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