Minimax combination machine Fence

[Cabinetman]

You might remember that I have treated myself to this new machine. I haven’t had much time to play with it really but it was fairly quickly apparent that something had to be sorted with the Fence arrangement when using the T/saw.
The fence as supplied is about 4 feet long, heavy, cumbersome and in my view pretty unusable ( it’s a complaint from most reviews) to use it as a short fence as the HSE and I say is the safe way to do things, it has to be brought back towards the user this brings it so far back as to be completely in the users way.
Also it is the same fence used on the planer, but the aluminium extrusion has to be taken off and turned around to enable you to use it. Sometimes it is handy to move between sawing and planing repeatedly, this is unworkable.
So something had to be done!

The machine
The fence sits on a hefty machined lump of Aluminium and so I replicated the lump in Ash with a ringbolt as the tightening screw, this has a piece of Formica inserted to prevent the end of the ringbolt gouging the bar on the machine. The thumbscrews are temporary till I can get something better.


The fence itself is a piece of 2 1/2” x 1 1/4” Ash with a thin piece of an unknown hardwood on it’s face, this covers the heads of the Coachbolts and allows the fence to slide in and out depending on the operation.




Sorry I haven’t quite got the hang of adding photos yet.
The fence works—perfectly!!

 

[Cabinetman]

More pics.

 

[AJB Temple]

Neat solution Ian.

 

[Mike]

Nice solution, Ian! The fence on your saw appears to be identical to the fence on my FS 30G P/T...



...and nothing at all like the fence on my SC2C, which is easily twice the weight of the FS 30G fence. The fence shown here is in the correct position (according to the manual and German training) for cutting panels about 400mm wide. The end of the fence follows a path that extends away and to the right at a 45-degree angle from the blade arbor.



All of the professional shops I've visited here with Altendorf and Martin sliding saws use a cut-down version of the fence when ripping narrow stock. As you noticed, a significant portion of the stock fence extends towards the operator and can be very annoying, but the short fence fixes that.

I haven't used the rip fence since building the positioner table for the sliding deck. All ripping up to 500mm is done on the sliding side using the crosscut fence for one point and the positioner for the second point. I use just the crosscut fence for cuts greater than 500mm.

 

[Cabinetman]

Yes Mike that does indeed look identical to mine.
I looked at the positioner you made in great detail, maybe if in use I find I start to use the slider for cuts I might build one. Thanks but early days yet, when doing repeat crosscuts I suppose My new Fence when pulled back is acting as a positioner? Interesting that with the larger sliding saws they use a short cut down version, is the extrusion commonly available?
Ian

 

[Mike]

Yes Mike that does indeed look identical to mine.
I looked at the positioner you made in great detail, maybe if in use I find I start to use the slider for cuts I might build one.

If you decide to build a similar positioner, you are on the best side of the Atlantic (assuming you are still in PA) to buy an Incra positioner.

Thanks but early days yet, when doing repeat crosscuts I suppose My new Fence when pulled back is acting as a positioner?

Yes, I used the fence, pulled way back, as a positioner when making repeated crosscuts. A similar process can be used on the U.S. style saws with full length fences by clamping a board to the infeed side that does not interfere with the wood as it reaches the cutting edge of the blade.

Interesting that with the larger sliding saws they use a short cut down version, is the extrusion commonly available?
Ian

Not so much for the SCM saws, but shops that spend €40K on a saw tend to get what they want from the distributor.

When I helped clear out the warehouse after my SCM distributor closed shop, I found over a dozen new fences for Martin and Altendorf saws, but none for the SCM. Unfortunately, all of the fences went into the scrap metal bin. On a happy note, while clearing out a set of shelves that had not been touched in years, I found a new miter fence for my saw still in the box. The owner had no idea when it was ordered or for whom it was ordered, but I could have it.