Hi,
I’ve just bought an older Jessem router table with Rout-r-lift and Mast-r-fence. It didn’t really come with anything else and I was wondering what everyone recommended I should get.
I’m just cleaning it up a bit at the moment and haven’t started using it quite yet.
A sliding fence?
Feather boards?
Anything else?
Thanks
Mat
* Feather boards are a great aid to preventing grabs and other inadvertent mis-steers of the workpiece. Best to have devices that can be easily placed to press both against the fence and down on to the table. There are many options, some dedicated to particular fences and tables (typically those with guide-grooves). If the router table and fence are able to grasp magnetic workpiece guides, such as the Magswitch, these are the most easily placed for different workpieces and routing operations. Magswitch are expensive but it is possible to make your own at much less expense.
* A means to grasp and guide small workpieces with your hands well away from the cutter is always useful. A basic device to do this is the wooden parallel-jaw twin-screw clamp, that can be had in various sizes. There are other such devices with plastic rather than wooden bodies. The body of such a thing needs to be of something that won't ruin a router cutter if it (instead of your hand) hits the cutter.
* If you want to route the edges of multi-shaped workpieces, a guide pin is essential. This helps you steer the curved edges around the cutter without any snatch. Most router tables have a screw 'ole for such a pin, sometimes two.
* For some workpieces, a pushing device is advisable. The better ones can also act in the same way as feather boards. I have one that's a large handle with a long foot that takes a rubber strip (to grip the workpiece surface better) which strip can be flat (to rest on a flat workpiece surface) or a right angle (to rest on the outer corner of a workpiece). A small sprung protrusion at the rear of the long foot pushes on the back of the workpiece. When used on the outside top corner of a routed rectangular workpiece, for example, the right angle foot acts as push-stick and downwards-sideways feather boards, whilst keeping your hand well away from the cutter.
* Sub-fences for the router table fence, made of wood or MDF, can be useful with dust collection. A cutter can be run through the sub-fence when its tight-closed over the fence gap in which the cutter sits, making it less likely that dust and chips can be thrown on to the router table as the workpiece is routed. It also eliminates any gap around the cutter, which makes it impossible for the start or end of the workpiece to dive into the cutter if the workpiece is pushed carelessly at start or end of the operation. Sub-fences, one before and one after the cutter, can also be shimmed in a way that turns a long straight cutter into a mini edge-planer able to make square/flat/straight edges for gluing together.
The above are probably all needed for safer operation as well as operations that are common to most table routing tasks. There are various other specialised devices for very particular kinds of table routing, such as joint-making. Best to consider them as you consider such special operations as the means you want to employ to make this or that.
