Router fence design questions

[ElRay]

I'm shooting to make a router fence like this: http://store.woodstore.net/rofe.html

A few questions for folks that have real experience with router fences versus my "It seems like something useful." thoughts (I have yet to make use of some of the "useful" features I've added to other projects).

1) How useful are real zero clearance faces? If I go the Formica laminated faces, I'm not too inclined to push the face into the bit to cut the profile and make it really zero clearance.

2) The lower sliding face is 2" and the upper one is 1". Wouldn't they be more useful with the skinnier one on the bottom? I know with a 3/4" base, 1" on the bottom wouldn't be to practical, so what if the faces were both 1-1/2"?

3) The sliding faces are attached with bolts epoxied into holes that fit into slots in the fence body. Sounds OK, if you think you faces will never need to be rebuilt. If I go the zero-clearance route, I will need to make replacements, plus I already have a T-Slot bit, would T-Slots on the back of each face be better?

4) I'm looking at attaching the body to the face of the BT3k rip fence, but any thoughts on attaching to the top of the fence, or making my own rail attachments? I really like the idea of attaching to the fence, because then I can use my micro adjuster to nudge the fence. Attaching to the top would make it easier to adjust the fence to be parallel to any miter slot tables I have, or the travel of the SMT, but it seems like it would be tougher to make sure it's flush with the table. Attaching to the face would make table alignment easier, but parallelism would take shimming.

5) Any advantage of putting some UHMW on the base to make it slide better?

6) Any general, "I wish I had thought of ... before I built mine." or "I love my purchased fence except for ...", "I thought ... would have been useful, but I've really never used it.", etc. comments?

Ray

[Black wallnut]

MY router fence may be of some interest. IMHO dual sliding fence faces do little to improve usability in the real world. As far as attaching the faces to the body t-slots is the way to go otherwise long slots on the back of your fence will require very careful planning on placing support blocks.

Rather than attaching your fence to the rip fence consider attaching it to the rails since you can build a fence riding sled to do any thing that you'd want to do with a miter guage or SMT.

UHMW-PE makes great fence faces but is somewhat expensive. That said there are times that I will create a zero clearance to a bit with mine by swining it into the bit.

IMHO the best fine adjustment of a router fence are taps with a small hammer!

[JimD]

The router fence for use on the router table built into my BT3100 attaches to the wooden accessory table - you can see some pictures in the articles section (spruce and sandeply). I put t-nuts on the bottom of the melamine that forms the top surface of the accessory table and there are slots in the router fence for adjustment. Simple, cheap and works great.

I have sliding faces, also of melamine. I like them but I would agree with Mark that they are not vital. I only use a zero clearance with a special bit to make drawer joints - it cuts the face with the wood flat on the top of the table and the drawer side with the piece vertical against the fence - one adjustment to do both drawer joints (i could have this backward). My main usage is to open up the opening for something like a panel raising bit or close it down for a smaller bit. This seems to help the dust collection.

Jim

[RodKirby]

Kirby stuff:

1. I like UHMWPE as a router fence but as the other guys said $$$!
2. Split fence is a must. To only minimize bit clearance - I haven't had a need for Zero clearance.
Split is useful if you want "joint" on the router.
3. T-Slots: I run three. Back for attachment to Fence "Base", Front for Stops, and Top for other "stuff" - see pics...

[Bulkley]

A router table is one of those things that is easy to over-build. I built mine out of 3/4" MDF. There is nothing pretty about it. I use ordinary clamps when I need hold-downs. My wife & I are building cabinets, so we use this rig continually.

In my view, what is more important than the techy stuff is dust extraction. If you don't have it, dust will build up in front of the face and affect your cuts. Build in an exhaust port to connect to your DC or shop vac, and totally enclose the router itself. Your shop will stay much cleaner.

[Thom2]

here's mine ....



you may get some ideas from my gallery too ... http://bt3gallery.fhauto.com/view_al...r_Fence&page=1

I've changed a few things since those pictures were taken, but you'll get the general gist of my mounting method by looking at the pics. I'm very pleased with this setup, the only thing I think I'd like better is to have a 3"x3" piece of angle aluminum for the main fence body.

[Lonnie in Orlando]

The router fence on my BT3000 is too plain to offer advice about neat accessories. It's just a jointed board with a recess routed for the bit.

However, I can recommend a way to clamp it to the saw ...

Clamp the fence to the accessory table with two 6" bar clamps.

I hot glued two scraps to the bottom of the underside of the accessory table at the infeed and outfeed sides so the clamp jaws will span the sides of the table and to avoid deforming the top of the table.

The fence is "Micro-adjustable" using the method shown on the Router Workshop -- a hammer. A lot better than trying to micro adjust the rip fence.

