoyment out of woodworking. If you look at (study) even a prized hand made piece you will usually see a flaw or two. Now I'm not advocating sloppy or poorly built projects but a seam where you can slip a hair in does not make the project junk. Or a finish that isn't perfectly flat like plastic does not mean the project should be redone.

Manufactures of these measuring products in their advertisements cite the advantages of their products and one things is it is always easier making whatever with their tool, gizmo, latest idea. The thing we must remember is they are trying to build desire in us to buy their product. If they said, "this thing will allow you to measure to .00001 which is more than enought to drive you crazy", we probably wouldn't buy it. Instead they say, "this gives the precision you have been missing in your work. It will no longer looks hand crafted." No it doesn't, it looks stamped out on CNC machine.

I'm with Chuck above, I'm learning the use of story sticks and you know what wood working is becoming fun again. I built some bathroom cabinets and used a story stick. WOW! What a time saver!!!! Everytime I need to cut something just laid the story stick on the wood and made a mark for exactly where I needed the cut. Know what? I think the resulting cabinet was the best fitting project I have done. I know it was the most fun and the least stressful.

I also picked up some of those brass height/thickness guages that the guys on router work shop use. Boy they are great. Need to measure 1/16" just slap the guage down and set the height/thickness and make the cut. The blocks come in sizes from 1/16", 1/8", 1/4", 3/8", 1/2" so you can set/measure anything from up to an inch with fair accuracy.

No more measuring trying to read rules, scales, dials from now on I lay the guage/story stick on the table and move the fence over until it hits. Or raise the table until the blade and guage are even.

Now I climb off my soapbox and apologize for the outburst.
Ed

[scottss]

I agree with you Ed but I also like the ability to cut at say 6 3/16 then 22 9/16 and then go back to the 6 3/16 ( I got spoiled with my old saw it had a vega fence). I know you can use story sticks but with the clutter in my shop where did that stick go. I really enjoyed making through dovetails on my bandsaw with the setup that Marc Duginski demos in his video/book mastering the bandsaw. I have cut dovetails with a router also and yes they fit great but it doesn't feel hand made. That said I am making an armoire and it has 6 drawers in it and I am using sliding dovetails through out the project.

[hops]

Now I'm not advocating sloppy or poorly built projects but a seam where you can slip a hair in does not make the project junk. Or a finish that isn't perfectly flat like plastic does not mean the project should be redone.

Indeed. I've seen so much garbage coming out of the "home" workshop lately to make me want to cry. But the really sad part is that it is touted as "hand-crafted," as if it were a license for poor craftsmanship. Then it is the reverse scenario - people see that stuff and think, "Well, if that's all the better the "home" woodworkers can do, I'd rather go to XX and get something better." And then we've shot ourselves in the foot for nothing more than laziness or poor skills.

The repeatability that is being slammed a few posts up isn't so that we can make a thousand "CNC duplicates" (- get an OPR for that job!). The repeatability and accuracy make certain jobs a whole lot easier - ever make an 8-pointed star with varying wood and varying lengths? Not impossible without the hightech gadgetry... but a whole lot easier!

So, there's my justification for owning a Jointech system, not that one is needed.

[james.miller]

I would like to see a LASER fence scale, it would use a measuring LASER and be built into the fence. Just set it for the offset of the saw teeth then aim it at the saw plate. The fence could be on the main table, floating table, or extension table and it could measure most any distance. The readout would probably have to be built into or attached to the fence base so it wouldn't interfere with the T-slots in the top of the fence.

It could be switched from fractions to decimal readout. It would be nice if it could read on either side of the saw blade.

Just another toy but it could be convenient.

Jim in Tucson

[charlese]

... I built some bathroom cabinets and used a story stick. WOW! What a time saver!!!! Everytime I need to cut something just laid the story stick on the wood and made a mark for exactly where I needed the cut. Know what? I think the resulting cabinet was the best fitting project I have done. I know it was the most fun and the least stressful.

I also picked up some of those brass height/thickness guages that the guys on router work shop use. Boy they are great. Need to measure 1/16" just slap the guage down and set the height/thickness and make the cut. The blocks come in sizes from 1/16", 1/8", 1/4", 3/8", 1/2" so you can set/measure anything from up to an inch with fair accuracy.

No more measuring trying to read rules, scales, dials from now on I lay the guage/story stick on the table and move the fence over until it hits. Or raise the table until the blade and guage are even.

Now I climb off my soapbox and apologize for the outburst.
Ed

Ed - Loved your soap box!! Yes, it is fun to use sticks and bars/blocks to measure, rather than a ruler. Since, so far, I have been too frugal to invest in a set of those bars - I made a set. Simply used cut offs from planed pieces of different thickneses. Picked these pieces up off the floor, calipered them and wrote the sizes on the blocks. I store them in a drawer so they don't usually get lost. If they do - I can always make more!

Not all my story sticks are the sliding type. Since I have a box full of ripped cut offs (scrap) - I can grab a piece of that and mark the desired length with a sharp pencil - carry it to the band saw and cut it to the proper length. If my band saw is sitting on its stand (instead of being on the SS) I can hand turn the power shaft and cut the stick quite nicely. Always have to re-check the length anyway.