Let me preface this by saying it is partially a rant and partially to hopefully save a little frustration for those planning to reface their Biesemeyer fence extrusion. Long story as short as possible...I had a lot of trouble with the Biesemeyer fences when I first bought my Unisaw a few years ago and Delta ended up giving me a fence from the new version Unisaw.
http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f24/...r-fence-system-newly-redesigned-unisaw-13654/
I was very impressed with this fence however I felt some of the procedures I now do repetitively would benefit from the Unifence so I bought one of those and sold the Biesemeyer. Turns out it wasn't the greatest idea so I decided to buy the newer version Biesemeyer again. First thing I found was there is now a "type 2" which no longer has the aluminum guide tube nor the nicer locking mechanism as shown in my thread above (the type 2 is virtually the same as the original steel tube design just painted black). I preferred the aluminum guide tube of the type 1 so I actually tracked one down even though it had been discontinued and I also tracked down the fence head/extrusion with the nicer locking mechanism. As soon as I opened the box with the extrusion I saw the laminate was peeling on the corner of the left face and subsequent checking showed numerous bubbles in the laminate on both faces so I thought oh crap here we go again! I called to have it replaced however they did not have any more type 1's so I returned it and ended up finding one at another place. Before ordering from them I emailed my concerns due to all the trouble I previously had and asked if they would open the box to check the fence before sending. They said they would and emailed before sending to confirm that the new one was fine. I received the fence and sure enough there was a small bubble however I decided this time I would just reface it myself since I already had the material to do it. I finally got around to starting the reface this past weekend and was surprised at the crap I found (I guess I should have checked it more closely when I received it!)
First thing you can see here is rough edges around the bottom of the laminate where I cut myself while removing it from the box...

Once I removed the laminate (using a heat gun) I found the source of the small bubble which was a blob of glue...

Here you'll notice the plywood is held on with self tapping screws and the face appears to have been ground "flat" before the laminate was applied...

After removing the plywood I saw why the face was ground flat after it had been attached which was the screws had been torqued pretty hard causing "mounds" to form around the holes and probably not leaving the face flat (this pic is actually after I tapped the mounds down with a punch and re-threaded the holes for machine screws).

After seeing this I realized why I had read where numerous people ended up using tape etc as shims when refacing their fences to get it flat so I figured I would remedy this by countersinking the back side of the holes in the new face.

After attaching the new face I found it was still not flat and actually had a "twist" in it. After checking the tubing with a straight edge and winding sticks I saw that it was OK however I noticed something while sighting down the sticks. If you look to the left of the first picture just below the cursor you can see the crappy weld grinding job that left that area proud of the flat surface and caused the twist in the new face. I solved this by just sanding a bit on the back bottom edge of the new face instead of trying to grind the metal. After looking more closely at everything I could see the crappy welding and grinding all over as well as dents etc (you'll also notice in the second picture that the 1/4" bolt on top was too short to even contact the nylon in the self locking nut so I had to replace that)..


So, everything is fine now you say?! Well not quite since when I went to install the handle I could not get the bolt started in the threads and after removing the collar this is what I found..


I fixed this by just drilling the hole in the collar a little larger and I'm waiting on the new t molding before I finish this up and will post that application asap.
Now the ironic part, on top of everything else they even put the decal on backwards :blink:! (edit: I just saw the current "stock" photo actually shows the decal backwards while every other fence on the market including their own in older photos and the owners manual shows it the other way!)


http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f24/...r-fence-system-newly-redesigned-unisaw-13654/
I was very impressed with this fence however I felt some of the procedures I now do repetitively would benefit from the Unifence so I bought one of those and sold the Biesemeyer. Turns out it wasn't the greatest idea so I decided to buy the newer version Biesemeyer again. First thing I found was there is now a "type 2" which no longer has the aluminum guide tube nor the nicer locking mechanism as shown in my thread above (the type 2 is virtually the same as the original steel tube design just painted black). I preferred the aluminum guide tube of the type 1 so I actually tracked one down even though it had been discontinued and I also tracked down the fence head/extrusion with the nicer locking mechanism. As soon as I opened the box with the extrusion I saw the laminate was peeling on the corner of the left face and subsequent checking showed numerous bubbles in the laminate on both faces so I thought oh crap here we go again! I called to have it replaced however they did not have any more type 1's so I returned it and ended up finding one at another place. Before ordering from them I emailed my concerns due to all the trouble I previously had and asked if they would open the box to check the fence before sending. They said they would and emailed before sending to confirm that the new one was fine. I received the fence and sure enough there was a small bubble however I decided this time I would just reface it myself since I already had the material to do it. I finally got around to starting the reface this past weekend and was surprised at the crap I found (I guess I should have checked it more closely when I received it!)
First thing you can see here is rough edges around the bottom of the laminate where I cut myself while removing it from the box...

Once I removed the laminate (using a heat gun) I found the source of the small bubble which was a blob of glue...

Here you'll notice the plywood is held on with self tapping screws and the face appears to have been ground "flat" before the laminate was applied...

After removing the plywood I saw why the face was ground flat after it had been attached which was the screws had been torqued pretty hard causing "mounds" to form around the holes and probably not leaving the face flat (this pic is actually after I tapped the mounds down with a punch and re-threaded the holes for machine screws).

After seeing this I realized why I had read where numerous people ended up using tape etc as shims when refacing their fences to get it flat so I figured I would remedy this by countersinking the back side of the holes in the new face.

After attaching the new face I found it was still not flat and actually had a "twist" in it. After checking the tubing with a straight edge and winding sticks I saw that it was OK however I noticed something while sighting down the sticks. If you look to the left of the first picture just below the cursor you can see the crappy weld grinding job that left that area proud of the flat surface and caused the twist in the new face. I solved this by just sanding a bit on the back bottom edge of the new face instead of trying to grind the metal. After looking more closely at everything I could see the crappy welding and grinding all over as well as dents etc (you'll also notice in the second picture that the 1/4" bolt on top was too short to even contact the nylon in the self locking nut so I had to replace that)..


So, everything is fine now you say?! Well not quite since when I went to install the handle I could not get the bolt started in the threads and after removing the collar this is what I found..


I fixed this by just drilling the hole in the collar a little larger and I'm waiting on the new t molding before I finish this up and will post that application asap.
Now the ironic part, on top of everything else they even put the decal on backwards :blink:! (edit: I just saw the current "stock" photo actually shows the decal backwards while every other fence on the market including their own in older photos and the owners manual shows it the other way!)

