Thread: Mitre track in router table

Originally Posted by masher

How important is it to have mitre track in a router table?

I can't see the point, or can I? If you had two tracks side by side and a fence (correct term?) that slid in those tracks ala a sled with no base, then it should be possible to rout the short ends of a board. Or so it seems to me and I am in the process of doing a router top at the moment. Mind you I most probably don't know what I am talking about as I have not got extensive experience on a router table. As an after thought the slides in those tracks may need to be longer to stop the fence jamming. I will await other comments with interest.

Depends what you are going to do with the router table. If you will be doing end grain routing, such as rail and style work, then I would definitely have a mitre trak as you can run your mitre gauge in it. T-track is not really designed for sliding work through, the mitre track being wider will do a better job.

When I built my router table I pondered the same question, in the end I put a mitre track in, see here.

At the end of the day, you are in a better position to decide whether you need one or not, also if you don't put one in now, it is not hard to add it later, as I did.

I don't think you need a mitre track on a router table at all. If you're doing rail and style work and use a router bit with a bearing you don't need any tracks, if the router bit doesn't have a bearing you can use your fence with a sacrificial sled - reduces chip-out on the ends and gives you something to push while keeping your hands away from the spinning blade. For that matter you don't really need parallel tracks for your fence, just a pivot point one end and a track or slide the other. Always figure simple is better. Personal opinion only.
Cheers,
Adam

A lot of people use a mitre track, but I've never found the need.

It's easy enough, when doing end grain routing, to use a square (make sure it is) backer board running against the fence. Just like Chumley says. Some people cut these into an L shape to make them easy to hold.

The more difficult cut is end grain on edge. In this case you need a taller sub-fence to run against the main fence. Again, it's easy to make one - square bit of timber with a bracket behind to hold it upright.

But then, some people just put in a mitre track and use a mitre square ...

Cheers everyone.

I'm still figuring out what I want to do re mitre track.

I do know that my fence is going to be 300mm high though...

What do you reckon about this?



The t-track is the narrow one, mitre track is the other.

The distances are set up so that fences and other stuff that can slide in from the top (normal operation) can also work sideways if I want to do that.

T-track will be mitred together in the joins so that I've got two-way sliding.

I like the versatility of being able to use the fence across either way.

But you can do the same using a pivoting fence. Given the T-track and mitre track are not cheap, this also saves a lot of money.

I put one in my top. Looks great

I dont use it mind you, but it looks great

I have a mitre track in my router table top and use it mostly with my Benchdog feather boards.
I have two t-nuts that slide along the track and screw the feather boards flat to the table top. Very handy to push timber against the fence when routing and keeps fingers away form the spinning bit. A third hand you might say!!
Not always practical as it depends on what you are routing and the distance of the track to your router bit but helpful sometimes.

Thats my top in the pic below. The feather boards are used in a similar fashion to where they are in the pic but flat to the top. If my explanation doesn't make sense i can take another pic and show what i mean.

Steven.

I don't see the benefit of two parallel tracks, but I've used inexpensive sail-track on mine (from Capral Brookvale at $14.40 for 4 metres). See pics of my table under "Yet Another Router Table. BTW I haven't found much use for the track that's parallel to the fence, except for cutting tenon cheeks.

A 'lot' of miter gauges are designed to work in 'T' track as well as 'miter' track - look at what is supplied with JET saws for instance - it has a 'washer' that stops the front from rising out of the 'T' track.

I think Incra or one of the other US track mobs make slider extrusion that fits "T" track as well as miter track. The main thing with "T" track is that the slot is the same width - at the top - as miter track, it just gets wider deeper down.

I don't think you need to double up with both miter and "T" track.