Speaking of the BT3 fence...

[Bill in Buena Park]

My fence clamp has always seemed "difficult" - when clamping, it always took what I considered too much effort to secure the clamp, and when I did, the I could not get the handle to a "fully-down" position, and the clamp would ride up on the front rail.

After trying several things, including those recommendations from the FAQ, I could not prevent the riding up or get to fully-down, so after examining the front clamp mechanism and seeing no allowance for adjustment, I located plastic bushing that is positioned between the clamp cam and the rail (secured by two small screws in the clamp assembly), which I then removed.

This helped - but too much; the clamp moved easily to a secured, fully-down position which did lock onto the front rail, but the rear clamp would not lock to the rear rail... and adjusting the rear clamp to compensate required moving the screw in so far that I could not get the fence off the rear rail when it was unlocked.

Solution: I took the plastic bushing to my bench grinder, removed about 1/32 of the material thickness from where the cam contacts it, and reinstalled it in the fence clamp - then reset the rear clamp screw back to original position. Fence now locks smoothly and securely, front and back, handle fully-down, no ride up. (Also took a moment to recheck fence/rail/blade settings - still DNO . )

Has anyone has to do anything similar to get the fence clamp working properly?

[rjwaldren]

I have the same problem here and though it make it hard to just lock the rail with out having to fidget with it to get the rail locked exactly where to want it, I guess I'm just used to it. I'll take a look at mine to see it it would help.

After reading through the survey thread it looks like using the rail scale would solve some of the issues. The fence seem to lock DNO with the scale but requires some compensation when measuring to the blade.

[ronbrunton]

I had the same problem - although perhaps not as serious as Bill, and I didn't need to use his somewhat drastic solution. It turned out to be sawdust behind the plastic bushing, and it was solved with a couple of blasts from a can of compressed air.

[Black wallnut]

By design there should be no need to lower the fence handle much past horizontal. If you were trying to lower yours farther than that it could have caused your fence's front block to lift. If the glass filled nylon glides are out of adjustment they could cause the fence to lift before the clamping bosses are in firm contact with the rear surface of the front rail.

[dkerfoot]

My fence is getting harder to lock. Specifically, it locks in the front pretty much as before, but I have to press down harder and lower the handle further to get it to lock in the back compared to when it was new.

I remember seeing something about maintenance/tuning of the fence before, but can't seem to locate it.

Does anyone either have a link the information or a suggestion for bringing it back to new?

Thanks!

[cgallery]

I have found that the cam mechanism needs to be oiled. I tried dry lubricants but they just didn't help much or long. A drop of oil on each side of the cam mechanism has taken care of that. Now the clamp easily pushes all the way down (like it did when new). And the oil doesn't seem to attract any dust because it is pretty well protected.

The only problem is that that the oil gets into the cam threads and the handle occasionally loosens.

[LCHIEN]

my handle never did and does not go "fully down" I suppose as the plastic cam wears it will go farther down. You have to push real hard to get it past "four o'clock" I believe.

[Bill in Buena Park]

my handle never did and does not go "fully down" ... You have to push real hard to get it past "four o'clock" I believe.

I had wondered about this, but not liking the handle sticking straight out (thats about as far as mine would go) and not getting a good cam lock without really leaning on it (and then getting the fence to ride up) made me think that maybe I just had a bad cam-lobe. I realized a thinner plastic spacer would work (but doubted it was available) ... so the small amount of shaving gets me to "four o'clock" smoothly/easily now, and firm (but not hard) pressure gets me to "fully down" and locked with no ride-up.

Probably not an orthodox "service bulletin".