Looking for a router fence and table to edge join wood

[Harlon Gilbert]

I'm building a number of cabinets and various shelving units that I will be utilizing face frame construction. I have read that you can use a router table to edge join if you have the proper fence. What aftermarket fences will allow me to perform this function and which do you recommend? I'm looking to do this on a router instead of a dedicated joiner because funds are somewhat limited and I also need to do quite a bit of trim type routing, decorative edges and such. I have a bosch 1617evs and I am looking for the right table and fence that will handle joining. I'm assuming any table will do for putting on bevels and other edges.
Thanks for the help.

[Jon Shank]

Flat table and flat fence, whether made in the shop or bought from whatever supplier, that's all that is really important. Pretty much any fence will work for this as long as it's flat you are careful setting it up. I have a Rockler router table fence I picked up on sale that works fine. My fence has aluminum angle brackets that mount to the table with MDF faces mounted at 90 degrees(vertical). A spacer of the thickness you want to joint off on the outfeed side of the fence, between the angle and the mdf leaves it set like a jointer, infeed and outfeed parallel but outfeed slightly forward. Set the bit to the same plane as the outfeed and feed the work to it as you would a jointer. Pressure against the infeed side until it gets some meat on the outfeed side and then more pressure on the outfeed than the infeed side. It can be a little finicky to set up and takes a little getting used to, but it works just fine once you work out the process.

Jon

[Andrew Fleck]

I was going to recommend the Incra fence until I read about your funds being limited. Those aren't cheap. Jon has some good advice with the auxiliary fences and a spacer. That should work fine for what you are trying to do. Good luck with it. There are plenty of instructions online that can show you exactly that.

Andrew

[Harlon Gilbert]

Funds are tight in the sense that I don't think I can afford a jointer, planer and router table setup. Whenever possible I'm trying to by the best possible tool for each purchase. I've got between 500 and 1000 left in my tool budget. I'm pretty much looking for best option, not necessarily most expensive. Thanks for the help.

[Bill Huber]

As Jon stated just about any fence will work, I am a real Jessem fan, I love my table and fence but they are not cheap. It would be easy to spend $600 to get a Jessem table, fence and router plate.

For half of that you could get the Rockler and have a good set up.

I have heard that you can do jointing with a router, pattern bit and a straight edge, but have never tried it.

[Phil Thien]

Well the fence has to be a two-piece fence that allows you to offset the two halves, so the outfeed side is flush with the cutter, and the infeed is adjusted to allow for maybe a 1/16" cut.

[Bill Huber]

Funds are tight in the sense that I don't think I can afford a jointer, planer and router table setup. Whenever possible I'm trying to by the best possible tool for each purchase. I've got between 500 and 1000 left in my tool budget. I'm pretty much looking for best option, not necessarily most expensive. Thanks for the help.

With that said, go to Jessem and take a look at there table and fence, the fence is set up so you can do jointing with spacers, again the Jessem stuff is really good stuff and will last forever.

http://www.jessem.com/index.html

One really nice thing about the Jessem fence is the way it mounts, it has mounts that mount to the end of the table and not slots in the table.

You can see the way it mounts here http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/image/85312069

[Harlon Gilbert]

I've looked at the jessem, woodpecker and kreg. I was also thinking of using one of these with a cast iron table saw extension. Space is at a premium. Can any of these systems or the incra be adapted to use with a bench dog table extension?

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Harlon, perfectly serviceable fences can be made of practically any scrap wood, and the price sure leaves room in the budget for other fun stuff. Nothing wrong with the aftermarket stuff, just mentioning other options.

[william watts]

like Phil said the out feed side of the fence needs to be offset, from the in feed side,a small amount, and even with the cutting edge of the bit. A two piece fence works for that. A one piece scrap wood fence will also work if you attach a thin piece of laminate, or some such thing, to the out feed side of the fence. This is to allow the work to ride on the out feed side. You will be removing the entire edge of the work and the thin piece makes up the the wood you have removed. Think jointer tables, the out feed table is even with the cutter, and the in feed table is lower by the depth of cut. This I learned the hard way.

[Andrew Kertesz]

I have an Incra system and it is great. They also have a sale going on right now.

