Over the last several years I've been working on a pet project of mine: an automated table saw fence. I do a lot of high end cabinetry work and just got tired of messing with a fence all day. Tap a little to left, now to the right, no too far, back to the left, you know the drill.
So anyway I set out to build a table saw fence that could be controlled with a keypad, could self calibrate by touching the blade, and then lock on its own when it goes to the desired width. I called it Pick-it Fence.
I designed it to fit on a Biesemeyer rail just in case I wanted to switch back. Plus I didn't want to have to drill into the table saw and deal with the hassle of fixing another rail to it so I just welded a pinion rack underneath the existing rail. I had thought about using a worm drive design but after some research I settled on rack and pinion.
After I settled on drive system I started messing with machine control. I retro fitted a keypad and relabeled the buttons then hooked it up to a seven segment display.
Of course then I needed to add some motor control:
Then I created a floating ground to make a connection to the saw blade and "zero out". On the side of the body are two flush screws that ground when they touch the blade.
I used it for a few years hoping to productize it but then the recession hit and that put me back for a few years. Fast forward to 2017 and I reached out to a product design company to fully develop it into a product. I didn't have any CAD or documentation so they pretty much redesigned the whole thing, keeping the core features the same. They kinda went all out lol:
We changed the name and did some rebranding, changed the name to Rip-it, and now we're launching on Kickstarter! Sorry I don't mean to be spammy. I'm just really excited about bringing Rip-it to life and wanted to see what you guys thought! You can see a video of it in action here:
Looks like a solution in search of a problem. I have my fence and rule adjusted when I put it on the measurement and lock it down it is there. Enjoy it while you work it.
@oldnovice Haha yes I've been sitting on this for awhile. I actually have the original patent on this and I think that's what's kept some people at bay. https://patents.google.com/patent/US5524514A/en
Although the design has changed, it's still fully patented!
@wanho609 Thank you! Please spread the word!
@gr8hunter Rip-it actually does save you money if you run a professional shop. We did an independent time study and this is 6x faster than a standard fence.
@johnstoneb For me the time savings is what really does it. It's personally saved me hours and allowed me to get projects done a lot faster with less headache and rework. I'd be grabbing the next piece of wood while Rip-it was moving to its width and it was locked in by the time I was ready to cut.
Can it come off the rail easily? Since my saw is a slider with a Biesemeyer, I often remove the fence if I want to place long panels on the crosscut table.
Hmmm…. I love gadgets and appreciate the engineering that went into this. It is cool. I'm just wondering if it's all that useful. Looks like the video has it on a Sawstop?? My stock Sawstop fence, once calibrated, is dead on. The little magnifier bubble on the rail rule is easy to set and gives consistent cuts each time. It's really not a problem to set and takes seconds. Like someone said before, I wonder if this is a solution in search of a problem?
Either way, I hope I'm wrong and you do well with it. And… it is a way cool mechanism.
Altendorf, SCM, Martin, Felder, Tigerstop etc. all disagree.
Efficiency and automation in woodworking(and everything else) is the present and future, like it or not.
Something like this may not be for the average Joe who pulls out his table saw every second Sunday afternoon for an hour or two, but for the serious hobbyist, semi-professional and beyond there is definitely a market for products like these.
Very cool project and good luck with it, but doesn't Tigerstop already offer a similar solution? Is there something about your design that offers an advantage over their product?
We had a club member do a similar thing to his tablesaw years ago. I hope things go good for your idea. It is a little more technical than his was great job on the fence.
I hope I don't sound like sour grapes when I wonder how long it will be before Mathias Waddel from Woodgears engineers something like this from spare parts in his shop.
Stumpy will probably beat Mathias to it. It will be interesting seeing who wins out. It is not a new concept just a new twist on it since it's been done before.
I hope I don t sound like sour grapes when I wonder how long it will be before Mathias Waddel from Woodgears engineers something like this from spare parts in his shop.
Yes it come right off by loosening 3 hex screws right below the display. It takes about 10 seconds!
Can it come off the rail easily? Since my saw is a slider with a Biesemeyer, I often remove the fence if I want to place long panels on the crosscut table.
Thank you! We've talked with a number of bigger guys and serious hobbyists and it literally saves them thousands of dollars per year in labor cost. That's how much time is saved.
Looks like a solution in search of a problem.
- johnstoneb
Altendorf, SCM, Martin, Felder, Tigerstop etc. all disagree.
Efficiency and automation in woodworking(and everything else) is the present and future, like it or not.
Something like this may not be for the average Joe who pulls out his table saw every second Sunday afternoon for an hour or two, but for the serious hobbyist, semi-professional and beyond there is definitely a market for products like these.
Thank you! TigerStop does have a solution but it's a huge contraption with a totally separate display that you need to walk around to in order to operate. http://www.jgmachinery.com/lib/images/equipment/TCC-01.jpg.
It's also about 6 thousand dollars.
Very cool project and good luck with it, but doesn't Tigerstop already offer a similar solution? Is there something about your design that offers an advantage over their product?
Looks like a solution in search of a problem. I have my fence and rule adjusted when I put it on the measurement and lock it down it is there. Enjoy it while you work it.
Thank you! TigerStop does have a solution but it s a huge contraption with a totally separate display that you need to walk around to in order to operate. http://www.jgmachinery.com/lib/images/equipment/TCC-01.jpg.
It s also about 6 thousand dollars.
The refined version looks pretty slick. More than this hobbyist needs on his SawStop PCS, but still very nice.
I thought the whole point of the TigerStop was to avoid walking around. It is designed for sliding table saws and having the input control panel on a separate arm lets you enter the information without walking around the end of the sliding table. Watch their video. It could certainly be used for a non-slider, but that is not the intended purpose of the design.
I looked at your link to your patent. I don't know if what I saw was the entire patent of just a portion. I am sure you are aware that having a patent allowed and issued is not the end of the drama, it is often just the beginning. Witness SawStop and Bosch. No competitors would bother to spend the time and money to have a patent invalidated unless and until the patent holder begins to commercialize the invention. When you "go live" in three days you might hear from some competitors like TigerStop who feel that your product infringes on some of their patents. Not saying it is going to happen, but just a heads up to be prepared if it comes to pass.
I commend your on you work. You have done very well and I couldn't begin design and build that fence. So don't take this as a negative because it's not. There are lot of automated fence and other automated task (raise and lower saw blade and tilt the blade to a set angle etc.) on European sliding table saws and have been for a long time.
I've never seen a automated fence on American, Chinese, Taiwanese machines that target the hobby/small shop type woodworker. This is where I think your product could find a niche. If it works, is accurate and a reasonable price you might be able to sell some of those fences.
One down side when targeting hobbyist/small shops is cost. A lot of woodworkers love harbor freight. I envision your fence can not compete with harbor freight pricing.
Good luck. Hope you can pull this off. Do to age I'm nearing the end of long hours in the shop and not doing much paid work any more. 10 years ago I could see me buying your fence for my cabinet saw.
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