Biesemyer fence repair

uhmw would be my first choice.

-- One of these hammers oughta fix that...

Forgive my ignorance right now but i can’t figure out what uhmw is. ??

-- In the end, when your life flashes before your eyes, will you like what you see?

Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene

-- ... Never Apologise For Being Right ...

I replaced my original plastic-laminate-covered MDF with plastic laminated MDF and then I went right to MDF and I like it fine. If I nick it, I can bondo the wound or putty it. I finished it with lacquer and it is surprisingly durable. I puttied the screw holes but the screws will be much easier to find than if they’re under PL.

I biscuited a piece of maple on the end nearest the operator.

Kindly,

Lee

-- "...in his brain, which is as dry as the remainder biscuit after a voyage, he hath strange places cramm'd with observation, the which he vents in mangled forms." --Shakespeare, "As You Like It"

I have tried UHMW, and it would be my LAST choice. It is WAY too thermally unstable … it will warp & bend when warmed just a bit. I have gobs of it that I dragged home from work out of the scrap bin, hoping to use it for such things … to no avail. If you want to try it for yourself to verify what I’m telling you, send me an address and a few $$$ to cover shipping, and I’ll send you a few pieces. Fortunately for me, I was also able to carry out some scrap Phenolic Board … now THERE’S a first choice … hard .. slick .. smooth .. stable .. easy to machine .. smells like crap, and the dust is very harmful to your lungs. But … it is a great choice for fence facings. Another great option is a piece of a product that WOODCRAFT sells … it is a very straight & flat Baltic Birch with a thin Phenolic facing on both sides.

-- - dabbling in sarcasm is foolish … if you’re not proficient at it, you end up looking stupid … ... ...

Just me…. UHMW is what I call “poor mans teflon” .... it’s a relatively inexpensive plastic, that’s quite slippery. It’s used quite a bit in food industry conveyors, etc…

I’ve used it to face over wood on wood drawer slides on a couple antique chests of drawers (family pieces that were pretty but not especially valuable).

So here’s an idea…. thin UHMW strips applied with PSA tape to a birch plywood face.

I agree that the phenolic faced birch P/W at Woodcraft would be a great option…. but that stuff sells for upwards of $60 for a dinky little 2’ x 3’ piece.

I’ve really liked the extruded alluminum fence on my Craftsman contractors saw, with the T-slots, as you can very easilly mount a sacrificial fence for dados, or a high rise fence for tennons or panels, or a feather board, etc…

So aside for a material recomendation, I’m hoping somebody out there has added some features to their Biesemeyer fence that make it more versatile.

-- Matt, Pine is fine, but Oak's no joke!