Choosing which to use: MDF or Baltic Birch

[Don Morris]

I'm retired and am starting to sell off all the equipment in my basement shop. I built my router table to include a Porter Cable 3 1/4 hp router. I'm giving the router table to a brand new Mechanical Engineer, who as a younger boy (lived two houses away) did several projects with me. He just got married and my wedding gift to him is the router table with the router motor, bits, etc. However, the Bench Dog ProTop fence (shown below) which worked just fine for me, needs 3 new pieces of 3/4" MDF. The metal portion of the fence is in good condition. I looked at finding an inexpensive aluminum fence which would fit onto my table top. Couldn't find one. I have to buy some new MDF or, I have a couple pieces of 3/4" Baltic Birch that could be used instead. I think the BB should work just fine after a couple coats of shellac. is there any reason why I should stay with MDF? Thanks for taking your time to help with my dilemma.

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[Mark Wedel]

Not directly answering your question, but I recently did some slab flattening with a flattening jig I made up. Just spraying some glide coat on anything that saw movement (the plywood that the router traveled across, and the rails the sled moved along) worked really well. So I think a plywood fence with a spraying of glide coat would also be perfectly fine from a fraction standpoint, and baltic birch should be quite stable in terms of it not warping.

[Don Morris]

Thanks Mark for the reply. I thought the BB would work well too, but was unfamiliar with the "Glide coat". So I learned something today...will coat the BB with it.

[andrew whicker]

I like MDF for fences because it is generally flatter (and less expensive). I do enjoy BB, but the more I'm around it the more flaws I see. You could also use laminated Particle Board.