Official Luthiers Forum!

I've been eyeing Laguna Tools' DriftMaster fence since they came out. They're running a sale for the month of January, so I picked one up and installed it last night.

Here's my quick take on the pros and cons.

Pros:
* As the name indicates, it makes it very simple to adjust for drift. No tools required, and adjustment only takes a few seconds.
* The micro-adjustment is fantastic. Anyone who does any resawing at all will love this fence.
* It is EXTREMELY well made. Everything about this fence is substantial. Every time you touch it, you feel like you are handling an expensive tool (and you are).

Cons:
* It's pricey. The sale this month helps, but it's still an expensive tool.
* The written instructions are quite bad. Fortunately, they give you a DVD that walks you through the setup; unfortunately, it's a hassle to try to watch a DVD in my garage while I setup my bandsaw, so I just focused on the written instructions. That turned out to be a mistake. I had to install most parts 2-3 times before I got them right. Even still, taking my time, and re-installing things 2-3 times, it took me only an hour or so to get it right.

I can see that this fence will be a good investment for me. For me, this hobby is about having fun, and setting up the bandsaw fence is one of those things that I have always seen as a hassle. Eliminating hassle makes it more fun, and that's money well spent. But even from a purely economic standpoint, I expect that this fence will pay for itself. I use my bandsaw a lot in luthiery -- not just for resawing my own backs and sides (which I do), but for making binding/purfling, resawing electric guitar tops, and dozens of other parts. (I also resaw a lot of panels and veneers when I make furniture.) While I usually do a good job setting up my saw, I occasionally make a mistake, and that usually means ruining an expensive back or side on an acoustic or an expensive top for an electric. If this fence decreases those mistakes enough to save a couple modestly priced back/side sets or electric tops (or just one fairly expensive one) over the next few years, it will pay for itself and then some.

One note: Like a lot of people in Cyberspace who have reviewed this fence, I struggled to set it up in a way that would allow me to open the door on my bandsaw. In fact, of my 1-hour set-up time, most of that hour was spent trying to figure out how I was going to open the bandsaw door to change blades. If you get one of these fences, remember this tip: Your bandsaw table probably tilts. (I know, most of us never use the tilt mechanism.) Tilting the table should move the fence up high enough to allow the door to open freely. Doh!

Thanks for the review, Kelby.

Say, you used to post more often here and it has been a while since I have seen any of your guitars. It could be my memory is bad, but I would like to invite you to share more of your builds with us!

_________________
"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Thanks, Steve!

I've been browsing the forum a lot, but posting less. Mostly, it's because for the last 12-18 months, I've had to fit my guitar building in between some major furniture projects as well as some unduly elaborate home improvement projects. I'm still building though -- in fact, I've been building way too many guitars at the same time, with the unfortunate result that it takes a looonnng time for any one of them to get finished!

Right now, I've got a classical, three OMs, and three electrics in the works. I'm particularly excited about two of the electrics, which my fifteen-year-old son and I are building. Each will have a Chinese Dragon fretboard inlay that my son designed. With all the other non-guitar projects in the works, it'll probably be a month or two, but I'll post some pics of the inlaid fretboards when they are done.

Thanks for the encouragement!

Kelby,

I bought one of those back when they were on sale for $275, free shipping, ... hope your price was close to that. Right now they are $295 plus free shipping and they include a resawking blade sized for your saw. I found all of this on Sawmillcreek.org under Deals.

I love the fence. Use it all the time. I had a few install challenges as well. I wish there was a way to move the fence faster for large adjustments. But as far as eliminating drift, it is amazing. I am thinking this would be a bit of overload on saws 14" or less. I think Chris Paulick tried it and gave up. But for saws bigger than that, its great.

BTW, Tim at Laguna told me that an extra fence is under development and should be available soon. It is 8" tall as opposed to the 4" fence that comes with the Driftmaster.

Mike

Mike, if I understand your complaint about moving the fence faster for large adjustments, there is a lever on the underside of the fence plate that will disengage the fence plate from the threaded rod, allowing you to slide the fence freely. You can re-engage the threaded rod for microadjustments.

I bought a Driftmaster for my Laguna16HD a couple of years ago.
Though a DVD was promised it wasn't in the box- only the written directions. (I talked to Laguna on the phone and they assured me that they would send me a DVD in the mail 'right away'. I'm still waiting for it.
There were a number of 'mystery parts' included which were not mentioned in the parts list/directions. Adapter plates??
I'm generally pretty 'handy' with mechanical stuff, but I found the install to be a challenge. Part of the problem might have been that I expected a straight 'bolt-on' installation - Laguna saw, Laguna fence.. ???
As I recall there was some filing of holes and such to get things to line up properly. Even with that, the workpiece still doesn't lie absolutely flat on the saw table as the fence bracket is a bit higher.

The basic design is good- the fence is very sturdy throughout and adjustments are easy. The microadjust does work helps a lot when making small adjustments for resawing. All the parts are steel except the fence itself, which is an aluminum extrusion. It's a simple matter to drill and tap a couple of holes in the aluminum to attach a suitable board (sink cutouts and formica/melamine shelves work well for this) to give more height to support taller work for resawing.

In short, I agree 100% with Kelby's comments. It's pricey, solid, and works well but the installation is more aggravation than it should be.

Cheers
John

John, that's unfortunate about the parts and DVD missing. FYI, the material on the DVD is all available on the Laguna website. It is a four-part series of video clips. They are pretty well-done.

Kelby-
Thanks for the tip. I'll check out the videos.

Seriously? No way! How did I miss that? Gonna go check right now!

John, you should talk to Tim (from Laguna) over at Sawmillcreek.org under the Deals & Discounts forum. He is there everyday answering questions. Tell him I sent you to get this fixed.

Mike

Well I'll be dipped in chicken feathers! I never noticed that lever!! And there sure as heck was nothing in the paper instructions about that! Must have been on the DVD (which I never looked at). Oh, well, RTFM (or DVD as it were).

I take back my complaint. The Driftmaster is perfect.

Mike