Router Fence Advice - and - does anyone have pics?

[Howard Rosenberg]

Hi all -

The time has come - I need to make a fence for my router table.
Clamping straight sticks down aren't part of the landscape this year...

I can envision the first part.
It's the scond that part eludes me.
Kinda ironic after all these years of looking at other people's router fences.

The first part will be the basis for the front scarificial faces.
- nothing fancy - just glue & screws
- L-shapped - probably 4" on the table and 5" vertically
- I'll use a fly-cutter to cut a 3" hole
- four braces in back to square things up

Not too exotic.

The second part -
- front faces to be sliding sacrifical faces - I want to get REEEEAL close to the bit
- I envision bolts holding them to the main fence - I want slide shims in for edge-jointing

My questions are -
- should I route a groove into the first face and countersunk holes in the sacrifical faces
- this'll let me use a regular bolt and knobs on the back
- what is the best way to hold feather boards to the fence - clamps or t-tracks in one of the vertical arts

Thank you.
Howard

[Jeremy Gibson]

Here is my thread that shows what I did. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=28574

I used a through hole in the sub-fence face and mounted some T-track in the back of the split fence. A flange bolt goes through from the rear and into the T-track with knobs to tighten. This kept the finished face free from any holes.

As for jigs, featherboards, etc my split fence is 3/4" shorter than the sub fence and another piece of T-track is along the top. I plan to make additional front fences that are double-thick and can be extra tall.

[Laurie Brown]

My fence sounds just like what you describe. I made mine from plans in a book by Danny Proulx, it's made of MDF and rides in T-tracks. I'll try to get some pics tomorrow to post.

[Jerry Crawford]

Here are two views of one I made today. The varnish is drying so I dont have the track installed yet but you can see how it goes in. The horizonal blocks are for the screws that hold the track in place.





That clearance hole looks pretty big but I have a 4" hose to hook up. My sacrificial faces can just be screwed to the fence face as needed. Feather boards will be attached with T-bolts and knobs to the track as needed. When I have my tracks in the table top I'll drill a couple of holse in the ends to accomodate t-bolts and knobs.

[David Rose]

Howard, here is what I did. You may recognise ideas stolen from various builders. Yeah, it's big and it's heavy! I learned this the hard way before I put the stop pins on the back corners. No damage, but everything was out of adjustment! And not everything was meant to be adjustable! The faces are laminated with table top material on the fronts and backer on the backs. They can be flipped to change the cuts in the face openings. One thing that I did "wrong" was to bevel the backs of the faces. If (when) I redo that, I will cut the edges where I can slide a piece of 1/4 disposable material between them for a '0' clearance bit insert. I can unlock the whole fence with one or both table knobs. Then it can be rough positioned. After that, unlocking the Lee Valley cam clamps will let me turn the cylindrical black knob to adjust fore and aft by a thou if wanted, as measured on the 2" dial indicator. I do have to remove a face to move one in or out, but I have yet to do that as I have a jointer.

David

[Laurie Brown]

I took some pics of my fence today. It's made of MDF, and has t-bolts holding the adjustable front faces. I can shim them if I want by loosening the bolts and putting shim material in between. It has a 2.5" hole for my shop vac hose.