There are a few reasons that you might want to slice wood finely using a bandsaw. For me, it is usually because I have some highly figured wood that I want to try and spread out over a larger area and by making thin slices I can book match the wood, or just use more of it in different areas, but sometimes I am wanting to cut wood in thin strips for a banding job too ... lots of different reasons.
Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/OXuo7ALndrE
This is a pretty easy auxiliary fence to make, I basically consist of one vertical piece of wood that comes to a point, or it could simply be rounded, either way, the point of a pivot fence is to be able to slice wood evenly over wider pieces of stock lumber.
I started off taking some rough measurements of how high, how wide and how deep this auxiliary fence would be. It really depends on the base of your bandsaw, but mine was 10 inches wide, by 8 inches deep, and of course all made from 3/4 inch plywood, except for the vertical pivot point which is better off being made with natural wood, in my case 8-inch high piece os Red Oak.
I started off my setting my table saw at 34 degrees, then ripping one side over Oak, then flipping it over to do the other side. As luck would have it, that gave me a perfect point that all I had to do was sand off the edge os the point to make it round.
Next, I cut the holes for the Matswitch jig using my 1-3/8 Forstner bit to make an elongated hole that was measure using my measuring bars to extend an additional 3/8 inch.
Mounting the Oak pivot point took a bit more time because I wanted to make sure the screws that I drove up from underneath the base, were centered, so I clamped a guide piece of wood to the edge to help me keep it aligned.
After the center point was fastened I screwed the side braces to both the upright and the base using Kreg Screws to ensure the center pivot point would remain vertical.
The last step is to test it to see how well it works. I first set up my bandsaw with a good ripping blade, the marked a piece of off-cut spalted Alder I had so that I would be able to cut a thin 1/4 inch piece from it.
I set up the pivot fence and locked it down, turned on the bandsaw and started cutting. The process is a bit slow because I wanted to make sure I got a good cut ... which I did. The pivot fence worked great and the result was 1/4 inch, thin piece of spalted alder ...
Order this Magswitch direct from Mag Tools US and receive a 10% Discount
The version of Magswitch I use and recommed is the 150. I costs a bit more than the 95, but has a better holding power.
Now I'm all ready to go when I get a link on some nice, tiger maple boards are rumored to be at a local mill ....
Copyright Colin Knecht
woodworkweb.com
