"Some images on this page are computer-generated representations of the product and may differ from the actual product. Colors, textures, and other details may not be accurately represented in the images. Please refer to the product description and specifications for more information."
I’ve had my Big Eye installed for a week and I must say I’m very impressed! Everything from the packaging to the quality is top notch. The set up went smoothly and adjustment was very straightforward. Harvey definitely has a winner with the Big Eye.
Having completed the installation and set up, it seems to work great. Right now I am very happy with it and plan to spend a lot of time using it. Harvey has done a great job on the design and use of high quality parts and workmanship.
BIG EYE B-36/B-52 RIP FENCE SYSTEM
While the PM66 has proven itself to be all the cabinet saw I need, the Powermatic rip fence has never delivered the accuracy I require. As soon as I saw the Big Eye fence I knew it was the solution to my problem. Unboxing, it appeared every bit as well-engineered as I'd expected.
Installation involved:
-- Drilling clearance holes on the front skirt of the main table and extension table;
-- Drilling and tapping holes on the rear skirt;
-- Drilling clearance holes on the extension table rear skirt;
-- Cutting the supplied steel rod to 90mm and installing at the rear of the fence to account for the shorter depth (710mm) of the PM main table.
That was the extent of the machining needed to install both rails and the fence.
The fence kisses my Forrest Woodworker II blades perfectly in both high and low positions without needing further adjustment. I still need to check against at least one of my thin-kerf blades. The fence vs. either T-slot aligns front to back with only a couple thousandths (.001") variation. Locked vs. unlocked: no change. It wasn't necessary to add any of the supplied shims.
I can now take 1/32-inch slices from long stock with the expectation that their variance in thickness will be virtually undetectable with a micrometer, much less with the naked eye.
Love the adjustable scales; the long and short scales are easy to read. I anticipate the short scale on the left to get not a lot of usage as the left table extension has been replaced by an Excalibur sliding table. Perhaps I can use the short scale to establish the zero point for thin-kerf blades...
Overall a bullet-proof, engineering tour-de-force. Many thanks, Harvey...
The fine-adjust wheel needed nothing to tune it.
Moving from a contactor's saw to this is night and day. Plenty of power to rip 8/4 stock. The blade height and bevel adjustments are smooth and easy to use. I have a 2hp dust collector connected to it with about 20 feet of metal pipe from the collector to the saw and the dust collection is great. Just going to take some time to get used to the blade guard.
I installed the Bigeye on my franken-craftsman tablesaw - harvey router table to the left, "vintage" cast-iron extensions to the right - replacing a vega fence from 2004. Nothing wrong with the vega, so true to this day, but it was missing a number of the features I was looking for.
It was installed in less than 1 hr (for the most part, more on that later). The hardest part was moving the saw to get to the back. My existing mounting holes lined up without any need to drill, the eccentric bolts sliding in the t-track is a brilliant design!
On my table, the holes in the harvey router table are slightly higher than the cast iron tables on the craftsman, so being able to use different orientations on the bolts was a life-saver. Dialing it in was effortless.
My favorite features include the high-low fence, the stops on the rails, the t-track on the top of the fence, and of course the rear clamping.
The only annoying thing is you can only remove the fence on each end. This is unavoidable given the way the fence slides on bearings in the rail. But, in my small shop that means I can only remove the fence on the far left side forcing me to take lower the blade and remove the splitter, it's trivial, and with 52" to the right, I don't know if I'll ever need to.
The only problem I had was the two set srews on the stops for the scale (one each on two stops) could not be loosened with any standard hex key, it's like they were either stripped or milled for a 2.25mm hex key. They didn't look stripped but no hex key I own (or shipped with the fence) fit tightly enough to loosen the screw.
Harvey's cs came through, sending me replacement stops the same day, but I had to drill and use a screw extractor to remove the faulty stops. Scary on a brand new piece of equipment, especially at this price.
Overall, I love it! The stability of the fence makes ripping large sheet goods far more accurate and scary than my previous fence. Absolutely no deflection.
Love it
I almost gave Harvey 4 stars for the hassle of the installation. It’s on now and it’s everything I could dream for in a table saw fence. The only thing that could make it better is that digital readout I saw at Harvey’s booth in Atlanta IWF show early August. Only one question: Why isn’t the back rail the same length as the front?
Big guy fence is as smooth as butter
This fence is rock solid and full of best ever features. Installation was straightforward and it works flawlessly with router wing!