Router Fence Choices

[Mark Rios]

Well, the last choice that I've got to make is that of a router fence. I need a learning curve that isn't too steep or complicated but I would like to be able to do everything from simple roundovers to rail and stile to raised panel to dovetail joints.

Incra seems to have quite a hold on the fancy set-ups. Any thoughts on incra or other manufacturers?




Thanks very much for advice and thoughts.

[Don Baer]

Mark I have a home built router fence that I realy love. If you want to know about routers, fences and routing jigs, I would reccomend you go to the source, Pat Warner at www.patwarner.com (http://www.patwarner.com). He's mamber her so if you have questions just IM him

[Guy Germaine]

I have the Incra Pro 2 Ultra System and love it. It's probably the best piece of equipment I own. It's a shame there isn't more talent behind it. :rolleyes:

[Tom Jones III]

Mark I have a home built router fence that I realy love. If you want to know about routers, fences and routing jigs, I would reccomend you go to the source, Pat Warner at www.patwarner.com (http://www.patwarner.com). He's mamber her so if you have questions just IM him

If you do a few searches on this forum you'll find a thread where Pat responded with the issue # of Fine WW'ing where he wrote an article describing exactly how to make his fence. I ordered the back issue and then built a simplified fence in one evening from scraps. I thought I would use the simple fence for a little while until I knew how I wanted the permanent fence, but the test fence is so good I never got around to making the permanent fence.

[Bruce Page]

Mark, I have the Woodhaven fence. it is very nice.

[Jack Norfleet]

The article for Pat Warner's fence is on FWW.com. It requires a subscription to the site so I cannot send it to you. I will probably build one to replace the Wood Magazine version that I built a while back.

[Peter Pedisich]

Mark,

After building my own and spending more $$ than anticipated I learned a few things.

1) Dust collection is great to have, I have it.
2) To be able to easily adjust to be perpendicular to the table is important.
3) I could have made one out of mdf and had the same performance for less money.
4) The learning experience was invaluable.

Pete

[Greg Narozniak]

I have the Incra Pro 2 Ultra System and love it. It's probably the best piece of equipment I own. It's a shame there isn't more talent behind it. :rolleyes:

Ditto 100% to my Incra Twin Linear :D

[Wm Myers]

An Intra or Jointech type system isn't really a router fence. It's an indexing system for lack of a better word. A Pat Warner type fence isn't really an indexing system. They both have pros and cons depending on what you really want to do.
The indexing type fences allow you to do box joints and dovetail joints using bits sizes and spacing that conventional dovetail jigs don't really do. They do ok with raised panel or cope and stick type operations but offer no real advantage over a plain split fence (extra on the Incra)..
A PW type fence is good for just about everything else. Split fence, dial indicator for "nudging", and they look real purdy...(I have one of his books)
It really depends on what you plan on doing with it.
I have an Incra and a Jointech. I like the Jointech better because the fence is included and does more than the stock Incra fence (straight aluminum extrusion). If you get one of these, be prepared to spend about as much on a quality set of bits for it's dovetail and box joint operations.
I suspect that one day, you'll have both because they are not really used for the same things..Bill

[glenn bradley]

A router fence is one of those things you can make out a a piece of MDF laying in the corner or go all the way to hundreds of dollars. I picked up a Rockler with an second set of faceboards (extra thick for raised panel bits and such) to test the waters. I have yet to upgrade, it does what I need. About $62:

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?Offerings_ID=1383&TabSelect=Details

I then bought the dust port, featherboards, etc. in a kit on sale for about $25.

[Chris Padilla]

Ditto 100% to my Incra Twin Linear :D

+1

I love this thing...have the TS-IIIa on my table saw, too.