About to install wixey

[tvrgeek]

Wixey came for my table saw.
Question: Does anyone find it useful to have track to the left of the blade? What I was thinking is if I go ahead and shift it so I get the 32 inches on my right side, I only need a few inches past the splice which I believe is a slight vulnerability in accuracy. Personally, I don't remember the last time I used my fence to the left. Of course, I will have it far enough over for the thinnest fence face. Jigs? Mitered slot?

Looks like it will mount to the Harvey fence bolts. No drilling maybe. No big deal if it does.

If I had room, I would move the fence to the right a few inches and convert the fence from a "T" to an "L" and get another foot of width, but I just don't. Actually, if I had the room, I would lust after a big Hammer/Felder but that is after I win the lottery.

 

[Charles Lent]

My table saw is a right tilt Unisaw with a 52" Unifence. After installing the Wixey DRO to the right side of the blade I was wishing that the readout strip and extrusion ran to the left side of the blade too, not only for the ability to use the readout to the left of the blade, but also to keep the readout head from falling to the floor when it was moved past the left end of the extruded rail. A contact with Wixey got me another extrusion and strip, and I now have the ability to use my DRO anywhere on the full width of my Unisaw and right side table.

I used short pieces of 1/2" square steel tubing, mounted to drilled and tapped holes in the underside of the Unifence rail that are long enough to extend out from the under side of the rail so that I could attach the Wixey extrusions up side down to them. Then I installed the readout strips in them right side up. Doing this placed the extrusions in the perfect position for the readout module to magnetically attach to either side of the Unifence main casting, but the casting is aluminum. So I cut the Wixey target strip in half and drilled mounting holes in one end of each and drilled and threaded holes in the Unifence casting so that the magnets in the left and right ends of the Wixey readout module would touch them with the readout on either side of the Unifence casting.

I can now move my fence the full width of my Unisaw and extension table with the DRO module on either side of the fence and not worry about the DRO module running off the end of the extruded rail and falling to the floor and I can use the DRO on either side of the fence at any position of the fence, even on the left side of the blade.

I have photos to show all of this, but at this time they aren't in the computer that I'm using. If requested, I will work on getting them moved so that I can attach them to this post.

Charley

 

[tvrgeek]

Good point to look at, unit falling off. Bouncing of floor is never a good thing. Maybe I should have the rail full width, but just offset the track so the splice is in a rare used area. It may be fine, gut those little dimples do not look to be terribly accurate to align.

I added a stop for the fence as it could slide off.

 

[Oka]

I thought about whether to run left of the saw blade or not, and on one of my saws, I did put the Wixey track full length. Only used left of the blade a few times in the years I owned that saw. Didn't hurt anything. For the money nice add. One thing I did notice, when the battery began to get old, the measure would be laggy, that was the indication the battery was dying. Replaced the battery twice over 2.7 years

 

[tvrgeek]

Well, I put it on full width.
Center fence bolt was in the exact best location, so only had to drill 3 holes.
Far right mount was past the fence mount rail, so used a few washers to make up the difference.
Wiggling aside, center joint was not perfect. A bit of diamond file and it is smooth.
I hope the alignment of the strip center is good enough. There is a tiny amount of play. I think I would pay the extra shipping for a one piece 60 inch rail and track.

Their instructions are a bit weak. Not a problem if you ae mechanically inclined, but leaving things out like reminding you to clean the rail with before mounting the strip.

I thought about shifting the track to the left so the splice was out of the right side and just give up measurements to the far right, but did it in the center.

Now with the aaa batteries, easy and cheap to keep a pile on hand. I but the big boxes off Amazon.

All the chips that are used in DROs and calipers don't do a good job of telling you the battery is getting low.

 

[Charles Lent]

If the strips are stuck on well and there is a tiny misalignment between them, enough to catch the head as you slide it over the joint, a piece of Scotch tape over the joint helps the head slide over it. You can also loosen the screws on the back of the head to make it slide easier. Not too much or it will have problems reading.

Charley

 

[tvrgeek]

Not the issue. The issue is if they are not as perfectly spaced as the regular "teeth", then that introduces a measurement error. Only a few thou, but it adds up. My original thought, and maybe I should have, was to move the strip over so it was a full strip with a few inches at the far right where the splice would have been rather than just to the right of the blade.

 

[Charles Lent]

With the extra extrusion and strip from Wixey, I centered the most used area on one strip and attached them to my fence rail and cut the ends of both where they exceeded the length of my saw table and extension table. This gave me a better chance of having perfect accuracy when cutting the smaller work, but even when crossing from one strip to another, I have not found any significant errors. That little detent tool does a pretty good job of aligning the ends of the strips.

Charley

 

[tvrgeek]

I hope so. Only making some sawdust will tell.

 

[Lil Jack]

Wixey came for my table saw.
Question: Does anyone find it useful to have track to the left of the blade? What I was thinking is if I go ahead and shift it so I get the 32 inches on my right side, I only need a few inches past the splice which I believe is a slight vulnerability in accuracy. Personally, I don't remember the last time I used my fence to the left. Of course, I will have it far enough over for the thinnest fence face. Jigs? Mitered slot?

Looks like it will mount to the Harvey fence bolts. No drilling maybe. No big deal if it does.

If I had room, I would move the fence to the right a few inches and convert the fence from a "T" to an "L" and get another foot of width, but I just don't. Actually, if I had the room, I would lust after a big Hammer/Felder but that is after I win the lottery.

Hi, I have a Hammer Felder C3 31 for sale if you ever find the room.

 

[tvrgeek]

Well, I have had the WIXEY for a while. Guess what? I don't use it much. Going to put one on my DW 735 though. I decided to keep it for a while even though I know I want a PowerMatic 15 inch planer.