DIY Bandsaw Fence

My refurbished bandsaw has worked great for me but was still lacking something. The Kreg universal bandsaw fence has been on wishlist for some time but for at a cost of over $100 I decide to make my own when I saw this simple design.

 

The design I saw used maple for the fence itself and a soft 2x4 for the side supports. I had some left over birch 3/4 plywood laying around so I started gluing stuff up. I glued 2 pieces together for the fence and 3 for the side supports.

The next day I ripped the supports at a 45" angle and cut the and front and back rail guides to match. The back guide has 4x3.5" screws countersunk in and seem pretty solid. For the side supports, I referred to the Kreg universal manual and found that the Ridgid, Jet, Craftsman and Import Mount bandsaws call for M6 x 1 x 30mm Hex bolt. (The Delta uses a 1/4-28x1-14") I ran down to the hardware store and got a slighter longer bolt for my bandsaw and mounted everything up.

I asked about a plastic knob while I was at a big box store and they didn't know anything about it. I ended up making my own using some plywood, a carriage bolt and nut. I got one of those nuts with big claws that you hammer in but couldn't really get it to stay put so I epoxied the crap out of it. (Works good now)

I used a hinge to attach the tensioner which has worked pretty good but I might eventually upgrade it to a heavy duty one in the future. Making some small tweaks to hing helped make sure the fence was perpendicular to the table. As for making sure it's perfectly straight I  followed the general alignment guide for a bandsaw fence. Using a long strip of wood with a straight line down the middle, you follow the line freehand and then mark on the edge of wood on the table. I then reference this line with the front/back of the fence when setting up cuts. I then marked 1" increments on both front and back supports to make it easier to line up. So far so good!