Ready2rout or Incra LS super fence?

[JoAnn Duggan]

Does anyone have the new Rockler Ready2rout fence? I recently saw a demo of it and I have watched it on youtube. It looks very nice and does what it says but I think the price is too high. I also have been researching the Incra LS Super router fence and that looks great also. I have the incra LS table saw fence and love it. I would really like to hear from anyone who has the ready2rout or the incra super router fence and your advice on the best way to go.

thank you

JoAnn

[Mark Carlson]

Hi JoAnn,

I checked out the Rockler system videos online when I saw it on their catalog. Cool but expensive. Have not seen any reviews of it yet. I have a 17in incra LS router fence. I love it. Super accurate with great dust collection and very adjustable. With the wonder fence you can easily widen the fence opening and offset the fences. It has slots on the face so its easy to attach stop and feather boards. I don't do dovetails with it so I never use the carriage thing that attaches to the fence. I also never use the tall vertical attachments.

google search found a review of the rockler system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeOX8twaefA

~mark

[Raymond Fries]

I can only voice opinion on the Super Fence. I have the 17" version and love it as well. +1 to very accurate. I have made box joints with it and they are flawless. So far, it has met all of my expectations.

Good Luck in your choice.

[JoAnn Duggan]

Mark and Ray:

Thank you for responding to my post. I have been favoring the Incra LS router fence and I really like what I see and how happy you are with it. I have one more question for you. Did you get the Incra Table with it and if so did you get the 43" one or did you already have a router table. I have the older Bench Dog table which is very nice but it is only 24" x 32". I am thinking that maybe it would be better to get the Incra table and put mine on Ebay or Craigslist.

thank you again:

JoAnn

[Loren Woirhaye]

At that level of investment you might consider a Woodrat or Router Boss. They can be fitted with inexpensive digital readouts. No-name 6" dri's are down to about $30 and are nearly as accurate as industrial models costing hundreds, though less durable. While I think electronic have a place in a woodshop, do consider the unsupported digital table saws and radial arm saws Sears sold for awhile.

Another advantage of the Woodrat setup is the work is not stood on end, so gravity isn't a nuisance in doing larger work like, for example, dovetailing a blanket chest. That's something a Woodrat or router boss can do that an awkward setup at best on a router table.

If all you want to do is make modest-sized boxes with decorative corner joints, the INCRA will probably take longer to learn to use than the digital thing, but of course there's no proprietary circuit board to give out on you. A lot of industrial woodworking machines have obsolete electronic parts issues as well which turn capable machines into boat anchors. Observe this tenoner (probably a $10,000 machine), stripped and virtually worthless: http://www.ebay.com/itm/MAXYM-CONEST...item565cf10c5b

[Mark Carlson]

I originally got the 32x27 in incra table, but latter had a cast iron top the same size made, which attaches to the right hand side of my tablesaw. This size is perfect for the 17in LS. I think the 24x32in would be fine. Incra also sells a metal extender that you can attach to the end of your table.

Mark and Ray:

Thank you for responding to my post. I have been favoring the Incra LS router fence and I really like what I see and how happy you are with it. I have one more question for you. Did you get the Incra Table with it and if so did you get the 43" one or did you already have a router table. I have the older Bench Dog table which is very nice but it is only 24" x 32". I am thinking that maybe it would be better to get the Incra table and put mine on Ebay or Craigslist.

thank you again:

JoAnn

[Michael Mayo]

I just received my Incra LS Standard router fence kit. I already had a router table/cabinet I had made but did not like the fence I built with the plans. So when I opened it up and did some initial placement tests I quickly realized my 36x24 table wasn't going to cut the mustard as it was just to small to fit the Incra fence the way my lift is mounted in the table. So I built a new table today that is 35x36 and it should be perfect. Tomorrow I have to rout the lift plate opening and then mount the table back on the cabinet and then the LS Fence. I can't wait to try it out tomorrow it seems very straight forward and easy to follow. The quality of the fence is outstanding as with any Incra product. I would go for the Incra and not have a second thought about it. I am also waiting on a Wixey digital readout for my lift that the wifey bought me for Christmas that will complete my router table setup.

[Matt Meiser]

Ready 2 Rout is made by the same folks as the CNC Shark (just outside Toledo, OH) from what I understand so reading some reviews on that might give you some general ideas on quality.

[Greg Hines, MD]

There was a review on the Ready2Rout in one of my recent magazines. I think it was Popular Woodworking, but could have been something else. They seemed to like it.

[Matt Mackinnon]

There are many different reasons to have a router table. Safety is one of them as hand holding a router has inherent dangers. Sometimes it's the only way to do a cut.

The other reason is for accuracy and repeatability. I had a Jessem small bench top router table that has a rudimentary fence that you can manually adjust back and forth, but if you were tying to get accurate measurements with it, it would be near enough to impossible to do that it's just not worth it.

I did look at the Ready2Rout but felt it was much more of a gimmick than a worthwhile tool. You are relying on an electronic set of sensors to figure out distances as no two router bits are going to be identical. If I am going to that extent, then it hardly seems like I am doing the work, and I might as well spend the extra money and get a real CNC router.

