Jessem Router Fence Review
I posed a question to the group a few weeks ago about the best aftermarket router table fence. Previous post
Based on the responses and after looking at each in more detail I settled on the Jessem. It was slightly above my price range but I really liked the features it offered. I live a few miles from the nearest store so I opted to buy sight unseen.
Upon receiving it I was impressed with the weight. It appeared to be very well machined which is why I wanted to buy a manufactured fence in the first place. I’ve built two fences and each one ended up needing shimming to get things square and planar. Soon after looking it over I realized the phenolic fences were not flush with the aluminum T-track.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachme...3&d=1207593958
The problem was they set back farther from the T-track which would prevent a board on edge from being perpendicular to the table. I called Jessem and left a message with their technical support person. After 3 days I called again and left another message. I then waited another 2 days and this time got him on the phone. He admitted their phenolic supply wasn’t a consistent thickness leading to the alignment issue. He offered to send me a set of shims to place behind the phenolic fences to make up for the issue. I agreed as I’m happy enough with the other features I didn’t feel like sending it back.
If I could do it again I would go with a different fence. The fence is very well made but suffers from this design flaw. I measured the phenolic thickness at 0.725” and the T-track extrusion is 0.750” thick. If they would just set the T-track back another 0.025” they’d eliminate this problem. My real frustration is I gave them ample time to call me back as I was told their technical support person was in the office each time I left a message.
I’m really surprised I’ve not read of this in any reviews as the technical support person knew exactly what the problem was when I first described what I was seeing.
Thanks and sorry for the rant.
Wes