Thread: Router table fence design

Hi Jill

You'll get a million replies. Here is mine, used for donkeys years, and one I have no desire to alter.

This one simply clamps onto the tablesaw fence (which gives it adjustability and keeps it aligned with the mitre slot) ..



It is simply an aluminium section out of which I cut a space for a mouth, and then added adjustable faces. The sides of the mouth are blocked off (wood) and this allows for dust extraction. Add a track along the top for a hold down.



One other fence you can make from aluminium section is one for biscuits. This is bolted at one end as a pivot.



Regards from Perth

Derek

For what it's worth:

I realise you want to make one and that's ok but my first suggestion would be an incra ultralite. Not too expensive and provided you can accomodate the overhang of the positioner it offers up a lot of possibilities.

INCRA Ultra Lite Fence System

They also offer the standalone wonderfence.

Stand Alone 37" Wonder Fence

Given you are looking at making one here are some points to may choose to consider:

Work has to be fed into a tablesaw parrallel to the blade. not so in a router table.

You can therefore make a fence somewhat longer than your table and in an L profile. Drill through the horizontal part near one end and a matching hole in the table near the far end. Put in a bolt and you can swing the fence to set clearance and clamp the horizontal part to your table at the near end. Simple quick and moves smoothly, easy to set accurately. You may be a bit uncomfortable feeding your work non parrallel to the table ends.

If you avoid metal in the middle you can feed the fence into your bit and make a zero clearance on whatever bit your using. Make several of these simple fences and interchange with bits.

This setup won't joint. The easiest solution may be split subfences with the outfeed a certain thickness and the infeed several interchangable pieces of various lesser thicknesses, I would suggest going down in 0.5 or 1/32" increments so you've got a range of depth of cut to choose from.

Such a setup is quick and easy to make and should work ok. Others no doubt will have better ideas.

I stole my router fence idea off Norm from NYW, have a short clip of his fence if you are interested. It's about 100 meg though.

Hi Jill
As Derek said you may get a lot of answers. So here FWIW is the one I built fairly recently. It may not be the ultimate, but it works beautifully for me. It incorporates a t-slot track for feather boards or limit stops, and has provision for sacrificial zero-clearance inserts which you see in two of the photos.
Yes, mine is held by Magswitches because I have a CI router table top, but it would normally have slots for adjustment. Yes, it's built from Silky Oak because I happen to have an awful lot of it and it's a very stable timber. And it matches all the cabinets in my shed. If I didn't have all the SO I would have built from good quality 19mm ply.
One modification I will be making is to bring that dust port out horizontally instead of up at 45 deg.
If this one interests you I could send you the printed plan.

Thanks for posting these photos, Brian. This is indeed a simple yet practical fence - well done.
How good are the Magswitches in holding the fence in place? Don't you find the fence slides when you push your workpiece against it?

Thanks for the tip about the horizontal dust extraction.

I don't think I'll need the plans, as your photos explain everything, but I really appreciate the kind offer.

I've yet to see a commercial fence that I really liked... but I've seen a few home-made jobs that made me go "Hmmmm! I do like that!"

Most commercial ones seem to use either a pair of t-slots or an extension slide off the back of the fence that hangs off the table for adjustment. Tiresome and fiddly to make for yourself and some take up way too much room in a cramped shed.

These home-made ones though... they work on a different principle: Unlike a table-saw, a router table fence does not have to be parallel to the table.

So what they've done is hinge one end of the fence at a corner of the table, so that it swings like a door. Well... sort of. They pivot around a vertical dowel rather than hinge. Nice & simple!

The other end - where the adjustments are made - can be as simple as having a flat for G-clamp to lock it down to the table, to something as complex as using all-thread and a hand-wheel.

The most complex I've seen involved the hand-wheel & all-thread, two parallel rails and a fancy latching device that allowed for fine adjustment by turning the hand-wheel or pressing the latch to temporarily disengage the thread for quick coarse adjustment. very, very nice, but well beyond my meagre metal-working skills!

Originally Posted by JillB

How good are the Magswitches in holding the fence in place? Don't you find the fence slides when you push your workpiece against it?
.

Hi Jill
I'd need to be Samson to move the fence when the Magswitches have it locked, and I'm more of a Simpson.
Seriously, you'd have to be doing something preposterous to cause the fence to move. No normal use would budge it.
So you also have a CI router table top?

Edit: The Magswitches are the 40mm ones. The 20mm size would not be strong enough.

Hey Jill - this is the router table I made last year. Initially I wasnt happy with it, but after I tweaked a few things I love it!!

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f20/ne...-table-122600/

Andy

Hey Jill,
I bought a CI top router table, I think it's the same as Brians, & the fence was terrible beyond belief. I was very new to the game & wasted about $500 on something that was absolutly usless.

While looking at machines one day I saw another table, completely different but with a screw in fence, I ended up buying the fence only as a spare part & took it home, drilled & tapped a couple holes & bolted it on. The result is I now have a router table that I am fairly happy with, but at a cost of about $700.

If I was starting again, I would spend the money on a Router Lift & and possibly an Incra fence and make the rest

I have seen a Father & son team do amazing things with routers & the most basic of fence's. They tend to use a lot of purpose built jigs & man, do they make it look easy.

Steve

If this one interests you I could send you the printed plan.[/QUOTE]


Hi Brian, I am compiling ideas for a new router table fence and I quite like yours. I was wondering if I could get a copy of your plans, it's a great looking fence!

Cory

Hi Jill
maybe a little out of your price range, but I like this one

Veritas® Router Table Fences - Lee Valley Tools

thanks Ian, looks pricey, doesn't it, but it seems to lack the features of some of the home made designs submitted earlier in this thread

Unlike a table-saw, a router table fence does not have to be parallel to the table.

Hi Skew

This is true. In fact one of the easiest and best ways to set up a dedicated router table is to have the fence adjust via a pivot at one side.

However, if you with to use a mitre gauge then you do need a fence that remains square to the mitre slot.

It is difficult to maintain a square fence using the typical double slot method (as also used on the Triton tablesaw).

My answer was to build the router table into the tablesaw, and use the tablesaw fence to guide the (clamped on) router table fence. Best of all worlds - accuracy and space saving. I posted pictures earlier.

The perfect fence needs rigidity, ease of macro adjustment, the ability for micro adjustment without losing the settings, flexibility with bit size (an adjustable fence face), and dust control.

The design I ended with works very, very well. The construction (from aluminium section and MDF) made for a rigid and cheap build. I have used this setup for several years and never felt a need to change it.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally Posted by Reco

If this one interests you I could send you the printed plan.

Hi Brian, I am compiling ideas for a new router table fence and I quite like yours. I was wondering if I could get a copy of your plans, it's a great looking fence!

Cory[/QUOTE]

Hello Cory

I take it B.C. is British Columbia?
Got to go out right now, but I'll email a scan of the plan tonight. It's a pretty simple thing so that should be all you need.