The Incra solution is more of a mechanical accuracy and as such I didn't think it would be as prone to failure as trusting electronics to do the right thing. It has a simple adjustment wheel to bring the fence into a perfect fit with 0.001" increments. You have a simple story tape that slides in, that you can easily make yourself so you don't need to rely of re-programming a device to do it again. Easy KISS logic to use.

I bought it along with the full table and legs. Love it.

[Ruhi Arslan]

... the INCRA will probably take longer to learn to use than the digital thing, but of course there's no proprietary circuit board to give out on you.

Disagree and agree. Learning how to use LS system is as simple as reading the step-by-step instructions once. Then, requires looking up the tables to choose which template to insert; no programming, no re-reading the manuals. In terms of reliability, it is as good as any other mechanical system. It works fluidly. I found the fence support (not the sliders) not straight due to the narrow mounting support. It needs a little finesse when setting it up.
Mine is used as TS extension and functions as both TS fence and router fence. It is few seconds to set the split fence on. The only drawback is you cannot go back and forth in between the TS and router.

[Prashun Patel]

I have the incra ls. I bought the table and the stand too. Theres no reason you cant fit it to your own table as long as you provide proper clearance for the carriage on the backside. That is the only downside of this product: if you are soace constrained you will require a mobile stand because the positioner renders your router table deeper than other tables.

Like all incra fence oroducts, there is a learning curve. However, once up it, it is easy. It is precise and easy to micro adjust.

Happy customer.

[Earl Rumans]

Here's another vote for the Incra. I have the Incra router table set as an extension on my table saw. I use it a little differently the normal, as I have it mounted on the right side but have it turned around. I just turn the LS fence around when using the router and it's like having a separate router table setup, I can work around the end of the table. As stated the only drawback is I can't use both the tablesaw and the router at the same time. The Incra system is very easy to learn and is incredibly accurate and repeatable. I think the Redy2Rout is just adding more chance for error.

[Richard Link]

JoAnn,

I recently purchased a Ready2Rout fence system (hate that name, by the way...) and thought I would chime in. For the record, I also owned an Incra 17inch LS system for several years and sold that item about 3 years ago. Because I wasn't using the INCRA all the time, I found that it took up a lot of space and I had to "relearn" the system over and over again.

The Incra system is extremely versatile, costs less and has a long track record of use. It's primary downsides are the requirement for a larger router table for mounting (usually an offset table) and, to some degree, a bit of an awkward learning curve. Once you get through the learning curve, however, I think it is a very well made and useful fence system.

With all of that said, I have been extremely impressed with my Ready2Rout fence system and have no regrets about purchasing it. It is well made, accurate and extremely easy to set up and use. Far easier to use immediately than the LS system. It's also a lot of fun. The two biggest downsides are cost and the fact that it's versatility is limited by the availability of control applets to do different tasks. We don't really know how active New Wave will be in producing useful applets although the potential is impressive. What I'd love is to see them release an SDK so that we could program our own applets. Don't know if there is any plan to do that.

I do think that $500 for the system is a steep cost of entry into a router fence. However, it does what it claims to do extremely well with a minimum of fuss. Also, like the LS system, doing dovetails with this type of table based router setup can be more trouble than it is worth at times. Also, anticipate that building a small vertical sled is in your future as the system does not come with one (the Incra does).

I originally purchased the fence because I had to make a large number of box joints and this seemed like a slick way to do so. I was not disappointed. I have made box joints a million ways - Table saw with dado stack, router table with home made jig, LS system, multi router, dovetail jigs, etc. The Ready2Rout is really the easiest to setup and run. If you have multiple different boards of different widths just type in the width and everything is corrected and compensated for automatically. Super slick. Want to use a 0.25 inch bit instead of a 0.5 inch bit - no problem, 10 seconds to change. No new measuring, no inserting a new guide tape into the LS system, etc. Very similar for cutting precise dados - type in the width of your bit, where you want the dado and width of dado and push start. Done. Using a 0.25 inch bit and want a dado sized for undersized 0.5 inch plywood - trivial. There are other applications for sliding dados and fluting, although I've not tried those as yet. It would be quite nice to have the thing rapidly calculate smooth fitting socket-dovetail combinations for sliding dovetails without a lot of trial and error. I suspect it does this well.

Accuracy appears to be excellent (in the 0.002 range on my measurements). Set the device for 0 gap and you will not be able to get glue into the joints. I generally set for a 0.002 inch gap which seems perfect.

Bottom line: if you are looking for a long term investment in a precise linear router fence, are willing to put in a little bit of work and time to learn to use it, use it frequently and plan to make a lot of wacky joints, then I think the Incra is a better and more proven investment of less $ (assuming you already have an offset router table that can accommodate it). If you want a bulletproof, super-easy way to knock out finger joints, dados, fluting, etc with a minimum of fuss than this Ready2Rout can't be beat if you can stomach the cost. I have definitely spent $500 on tools in the past that I anticipate using a lot less than this one. If the company really does invest in development of new applets or releases an SDK that would allow us to program our own, this would be an extremely powerful system. We shall see, I guess.

I hope this is helpful. I'm happy to answer any specific questions you might have about it if you are still considering.

Best wishes,

Richard

[keith micinski]

I don't dislike my incra but the 90 degree sled is terrible and some of the adjustments are a little clunky and could use refining.