Customer Reviews

Kreg KMS7200 Bandsaw Fence

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the perfect accessory for a 14" bandsaw. It's solid, well-designed, versatile, and comes in first-rate packaging with an excellent guide for installation and use. You easily can set it up to compensate for blade drift -- the normal tendency for the blade to cut at a slight angle to 90 degrees. Once you do, you can make perfectly straight parallel cuts, something that's difficult without a fence and very frustrating with a fence that's not easily adjustable. There's a steel stick-on ruler and a small plastic magnifying cursor to help set the width of a cut.

Kreg offers a "micro-adjuster" accessory to help zero in on the dimension, but the supplied cursor lets you be very precise, so I'd skip that particular accessory. There are also two add-ons to help resaw wide boards, but unless you've installed a riser to open up th esaw to resaw 12" boards, you probably don't need the larger one, and if you don't have a riser you probably don't need the smaller add-on for re-sawing.

The fence is very solid. Take your time installing and adjusting it so that the track is level and just a bit below the miter gauge groove in the bandsaw table -- that way the fence will ride flat along the table. The one complaint I can think of is that the fence is fairly short -- it reaches all the way across the 14" table of my Ridgid bandsaw, but it would be a couple of inches short on a higher-priced saw like a high-end 14" Delta. (Even so, it would be completely functional on a wider table.)

ANY fence would be better than most OEM fences, and so it is with the Kreg. I also have the Kreg table miter gauge. There is one thing that really bugs me about this fence and that is that the rail mounts to the left, where as the original hung to the right. This makes the already difficult process of blade changing much more difficult. With a carbide blade I end up damaging them. Trying to wind a 1/2" wide blade around this thing is a nightmare.

I solved this problem by slotting out the left bolt hole to the top so that I can just loosen it and let the rail swing down. If you do a lot of blade changes, you'll hate the thing. I detested it before I thought of making the modification, which takes only 10 min. to do by cutting it out on the saw itself. Just add a star washer under the bolt head to keep it from slipping down. Now I love it. Kreg should have thought of this.

Another negative point is that the fence does not maintain positive parallel to the blade until the clamp is actuated, which always causes it to move (just like the OEM). Thus, I always have to fiddle with it a bit to get the right adjustment. This is a minor annoyance that could have been eliminated by better design. It should work just like a good table saw fence, right? But doesn't. If you're looking for a fence with instant, positive, accurate lock-down, this isn't it.

The ability to flip the fence (high and low), add an adjustable, higher backrest for veneer sawing, along with the micoadjuster are great. But for the above complaints, I would have given it 5 stars.

I bought the Kreg fence from a local store as an upgrade to my existing 14 inch bandsaw. It installed on my saw very easily using the ample hardware supplied by Kreg, and is a well made and accurate device. It's well worth the few extra dollars over the standard Taiwanese fences sold as accessories by the major manufacturers.
Among the many things to like about this fance is the ease with which it can be removed and replaced in case you need the extra depth on the table. By way of explanation; you loose about 2 inches (a 14 inch saw becomes a 12 inch saw) if you leave the fence in place and just push it back to the frame. If you need those few inches though, they are easy to recover because of Kreg's mounting system. Drift is easily accomodated for, but I (surprisingly) find that with my saw well adjusted and a good blade in place, I can cut remarkably straight using the fence alone. A pleasant surprise! Kreg also put thought into placing T slots that make adding sub fences and a resaw attachment very easy, and also allow the fence to be turned on it's side if you need to lower the upper guides for cutting thin stock. Even the rule, which adjusts for zero offset and is easy to read is well designed. Everything about this fence is well thought-out, and it does it's main job of providing a stable and solid cutting guide just about perfectly.
The only real criticism I have is of the micro adjuster, which I find cumbersome and redundant, as does one of the other reviewers here. Maybe I'd find it useful if I was resawing a lot of veneer, but my saw isn't set up for that. Instead, save your money, buy just the fence, and you can't go wrong. I give the fence five stars because I feel
it looks good, installs easily and does it's job without a hitch, but the micro adjuster almost caused me to downgrade it to four. Just skip that piece, and you have the perfect small band saw fence.

I mounted this thing to a Craftsman 12-inch bandsaw, even though it's supposed to be installed on a 14-inch. I had to drill a couple of holes in the side of the saw table. It was a snap to mount and true up. When the fence is tightened for use, I believe you could swing on the fence without moving it out of place. Great product.

I recently purchased a no-name 14inch bandsaw that was about 10 years old. It ran good, but needed TLC. After a lot of cleaning and table polishing, blade replacing... I was wondering if I should have spent the money on a new saw. Well after adding the Kreg Bandsaw fence, no need. The bandsaw cuts straight and true. I find the accuracy to be surprising, and precision cuts are easily repeated. This product along with a nice couple of blades made my old bandsaw a delight to use.

Installation directions were excellent, but I had to use a file to modify the main mount. Aluminum is easily filed as opposed to steel. Keep in mind that my saw is made by someone I've never heard of, and would likely fit most 14inch saws.

The fence is rock solid, the rule and gauge easily read. I added the 4 1/2 resaw accessory, and it works well enough.

I liked the item so much that I purchased a Kreg mitre gauge for my Unisaw. It is also excellent. I plan to purchase more of the Kreg Blue railing (used for the bandsaw fence and mitre gauge) for some of the jigs that I want to build. It is good stuff and available up to 48inches.

Most original band saw fences are lousy at best, unless you buy more expensive saws. This is definitely a great improvement over my original Delta 14" band saw fence which came with the saw. It was easy to install and it works fine for what it is designed to do. Be prepared for a lot of adjustments to get it almost perfect though.

I was very skeptical about an aluminum fence that only clamps on one end. I am very pleasantly surprised. It is VERY sturdy, and the adjustability, both laterally and vertically, make it almost perfect. I adjusted it to compensate for drift when I installed it, and haven't had to readjust it again. My only complaint is that it comes about 2 inches short of going all the way across the table on my 14" Delta. Why wouldn't they make it just 2 inches longer so would go all the way across???????? Ridiculous, but it works nevertheless. I'm very happy with it.

This fence is the best rated of them all, that is what led me to purchase it even though I was a bit skeptical. The fence only anchors on one side, but so does a Biesmeyer fence, and that fence is rock solid. However the Kreg fence will flex since it made of aluminum, and this causes blade drift if you are resawing heavy timbers. I am going to scrap it in favor of a fence that secures on both ends.

rgds

This fence didn't fit on my 18" delta band saw. I would be nice if the product literature would mention that.

The quality of some of the materials was disappointing. Kreg could at least have used stainless steel bolts and screws, and sturdier knobs.

The adjustment mechanism for drift was not as easy to use as it could be. One could make a drift fence in about the same time as it takes to adjust the fence.

The microadjuster would have a better feel if it was constructed of higher grade materials.

I give Kreg 4 stars for making an effort.
3 stars for the quality of the product.

I've been using this fence for about a year and while its well made, it has one serious fault. That is that there is too much play in the fence carriage and track, so that like an old table saw fence, when you tighten it down, the fence moves, resulting in many aggravating readjustments. Further, this make the micro adjuster useless.

Finally I hit on the idea of of installing two 1/4 -20 nylon tensioning screws on the front side of the carriage by drilling and tapping the aluminum extrusion, one at each end. These screws snug against the track and remove virtually all play. Micro adjuster now works perfectly.

The slotted extrusion is good for adding a tall fence extension for resawing wider boards. Being able to flip it to a low fence is also useful for ripping very thin stock.

Any fence you buy should have a means of adjusting parallelism as well as removing slack that comes with wear.