[Harlon Gilbert]

Thanks, I'm caught somewhere between complete novice and functional layperson. Growing up watching This Old House and Norm Abrams every Saturday morning with my late Mom gave me the notion that I can build anything, my skillset hasn't quite caught up. Over the years I've done quite a bit of rehab work to the various homes I've lived in but nothing that requires the accuracy of furniture. My wife owns a store which she recently moved to a new location, bigger and better. She had x amount to have new fixtures, counters and various displays built. When all the bids came in at 2 to 2.5 times the budget I exclaimed, "I can get it done for you, probably with money to spare." So far I'm still well under budget, but time is short so wherever possible I have to replace years of experience with raw will and better tools. With all those years watching Norm with my Mom it kills me everytime I pay for something I know I could build, and probably better, if I had the time to wait for my skills to improve.

[Harlon Gilbert]

Two questions on the Incra:

1. Can it be used with a table saw extension wing that is not an incra model? Unless I missed it, it looks like all the incra tables are mdf, everything I've read about using mdf for router tables is not good for longterm use, flexion.

2. Will I lose a week learning how to use it? I've watched some incra videos for their wonder fence and joinery system. It looks awesome. Just concerned that the learning curve will make it prohibitive for my schedule.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Funds are tight in the sense that I don't think I can afford a jointer, planer and router table setup. Whenever possible I'm trying to by the best possible tool for each purchase. I've got between 500 and 1000 left in my tool budget. I'm pretty much looking for best option, not necessarily most expensive. Thanks for the help.

Freud Glue Line Rip blade - - About $55/$60 - give or take.
Or
Any one of several combo blades - About $30/$130 - give or take..

I use the Freud GLR blade - but - for a good number of years, I used an inexpensive 50T combo blade.
Owing to the nature of the task, you could also use a 7 1/4" 40T Freud blade from Home Depot for under $20.00.


Then make this table saw jig:
www(dot)woodworkingtips.com/etips/2005/01/28/wb/

I used one like this for a few years before I picked up a 6" Ridgid jointer on closeout.

Matter of fact, I still use one from time to time to "edge joint" plywood and/or MDF or anything else that's hard on jointer blades.


W/the money you save, you can pick up a decent reconditioned bench top planer & shop sales on router table tops.
(W/a bench top planer you can both edge joint and face joint w/a sled and/or jig)

(one problem w/using the router for edge jointing is the cost of a good bit. By the time you drop a couple hundred on a top and another hundred and a half or so on a fence, ,,,,pulling out the wallet and parting with close to another hundred for just the bit alone is tough to do - been there/done that & "went cheap" on the bit. Big mistake...)

[Dale Coons]

For $500 to $1000 you ought to be able to find a very nice used jointer. I got a 6 inch Jet for around $300. It was already set up and dialed in by the previous owner. Of course I now wish I had an 8, but it does most of what I need, and for edge jointing, it doesn't matter much which size you have. Unless you have a space problem, this might be a better choice than a router setup. YMMV

[Prashun Patel]

Are you looking for a long term good router table and fence, or just something to get you painlessly through your project? If the latter, I suggest you just buy a great glue line blade like Rich suggests. Or, make a straight edge guide for your hand held router with a spiral bit. A straight edge can be made from the factory edge of a piece of store-bought 3/4" plywood.

Also, can you be a little more specific about the cabinets you are making? When I hear cabinets and face-frame, and schedule, I immediately think plywood carcasses and shelves with pocketscrews for the face frames. If you use plywood, there is no time-sucking edge joining and glue up. Even good, veneered plywood will be on par or less than the equivalent in dimensional. And you'll save all that milling time....

[Harlon Gilbert]

On the immediate front, I'm building plywood box shelving units that will have a face frame surround and a L- shaped lip on each shelf. The face and shelf fronts will all be 1 1/2 to 2 inch poplar ripped down from 1x6's. when ripping 8 foot boards I can't seem to keep myself from getting at least one blade burn every cut or so. Comes down to the skill set I spoke to in an earlier post. My intent with the router is to oversize my table saw cut and then joint them down to size in the hope of getting nice edges on both sides of the boards.
As far as the question about my intent with the purchase. I'm trying not to spend money 2 or 3 times for the same thing whenever possible. Feels like spending money on a better fence and blades may be the way to go. I was leaning towards an extension router table for my table saw, but I don't think that will be the best option longterm.

