Blast from the Past: MICRO FENCE router guides

[Dev Emch]

I have been a user of the micro fence standard router guide for more years than I have fingers to count with. Its a great tool and its made extremely well. It was designed with an oliver mentality. And the patented micrometer adjustment feature is just wonderful.

They have also had a similar product on the market for cutting circles. Equally excellent. I recently had a chance to borrow one of these and its on my list of new tools. But I needed to do some research before I pull the trigger because this tool has a "side effect" of note.

I call it a side effect because the tool is actually a circle maker and not a true linear guide. But, the beam of this guide attaches to a router base and by attaching high density plastic shoes to this beam, it can be made to track a number of guides. The pro-footers are covered and now so is the festool.

But here is what I have learned and just love. This setup allows the OF 1400 router to be used in conjunction with the festool guides without the purchase of the festool interface device. True, the unit made by festool to get the router to work with guides is the official item, the fact is, the micro fence kit is massively better made and massively more accurate. Not only does the 1400 work with the festool guide rails, I pick up that legendary micro fence micrometer adjustment system. This is killer accurate and way cool.

I have seen very little micro fence talked about here on this site. Being a very very happy owner for all these years, I thought it time to pipe up for this solution. This is esp. relavant now that they allow the the 1400 to be used with extreme accuracy.

But the fact is I have yet to justify the use of a guide rail in my operation. There are a couple of areas where this might come in handy but those jobs are more like April or March away so we will see.

[Doug Shepard]

I've got the MF edge guide and circle, and couldn't agree with you more. They're great. The other cool thing, is that they'll also work on laminate trimmers as well as routers. For the cost of an extra baseplate from them (I think it was around $40) I can use it on either my router or trimmer. The only slighly odd thing to me about the circle jig is the size of the hole required for the pivot pin. I think it's something like 13/64, 15/64, or 17/64 - a curious choice.

[Mike Cutler]

Bought my Micro Fence from Bill Hylton a few years back at the Springfield Mass. Wood Works show. Great tool/ jig. Very functional. I'll be looking at this recent mod. I've been looking to use this tool alot more than I do.

Also met Dave Anderson, of NH. at the same show. Nice guy. He introduced me to Bill, and then I bought the MicroFence. I mighta been setup.;)

[Dev Emch]

No doubt, this is an example of how to build a useful and beautiful tool. A 10 out of 10 on my scale. The air clamp is of interest. First it eliminates the need for a hole on the circle guide. But I am thinking that I can modify a festool guide rail to use two of these clamps to hold in position when I do precision floor work. Any comments on the air clamp?

[Mike Cutler]

I've never used the air clamp with it Dev, but I saw Bill Hylton doing some pretty amazing stuff with one in Sprinfield. His book,"Router Magic" also details alot of vacuum clamping ideas. food for thought possibly.
Your MicroFence is already compatable with another edge guide system, but I'm sure that the Festool can be adapted with some vacuum tape, and a pump. In fact I think MF has a guide rail adapter for the Festool already, maybe.

You are right about the 10 of 10. I really want to use this more, but most of the stuff I've been doing lately just didn't require it.
What Routers are you using with it. I have PC8529's and i've adapted them to the MF, but I lose some of the full functionality. I've been considering a new Bosch, based on Mark Singers input. Who knows though.

[JayStPeter]

In the past, I've viewed the microfence as overkill. My Bosch edge guide has an excellent micro-adjust and homemade circle cutters have done everything I have needed (a lot of circles for speaker building). The Festool edge guide also has a micro adjust that is decent (though not as nice as the Bosch).

One of the things I looked forward to with the Festool OF1400 was using it with the guide rails. But, frankly, the Festool guide rail setup for the router isn't all I had hoped. I thought the little foot adapter was a bit hokey and the reality is that it is also pretty unstable.

I used it for the first time last weekend. I made about 20 cuts with a v-groove bit to make a solid panel look like multiple pieces. The results were dissapointing. The grooves were never perfect. All had small waves. Even though I made my main pass, then a real light pass, the grooves themselves were frayed (i.e in need of sanding). While they were getting better as I went and tried different grips on the router, it was difficult to achieve consistent results with the Festool guide rail adapter. For the other panels, I made a quick guide that uses the template adapter. I was able to make perfect grooves that are ready for finish and neither wavy or frayed (same router and bit).

Overall, I've found the OF1400 to be less stable than my Bosch when the base is not completely engaged (ie edge work). It's possible that the guide rail adapters (and little foot) work better with the smaller Festool routers.

It looks like the MF guide rail adapter can ref the back of the rail and allow the router base to sit flat on the piece. So, it might make the rail use more stable. It would impose some size limitations on the piece though (which I suppose is why the Festool adapter is designed the way it is). It's got me considering the MF, but I still think it's a lot of cash while the cheaper solutions I already have are doing what I need. It is on my list of booths to stop at the woodworking shows this year.

Jay

[Steve Clardy]

I've had my microfence for several years now. Great product.