Router Table Fence Design

[Anonymous]

... but when you add in that it's imperial... ugh!

err, no again neo. They come with imperial scales OR metric although I had to order mine for an additional £6 which included metric toothed racks too

 

[tibbs]

Yep - that would be this I think (from Rocklers website)

Seems rather pricey - I think I'd rather spend the extra £60 & go for an Ultra Lite.

 

[Anonymous]

Now I'm going to duck as I say this, but does anyone actually use a router fence for jointing, and therefore need the outfeed fence adjustment :?:

Good question Nick.
When I made my first router table about 8-9 years ago, I made the fence so that it could be split for jointing. Never used it to joint.

When I got my second (purchased commercial model) router table, the fence was designed to allow jointing but I never did.

My third table uses the Incra and I can't joint with it - strangely, i don't miss the facility :lol:

Strange? Can this be the same Tony who in another post said

I have used my Ultra 24 for a year now and think that a split fence would be a great advantage. I might even make a wooeen facing for it to allow it to split

True Roger, true

However, I did not say this when discussing jointing, it was to allow me to use wider cutters such as panel raisers (as I'm sure you know :wink: :lol: )

Rest assured, I do not intend to make the Incra usable for jointing

 

[RogerS]

Actually, Tony. that's a good point you make. We sometimes focus on a split fence moving back and forth but not necessarily sideways...as in your suggestion.

 

[Nick W]

... but when you add in that it's imperial... ugh!

err, no again neo. They come with imperial scales OR metric although I had to order mine for an additional £6 which included metric toothed racks too

Tony, you are right that you can get metric racks, however you cannot get metric templates. From the Incra stite:

Q. Are any of your Jigs available with metric capabilities?

A. If you want to convert your Jig to metric measurements, you can purchase the metric positioning racks directly from Taylor Design. The cost is $6.95 for 5 metric racks (1mm increments) plus a 16" 430mm long scale for use with your metric racks.

Please note that any Incra joinery templates you have will not be able to be used with the metric racks, as the templates are printed for 1/32" increments.

unless this information is out of date. (The bolding is mine by the way.)

And it would still leave a problem for those who have a mixed bag of metric and imperial bits (not that I keep mine in a bag you understand :wink: ), and the problem of the odd-sized metric bits.


On the split fence issue I stand firmly on the side of having one, I just don't need the outfeed fence offset facility.

 

[Neomorph]

lol... thanks for all the info guys... much appreciated.

It's funny that I literally just got off the phone to Roger (I was ordering some mitre and T-Track) when Colinc mentions him in this thread.

Wierd.

Actually we were talking about home built router tables and fences and such and he was saying that the fence he suggests cost £85 and his comment was "it's a bloody good fence". I should have got the name of it off him but I forgot while yattering away. I wonder if it's that Incra Colinc mentioned.

Anyway I've got to get around to deciding what I want to do this weekend as I want to finish the build next week.

 

[Neomorph]

Well I finally finished designing my fence. I said I was going to finish it at the weekend but it ended up being finished at 5:30am today (monday). All I can say is thank god I don't work. :lol:

All I have got to do now is build the silly thing and I can't do it until the remaining hardware arrives from Woodworkers Workshop. I will cut the wood (using dust mask of course) and do what I can without the T-Track and knobs but I'm guessing it will be the end of the week before it gets finished.

Here is how I hope the finished article will turn out...

 

[Chris Knight]

John,

A suggestion: Angle the inner edges of your two fence pieces to creat a dovetail profile into which you can slip sacrificial inserts. These are useful for zero-clearance jobs. At present, it looks as if the edges are angled in an opposite sense.

 

[Neomorph]

John,

A suggestion: Angle the inner edges of your two fence pieces to creat a dovetail profile into which you can slip sacrificial inserts. These are useful for zero-clearance jobs. At present, it looks as if the edges are angled in an opposite sense.

I'm not quite sure what you are on about... What actually is a zero clearance job... I'm pretty much learning on the job here and hence why I'm doing the designing before starting to build the thing so please forgive my ignorance here.



Edit: I just watched Norm build his Deluxe Router Station and he has his fences cut at 90 degrees. I dunno what made me think they were chamfered. I think I thought that it would aid in chip collection. Still I'm intigued by what you mean about sacrificial inserts. Do you mean a way to add temporary addons to the table that get chomped on so there is no gap between the router bit and the fence? Do you know any examples on the net I could have a look at?

 

[Neomorph]

ROFL....

Here is me designing a all singing and dancing fence and then I decided to have a break and go look at the Woodworking channel to see what it's like... and there they are using router tables without fancy fences. All they use is a piece of low friction plastic and a couple of clamps. :shock:

God I'm such a noob lol.

EDIT: WTF... Is someone up there taking the pee... They just setup a jointer fence out of a single piece of low friction plastic with the outfeed area 1/8" in. To set the fence they used a piece of wood against the outfeed side of the fence and then just moved the fence over until it touched the bearing on the router bit. God that so simple and works so damn easy. I'm now thinking twice about building my fence.

Damn that "The Router Workshop" program... the only one I watched and it took the pee out of my design. :?

 

[LyNx]

I have a piece of ply with a couple of clamps 8)

 

[tibbs]

Hi Neomorph

There's a fairly dry description here without any pictures.

Theres a commercially produced system by Jointech here that should show you the principal - just imagine the fancy plastic insert is a piece of MDF with ends angled so they lock into similarly angled ends of the two halves of the fence (in a kind-of sideways french cleat fashion)

Richard

 

[Jake]

The CMT fence has fences and zero-clearance of exactly the sort Chris refers to. Some info that might help here (albeit not the clearest pictures of the dovetail arrangement):

http://www.woodshopdemos.com/table-6.htm

 

[Neomorph]

Hi Neomorph
Theres a commercially produced system by Jointech that should show you the principal - just imagine the fancy plastic insert is a piece of MDF with ends angled so they lock into similarly angled ends of the two halves of the fence (in a kind-of sideways french cleat fashion)

Ahhhhh... Now I know what you mean. Yup... You are right on the money when you say my fence is the wrong way for that... I'll redesign it shortly. Just as a matter of interest where would you use something like that?

 

[Alf]

The trouble with The Router Workshop one is there is absolutely zero provision for guarding or dust extraction...

Cheers, Alf

 

[Neomorph]

The trouble with The Router Workshop one is there is absolutely zero provision for guarding or dust extraction...

Cheers, Alf

True but at least with their method I can use my router table to help build the router fence... and you got to admit it's cheaper than a £300 Incra fence :wink:

 

[Chris Knight]

John,
Richard (Tibbs) and Jake explained nicely what I was on about.

 

[Anonymous]

John,
Richard (Tibbs) and Jake explained nicely what I was on about.

Nice idea Chris :wink:

 

[Neomorph]

John,
Richard (Tibbs) and Jake explained nicely what I was on about.

Well here is the altered fence to take into account adding the sacrificial insert later. Actually doing it highlighted a few problems in my previous version so I didtched it and hopped back to the original 1.6 version and updated it so I need to thank you for that too.

 

[Neomorph]

Bugger... Can anyone see the problem adding the featherboards caused?