[Michael W. Clark]

On the immediate front, I'm building plywood box shelving units that will have a face frame surround and a L- shaped lip on each shelf. The face and shelf fronts will all be 1 1/2 to 2 inch poplar ripped down from 1x6's. when ripping 8 foot boards I can't seem to keep myself from getting at least one blade burn every cut or so. Comes down to the skill set I spoke to in an earlier post. My intent with the router is to oversize my table saw cut and then joint them down to size in the hope of getting nice edges on both sides of the boards.
As far as the question about my intent with the purchase. I'm trying not to spend money 2 or 3 times for the same thing whenever possible. Feels like spending money on a better fence and blades may be the way to go. I was leaning towards an extension router table for my table saw, but I don't think that will be the best option longterm.

As far as your current project goes, double check your tablesaw setup to make sure the blade is square to the table (vertically) and the rip fence is parallel to the blade. In my experience, some burning is unavoidable. You are correct, edge jointing will remove burn marks. If I have light burn marks, I sand them away. It is important to not just sand in one spot but all around the area. Don't focus on the blade (but be concious of where it and your hands are!), instead focus on the fence and keeping the board tight against the fence, use finger boards if it helps.

[Stew Hagerty]

I don't have a jointer. So I have three choices: doing it by hand, using the edge as it comes off the table saw, or using my router table.

I have an Incra router table and fence system and their Wonder Fence makes it extremely easy to joint edges. I have 1", 1 1/2" spiral, and 2 1/2" straight bits from Whiteside that I use. I've had very good luck using it this way. I usually only use it though if I am working on a larger project where jointing the edges by hand would be too much for me (I'm disabled) and where the tablesaw either isn't an option or I need a better joint.

[Adam Diethrich]

I really like my Benchdog universal clamp-on router fence.
Setting up with a shim on the outfeed fence and a good 1/2 shank pattern bit does the job well enough for me for smaller jointing projects.

A.W.D.

[Prashun Patel]

Harlon, what you want is not a jointed edge, but a burn-free, smooth edge. If you are getting burning, it could be because your saw is slightly out of alignment. It could also be your technique. Using a featherboard will help get a straight, burn-free cut. You can also just joint the edge on the table saw by cutting a hair wide, and nudging the fence over a tad after your cut, and kissing the edge off. Done that way, the blade encounters very little resistance, allowing you to push through pretty smoothly and consistently. You will get a lot of dust, but almost no burn.

You're not really after a meticulously 'jointed' edge, just a clean edge that's square to the face. Taking it to the router table is (IMHO) overkill given your schedule.

...and don't think jointing on a router table is without burn, either. In fact, unless you move smoothly, there can be more risk of burning from the fast spinning router bit.

[Keith Hankins]

I have the Incra ls120 system on my router table. It has a split fence system that is adjustable down to the thou. I bought mine used but will work and do what you ask. The outfeed side will be set to the amount that is being removed on the infeed side so it does not snipe at the end. Anyway here's a link.

http://www.incra.com/product_rtf_lssuper.htm

[Rich Engelhardt]

In fact, unless you move smoothly, there can be more risk of burning from the fast spinning router bit.+1 to that!
And also- if you feed the board the wrong way, the grain will let you know by sort of,,,,,exploding,,, in your face. It really gets your attention when that happens & not in a good way.

[Harlon Gilbert]

Thanks Prashun,I'm going to give the feather board a shot tomorrow. I do struggle to get an even push through while ripping. I often use one of my teenage sons to apply lateral pressure towards the fence, but this is often not wholely effective.

[Prashun Patel]

Dry poplar is pretty stable and is one of the softest hard woods. For me, it is one f the easiest woods to work. If you are routinely having trouble keeping it square to the fence, i think you should also look at our fence alignment. What kind of blade are you using? You will get the least burn with a ripping blade, but you will get a smoother cut with a combination blade or general purpose blade. You dont have to break the bank on a new blade. Any of the freuds at the hd will do. Well.

[Dave Kirby]

Rockler also sells an aluminum 'shims' set that can be placed behind the outfeed side of the router table fence. The look to be a fairly decent option and seem easy enough to insert and remove. Good luck!