Router Fence

[SteveF]

ready to make a router table

any thoughts between the incra vs woodpecker fence?

Steve

 

[Lonsdale73]

Do you mean a complete LS Positioner or their Wonderfence as a stand alone device?

 

[SteveF]

was thinking the ls positioner but thought may be ott

Steve

 

[Lonsdale73]

I can't comment on the Woodpecker but do have some experience with the LS. OTT? Perhaps, depending on one's ability. My ability isn't that great and I've found the LS helps enormously for what others might find fairly routine routing operations. For example, I make photo frames and require a create to house the glass, photo and backing board. I'm still learning how to do this properly but if I find having cut rebates on all four sides the piece of glass is still a little bit bigger, it's a simple matter to do with the LS thanks to the multiple rulers you can slot into the positioner itself whereas with my previous set up (which looked a little like the Woodpecker but still cost less complete with table top and legs!) it was a case of marking the fence position with a pencil line on the table top either end, loosening both clamps, easing it by the required amount, re-tightening and checking, invariably repeating till confident then making the cut and finding it was either still too little or - worse! - too much. Bit more adventurous (for me, at least) I used it to create a kind of hunched mortise. I had to think it all through very carefully before starting it but to be honest not something I would even have attempted with my previous fence. And thanks to the aforementioned scales, it was an absolute doddle to go back to the start to make second and third passes with the bit heightened to make a deeper cut. I bought the Super version with the Wonderfence included but to be honest if I was buying again I'm not sure I'd bother with that for the following reasons. It adds quite a bit of bulk to the front which could be an issue if you haven't a long table top to work with. I wasn't too impressed with the dust extraction port, for one it didn't seem to fit any adaptor available on the UK market and that in turn might be why it didn't appear to extract much dust. That said, I introduced a Triton bucket to prevent clogging up a vacuum which may or may not be powerful / offer enough suction for this. I've got round that to some extent by removing the supplied port and covering the resulting hole with a piece of ply through which I fed the vacuum hose till the nozzle is pretty much level with the 'bit gap'. I've been working with some oak which sometimes comes off more like sting than chips or dust and these can get jammed between fence and table. That might be because I have the fence set slightly too high but perhaps no bad thing at my level of experience / ability to stop regularly to clear the working area. I was a bit concerned mine didn't appear to glide as effortlessly as it does for the demonstrator in the Incra demo videos but then I'm nowhere near as big as he is. There are a sequence of videos on Dieter Schmitt's Fine Tools site and I noticed his demonstrator required a two-handed approach too. I don't know if it's bedded in, been lubricated or just I've grown accustomed to it but I find it moves easier now, still not a glide exactly but no longer going purple in the face, either through exertion or from frustration of tap, tap, tapping trying to get a fence only for it to then shoot at least twice as far BEYOND the required mark.

All in, I'm very happy with it. Anything that helps a novice like me improve gets my vote. One that get's me thinking about other things I could possibly tackle with it and inspires me to try out new techniques is better still.

 

[wcndave]

I have the wonderfence and it's really good. Need lots of space behind the blade to use it well though. Nice dust extraction, and you can use the offset feature which allows you to slide one side in or out a few thou like the full LS, you basically slide both sides. You can put a cut strip of bar in the front groove to keep them perfectly aligned too.

I liked the idea of the full LS, eg to dial in exactly by say 50mm, however it required the router to go the other way round on the table, meaning i got less width, or get a much bigger table. I like lots of infeed and outfeed, so went for the latter.

The biggest Triton, plus the Incra table / stand, wonderfence and insert plate has been a marvelous and massive upgrade.

 

[Mike.S]

I have the LS positioner and wonderfence (from Peter Sefton).

OTT - absolutely! But, as Lonsdale noted, for someone of limited experience (me also) and first foray into Router table work I found it extremley helpful. The ability to offset fences; micro adjust the fence fore and aft (useful for making mouldings to match existing window mouldings); fine adj of stops; and a multitude of other things that make it so useful.

Like WCNdave mentions, a larger table is helpful - I built mine around the postioner/fence, but the positioner is easily removable (I used insert nuts in the table and the securing nuts can be loosened and the positioner slides out for storage) if space is an issue.

I justified the cost (to myself and SWMBO ) by the money I was saving in not employing a joiner to make the windows and doors that I made myself and ending up with a lifetime tool.

 

[wcndave]

I tried that, however the cost of materials, and then the tools means it's not really cheaper... SWMBO asked why i built a bookcase out of edged stained ply for 500, when it would have been £80 at ikea... "ah...", I said, "but these fit perfectly..." only reasonable defense i have yet been able to make on most stuff

 

[siggy_7]

Another LS user here (I have the 25" positioner with wonder fence). As other users have commented, its ability is very much OTT if all you want to do is basic stuff, but for tasks requiring accuracy and fine tuning it's an absolute dream. I also use a digital height gauge which is a great pairing for the precision fence adjustment. The tall fence supports work really well for panel work, as does the ability to fine-adjust the fence offset. The fence dust extraction works reasonably well. The one part I find a bit of a let-down having experimented a bit is the right angle fixture, but that being said I've not tried to cut box joints or dovetails with it yet so it might work perfectly acceptably for those jobs. I have mine built into a table saw which gives acres of working surface. The downsides of my setup are that as part of the table saw I need to plan my operations in advance to avoid too many switch overs (I have the LS mounted to an 18mm plywood base which attaches onto the saw's mitre slot by a couple of T bolts) and as the overall thing is so big joint making operations, where you make a fence adjustment after each cut, are a little more cumbersome than if the positioner is within easy reach. But I'm very happy with my purchase and I wouldn't change my decision to take the plunge.

 

[Mike.S]

I tried that, however the cost of materials, and then the tools means it's not really cheaper... SWMBO asked why i built a bookcase out of edged stained ply for 500, when it would have been £80 at ikea... "ah...", I said, "but these fit perfectly..." only reasonable defense i have yet been able to make on most stuff

Ikea v hand made = apples and pears comparison.

For SWMBO, try something on the lines of 'Not only have I saved £X00 pounds/Euros, but the look of pride and admiration when you saw the completed item was....priceless'.

 

[MikeJhn]

After struggling for years with home made and inferior products, I went with a complete Axminster set up, the whole thing is a pleasure to use, I now look forward to working with my table, can't recommend it highly enough:

http://www.axminster.co.uk/ujk-technolo ... ter-tables

http://www.axminster.co.uk/ujk-technolo ... r-elevator

http://www.axminster.co.uk/ujk-technolo ... ter-tables

http://www.axminster.co.uk/ujk-technolo ... auge-fence

http://www.axminster.co.uk/ujk-technolo ... action-box

Mike

 

[deema]

Just a thought, and I must declare that I'm not a fan of routers person, but.....for the same price you could buy a secondhand spindle moulder that has the RPM and a spindle to take router bits. This would give you a highly flexible machine that can take proper spindle moulder tooling should you ever decide to go down that avenue. There are units with sliding tables which can also use Whitehill tennon blocks should you fancy having a go at making scribed tennons.