Router Fences: Incra vs Woodpecker vs Jessem

[Brad Swanson]

Looking to build a router table in the near future, and I am currently planning on building the cabinet but purchasing the lift top and fence. Are any of the listed commercially available fences head and shoulders above the others? Thanks.

Brad

[Bill Huber]

I don't think you could go wrong with any of them, they are all good.

I can only speak to the Jessem.
The table that I have is the phenolic one with the singe miter slot, it is flat and I have had NO problems with it bowing. I do have it supported well so I would say any table would not bow.

The main reason I went with the Jessem was the fence and the way it mounts to the table. Unlike most the rails mount on the ends of the table, does not use T tracks in the middle of the table. I do have the older fence but there is not that much difference in it and the newer one. For offset routing on my fence you have to put a shim behind the outfeed fence and on the new one you just slid in a spacer.

The fence is made like a battleship like all of Jessems stuff is, I have also added the Mite R Slide to the fence which is again made very well and works great, I do use it a lot more then I ever thought I would.
http://www.jessem.com/MITE-R-SLIDE.html

[Michael Heffernan]

I have the Incra LS 17 with the Wonder Fence. As for accuracy and repeatability, IMO, it the best. Using the lead screw, I can dial in a cut to 1/1000 of an inch. I looked at all three fences. Each has its pros, and all are good choices. But I'm glad I got the Incra.

[Prashun Patel]

Incra positioner is super accurate, but for the full effect, you should also get the wonderfence. They are a great combo, but there is a learning curve. Its fiddly and you may struggle as i do to remember which hole you Need to stick the screwdriver in to open the gap in the fence wings or shim them. Like all incra stuff, it turns some people off who prefer simplicity. At times it turns me off, but its so darn accurate, i forgive that sin.

The difference between the ls positioner and most other fences is that it is discrete. You open a cam lock and move the fence to a rough position. Then you half close the cam lock and use the microadjustment knob to get it exact. But the genius of this fence comes when you want to do repeated spacing cuts for things like box joints or dovetails. The perpendicular carriage connected to the fence has five rulers and insertable templates to align your cuts. When you move the fence to the appropriate position using the rough adjustment and then lock the cam lever, the fence aligns to one of the discrete detents. It corrects you if you are off by less than 1/1000 inch. This allows you to make perfect joints.

The carriage also has deep capacity, so you can route deeper than with other fences. This also means it requires a large table. So its a bigger footprint.

i have the incra masterlift2. I like that over the other lifts at the time i purchased because the inset rings are magnetic and therefore toolless.

[Larry Frank]

I must be kind of nuts. All of those are really nice but $$$. I have been using one I made that works great, has a t-track on it and adjustable mouth for the router bits. It is held down in a couple of t-track slots in the router table and is as accurate as one could ever need.

I must be missing something with these fences.

[Brad Swanson]

I must be kind of nuts. All of those are really nice but $$$. I have been using one I made that works great, has a t-track on it and adjustable mouth for the router bits. It is held down in a couple of t-track slots in the router table and is as accurate as one could ever need. I must be missing something with these fences.

Agreed, Larry. Unfortunately I have such little time to spend in the shop that I have to weigh the cost savings but time investment of shop built fixtures vs the money invested but time saved by buying commercial.

[Keith Hankins]

All are good that you mention. I've had the Incra LS and it's been fantastic. I can adjust downto the thou. Rock solid and would get it again in a heartbeat.

[keith micinski]

While there are a lot of things I hate about my incra it is still a really good fence. I wouldn't pay new prices for one probably, but the 120 I did spend was well worth it. It sounds like you don't have time to wait for a used one to come up though so you don't have a lot of options. A home made fence could be really nice and would probably do the job most of the time just fine. It will never be an incra.

[Dave Lewis]

I bought a (complete) BenchDog router table in 2004. I like the tracks that can mount feather boards for hold-downs.

[mreza Salav]

I bought a lift (PRL) and build everything else but if I was going to do it again I would make a fence that is adjustable independently on both in-feed and out-feed (like a shaper).

[Earl Rumans]

I will also add my vote for the Incra. As stated you can't really go wrong with any of them but I just like the precision and repeatability of the Incra system. I have the Incra Masr-R-Lift II and table along with the Incra Wonder system mounted in my Jet saw. I have been extremely happy with every Incra product I have ever tried.

[Chris Parks]

http://www.patwarner.com/routerfence.html

[Andrew Kertesz]

Pat Warner makes some great stuff but his fence is half the cost of the combo package I got at Incra. I got the LS positioner, super fence, table top, and mobile stand for just under double Pat's fence. Incra is always running sales and as an extra bonus you get reward points toward future purchases. Check out Incra's combo packages. It will be time well invested.

[ian maybury]

Another Incra fan here, although with none of the other fences to compare it to.

The positioner is a huge asset in my experience - compared to bumping fences and trying to clamp them down, as is the planing ability the Wonder Fence. Especially if you get into doing complex high accuracy ('engineered') parts in birch ply for tools/fixtures or whatever as you might on say a milling machine. Still learning it really.

They have made a remakable job of delivering a functional system that delivers repeatable results using relatively low cost materials.

Several minor downsides come to mind, but they are not serious and probably similar to the set up required on most solutions (short of the heft and accurcy of a full blown milling machine):

If you are working to very high levels of accuracy over a very flat table the various fence parts (main, high level and Wonder) can take a bit of shimming to get everything precisely square and parallel. (i use contact glue with different thicknesses of brass shim)

The right angle fence needs care in use to keep it slop free (relies on fine adjustment of nylon screws) and firmly down on the table. Somebody posted of retro-fitting the Jessem Mitre Slider on an Incra previously - which sounds like it should be a nice (if for most uses non essential) upgrade...

It's probably not the sort of system you would put into a rough and tumble production environment - at least not if to be used by uncaring and unthinking operators.

[glenn bradley]

I must be kind of nuts. All of those are really nice but $$$. I have been using one I made that works great, has a t-track on it and adjustable mouth for the router bits. It is held down in a couple of t-track slots in the router table and is as accurate as one could ever need.

I must be missing something with these fences.

I don't think you're missing anything. They are all well made products. I am always interested in well thought out, sophisticated designs but, it will always boil down to what you do as to how much benefit you get from any tool. Despite my many modifications to existing tools, tweaks and jigs, the simple, old model, Rockler split face router fence has served me well for a decade. I use on one my drill press table and a sled as well. I did add the top miter track to my really old one; the new ones come with the top track. That along with the face track cut into the mdf sub-faces have met all my needs. I think its on sale right now for about $70. Maybe that's how I afforded my first lift?

P.s. It is also very easy to make additional faces (short, tall, deep) for it.