I have an MDF insert between the accessory table and the saw table. By clamping the fence on the right side of the accessory table, the entire saw table supports the workpiece.

- Lonnie

[LarryG]

I built a modified version of the WOOD Magazine fence for my router table:

The fence face is naked MDF, with no laminate. This table will be retired in near future and replaced by a new one, so this fence was basically a Q&D prototype for the final one.

I used slots for the attachment bolts, with 7/16" wide recessed tracks for the bolt heads (standard 1/4-20 hex bolt). The next one will use T-slots on the back face, ala Kirby.

I used the 2" and 1" high moving sections of the original design, but have found this to be overkill. The next one will have one sliding section per side, probably 2" high. I don't think I've ever moved the 1" high sections.

Like Rod I've never found a need for a zero-clearance fence, although it does sound like one could be useful for the cut Jim describes.

+1, actually let's make that ++++1, on what Bulkley says about dust collection. As the picture shows, I have a 4" hose on the fence and another on the router box; between the two, very little dust escapes into the shop and the working area around the bit opening is always clear, with no debris build-up along the front of the fence.

For your "I wish I had thought of ..." question, build an extra sliding fence half for the infeed side, with its bottom edge about 3/8" above the top surface of the table. Install this fence when you need to flush trim hardwood edging on plywood panels ... the edging is typically around 1/4" thick, and the 3/8" clearance allows the overhang to slide under the bottom of the fence as you feed the panel past the bit. (If you use edging thicker than 1/4", adjust the 3/8" clearance accordingly.) Of the several attachments I've built for my fence, I use this one more than any other.

[ElRay]

Thanks for the replies. Now comes the question I never thought of: Left or Right facing? I was planing on having my fence face to the left as I'm looking at the front of my saw, mostly because I could then use the switch in the BT3k base to control the router and be a quicker "OFF!", if needed, plus I'd have more table space to support wide work. I really hadn't even considered having it face right, so I could work off the end of the rails (from back to front). What's the advantage of right facing, other than a slightly longer infeed side?

[LarryG]

Longer infeed side, and maybe a better chance of being able to have setups for both the saw and the router at the same time, without breaking one down to do the other. This is perhaps the best argument for making the router fence mount to the rails separate from the rip fence, BTW.

I also like being able to walk around that end of the saw while routing, with free access to three sides. Of course most of what I do with the router in my BT's accessory table is light-duty freehand stuff like roundovers, which is a different matter from fence-guided routing.

I wouldn't place huge importance on being able to get to the power switch quickly. When a router cut goes haywire, most of the time you just move the workpiece away from the fence and it doesn't hurt if the bit continues to spin. Obviously there are exceptions, but it's not nearly so critical as for a table saw, or even a band saw.

[Tom Miller]

Do you have the wide table kit installed? If not, you may not have enough room to leave both saw and router fences set up at the same time, so sharing the rip fence would not have a downside.

If you have full access around the right end of your saw, I'd seriously consider going that, uhhh, route. The right end of my saw (wide table) is butted up to a wall, so it wasn't an option for me. Having the router on the end would make it a lot more like a conventional router table.

Seems like you could make a rip fence mounted router fence that could flip 180 degrees, allowing you to go back and forth.

I used to have a router fence that locked down to the router table (on my wide table BT3) by way of t-track on the table. Now, I have a router fence that locks down to the rails, and squares up to the front rail. I did this partly so I could use my micro-adjuster, and so far I like the setup.

Although my new fence has the double sliding faces, I think single would be plenty.










Regards,
Tom

[ElRay]

Thanks all!

Thanks all. It will be at least two weeks until I'll get the shop time to work on this, so I'll have more time to think thinks over. Two semi-random points:

It shouldn't bee too tough to come-up with a way to mount it that can be flipped 180 degrees, I'd just have to allow for two notches in the body since the accessory table's opening is off center.

I have the Wide Table kit, but I'm waiting for the opportunity to build a UTS-inspired cart to install it. When I do, I'll look at adding a "regular" router plate (maybe even a router lift) centered on the rails, so the offset shouldn't matter.

Ray

[JimD]

JimD's current router table

In my previous post on this topic I referenced you to my mobile base article which includes some pictures of the router table capability it has. I thought you might also like to see some pictures of my current router table which includes a built in lift. The lift idea is from an American Woodworker article several years ago in their annual router issue (comes out in March). The fence on this is held in place by short bar clamps which are part of the fence. The router table has dust collection both from the fence and from the router cabinet.

When I use the router table part of my BT3100, I stand at the end of the extension table. I do not want to be "reaching" far when using any of my tools and would not want to use a router table from the front or the back of the BT3100 for this reason.

Jim