I Have to Have a Router Fence

[Steve H Graham]

A while back I scrounged some mahogany logs from a nearby trash pile. This week I decided to make a little mahogany box to hold some metal lathe tools. The table saw, planer, planer sled, and bandsaw behaved perfectly. But when I tried to use the router to make seven parallel, identical cavities to hold tools, everything went badly

I absolutely have to have a real router fence. Something that will remain parallel to the front of the table and allow me to move it back and forth by precise increments for repetitious cuts. The stick with a clamp on one end is not working out.

What should I get? The router is in the extension on my table saw, way down at the end. I think it's 28" across. I'm not sure. The saw is a PM66. The router is in a Plungelift.

[Greg Hines, MD]

Wood Magazine had a good router table fence a couple of years ago, in the November 2004 issue:

http://www.woodstore.net/is15no202.html

I built a similar fence a couple of years ago, and it works great. A simple cleat and some clamps let you attach it to your table saw fence, and then you can use it to adjust the router fence.

You can see photos of my fence, here: http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=804512#poststop

Doc

[Chip Lindley]

There are a *zillion* router fences out there! (Do a Google search) Surely one will fit your particular needs and budget! A perfectly straight fence to guide stock past a router bit is a bit of a *no brainer*

Your criteria of keeping the fence exactly parallel with the table edge is a bit beyond me. I have never considered this a burning desire or need! Usually table slots are relied upon to move stock past the cutter at an exact 90deg. angle, such as in cutting tenons, coping door stock, or doing the *dovetail/box joint* thing! A very hefty jig will be needed to guide the stock exactly without *bobbling*!

You will get all the differing advice you can fathom here shortly! There are quite a number of RouterTableRogues who Root and Rave for their particular favorite table, fence, lift, etc.etc! As for me, my router fence is *shop-made* and serves me very well thanks!

[Paul Fitzgerald]

I wouldn't have used a fence to make parallel cuts on the router table... I would have used a miter gauge. (edit: assuming these cuts were parallel to the short side of the workpiece)

If you want a fence that stays parallel when adjusted, I can only think of two that'll do it: the Kreg Precision Router Table Fence (http://www.kregtool.com/products/prs/product.php?PRODUCT_ID=93) and the Incra Router Table Fence (http://www.incra.com/product_rtf_main.htm). There may be others, but those are the two I'm aware of.

I'd absolutely LOVE to have the Incra fence, but I just can't justify the cost.

Paul

[Tom Majewski]

I have my router table on my table saw too. I use the back of the saw fence with some sacrificial ply screwed to it.

[Rob Price]

When you're dealing with a router bit, the distance between the bit and the fence is what's important, the parallelism to the table is irrevalent. Try it, clamp some wood at 45 degrees, but at a set distance from the bit. the result- a straight line. You're pivoting on a single point, not a 10" saw blade.

I attach my router fence to my table saw fence, and use that to slide back and forth. I can use the measuring scale on my table saw to make precise incremental adjustments.

From reading your post, I think the one clamp on the end is the problem, you really need to secure both ends of the fence.

[keith ouellette]

I have my router table in my saw extension and have built a fence to attach to the back of my TS fence (not yet finished and attached). Not so much to keep the fence parallel but because of the ease of operation of the fence.

It sounds like your fence may not have been straight. When I first used my old make shift table my first set of problems came from using a fence that didn't have a flat and straight face.

As said above the fences relation to the table isn't important because of the particular rotation of the bit being horizontal and not vertical like a saw blade.

The fence must be straight and flat though.

[Neal Clayton]

When you're dealing with a router bit, the distance between the bit and the fence is what's important, the parallelism to the table is irrevalent. Try it, clamp some wood at 45 degrees, but at a set distance from the bit. the result- a straight line. You're pivoting on a single point, not a 10" saw blade.

I attach my router fence to my table saw fence, and use that to slide back and forth. I can use the measuring scale on my table saw to make precise incremental adjustments.

From reading your post, I think the one clamp on the end is the problem, you really need to secure both ends of the fence.

unless you cut tenons with the router bits, in which case you do need parallel.

if you look at my posts in the quality grinding forum you'll see what i rigged up with the aftermarket freud fence steve. if you replace the faces with metal plates of some sort (in my case a couple of sections of an aluminum stud) it works well. since it's attached to the table saw fence it's just as accurate as said table saw fence.

[Bob Genovesi]

This is the router fence I've chosen for my router station but with a different top. The whole setup is available through Woodpeckers and is even more impressive in person.

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s225/BobbyG53/SF.jpg

This is the router lift I've chosen to complement the setup above, also from Woodpeckers.

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s225/BobbyG53/V2.jpg

[Rick Huelsbeck]

http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=21011

It is a Pinnacle Premium Positioner Fence System, you get about 1 foot of travel and the ability to adjust it by .001 of an inch.

Incra makes a version for your table saw that can be used on both saw and router, a whole lot more expensive though.

[Steve H Graham]

When you're dealing with a router bit, the distance between the bit and the fence is what's important, the parallelism to the table is irrevalent.

Not when you're using stop blocks and moving the bit into the work by a fixed distance to make repetitious cuts. When you change the angle of the fence, the stop blocks have to be moved.

[Brad Wood]

I have the Jess'm fence and lift. Its very much like the one Bob pictured.

I don't have a lot to compare it to, I went to this from a Ryobi benchtop router table/fence... so the Jess'm rocks compared to that. I think Jess'm is considered good stuff.

[Jeff Duncan]

Not when you're using stop blocks and moving the bit into the work by a fixed distance to make repetitious cuts. When you change the angle of the fence, the stop blocks have to be moved.

If your talking about making repetitive cuts changing the distance of the fence to the bit each time, try this instead. Set up a stop board the full depth your cutting. Then set your fence to the deepest depth you'll cut. Make up a set of blocks the distance you want to move each time and stack them against the fence. Make one cut remove one block, make next cut remove next block. Much cheaper and quicker then setting up a fancy expensive fence.
I've never though much about aftermarket fences, I just use simple shop made versions that work just as well for my needs. Hope this helps....
good luck,
JeffD

[Steve H Graham]

Thanks for the replies. Last night I found plans for Pat Warner's adjustable fence, and I thought I might try it, but that Pinnacle thing appears to be much better for my needs. I can clamp it to the table when I need it, and it adjusts with a screw, like a machine tool. And I won't have to cut my table. If I had had that yesterday, my life might have gone a whole lot differently!

People are mentioning miter gauges and T-tracks. I don't have those. My table is a thick, hard piece of particle board, and I'm fairly sure I'd just ruin it if I tried to cut precise slots in it for T-tracks.

[Frank Drew]

mahogany logs.... trash pile.

These are words I never thought I'd see together!

[Steve H Graham]

Here's a board I made a couple of days ago. It's about 5" wide. The light areas are spalted but still hard enough to work.

I live in Miami, so the trash piles are full of West Indies mahogany, AKA Cuban mahogany.

[Pete Bradley]

Jeff's method is great because it requires no special fence accuracy and it follows the principle of "measure twice, but if possible don't measure at all." You rip the spacers in one setup of course so they're identical. There are variations on this method that use a single spacer too.

Pete

[pat warner]

My fence can get you parallelism, small continuous changes and fence your fingers out of the way.

[Doug Mason]

Here are a couple pics of the Pat Warner router table/fense I made from his plans. Made from scrap and very flexible--I can true up the table/fence easily.
115770115771

[glenn bradley]

Rockler is blowing out their old style. I use one on the router table and one on the DP. Hard to beat for $30 including the guard.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=1383&filter=Rockler%20Outlet