A couple of decades a go I got a Table for my Router. At the time I
made a fence, and have used it ever since.

The face of the old one is of a piece of 3/8 plywood, about 3.5 inches
wide. It has brackets so the fence can be adjusted. The plywood has
developed a bend and is laminating on the edges.

For the new one I thought about using a piece of maple, poplar or oak,
for the face of the fence, but was unsure which would have the best
properties for this use.


Any recommendation on construction of, and wood for the fence.


--
2017: The year we lean to play the great game of Euchre

On Wednesday, May 3, 2017 at 8:56:17 PM UTC-4, wrote:
A couple of decades a go I got a Table for my Router. At the time I
made a fence, and have used it ever since.

The face of the old one is of a piece of 3/8 plywood, about 3.5 inches
wide. It has brackets so the fence can be adjusted. The plywood has
developed a bend and is laminating on the edges.

For the new one I thought about using a piece of maple, poplar or oak,
for the face of the fence, but was unsure which would have the best
properties for this use.


Any recommendation on construction of, and wood for the fence.


--
2017: The year we lean to play the great game of Euchre

Learn to play Pinochle. Once you get good at that, you'll be able to play Euchre
in your sleep.

On Wed, 3 May 2017 20:56:13 -0400, Keith Nuttle
wrote:

A couple of decades a go I got a Table for my Router. At the time I
made a fence, and have used it ever since.
The face of the old one is of a piece of 3/8 plywood, about 3.5 inches
wide. It has brackets so the fence can be adjusted. The plywood has
developed a bend and is laminating on the edges.
For the new one I thought about using a piece of maple, poplar or oak,
for the face of the fence, but was unsure which would have the best
properties for this use.
Any recommendation on construction of, and wood for the fence.


.... aluminum ? :-)

http://www.leevalley.com/en/Wood/pag...21&cat=1,43000

John T.

On Wed, 03 May 2017 22:08:27 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 3 May 2017 20:56:13 -0400, Keith Nuttle
wrote:

A couple of decades a go I got a Table for my Router. At the time I
made a fence, and have used it ever since.
The face of the old one is of a piece of 3/8 plywood, about 3.5 inches
wide. It has brackets so the fence can be adjusted. The plywood has
developed a bend and is laminating on the edges.
For the new one I thought about using a piece of maple, poplar or oak,
for the face of the fence, but was unsure which would have the best
properties for this use.
Any recommendation on construction of, and wood for the fence.


.... aluminum ? :-)

http://www.leevalley.com/en/Wood/pag...21&cat=1,43000

http://www.jessem.com/mast-r-fence.html

On 5/3/2017 8:56 PM, Keith Nuttle wrote:
A couple of decades a go I got a Table for my Router. At the time I
made a fence, and have used it ever since.

The face of the old one is of a piece of 3/8 plywood, about 3.5 inches
wide. It has brackets so the fence can be adjusted. The plywood has
developed a bend and is laminating on the edges.

For the new one I thought about using a piece of maple, poplar or oak,
for the face of the fence, but was unsure which would have the best
properties for this use.


Any recommendation on construction of, and wood for the fence.



If you can get 20 years out of one face, I'd use 3/8 plywood again.

The faces on my split fence are made from MDF scraps that can slide
along the brackets. They get pushed into the cutter when I want zero
clearance, and are removed and trimmed shorter when I use a different
profile. Consequently, they only last a few years.

On 5/3/2017 10:08 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 3 May 2017 20:56:13 -0400, Keith Nuttle
wrote:

A couple of decades a go I got a Table for my Router. At the time I
made a fence, and have used it ever since.
The face of the old one is of a piece of 3/8 plywood, about 3.5 inches
wide. It has brackets so the fence can be adjusted. The plywood has
developed a bend and is laminating on the edges.
For the new one I thought about using a piece of maple, poplar or oak,
for the face of the fence, but was unsure which would have the best
properties for this use.
Any recommendation on construction of, and wood for the fence.


.... aluminum ? :-)

http://www.leevalley.com/en/Wood/pag...21&cat=1,43000

John T.


That is several time more expensive that my whole setup

--
2017: The year we lean to play the great game of Euchre

On 5/3/2017 7:56 PM, Keith Nuttle wrote:
A couple of decades a go I got a Table for my Router. At the time I
made a fence, and have used it ever since.

The face of the old one is of a piece of 3/8 plywood, about 3.5 inches
wide. It has brackets so the fence can be adjusted. The plywood has
developed a bend and is laminating on the edges.

For the new one I thought about using a piece of maple, poplar or oak,
for the face of the fence, but was unsure which would have the best
properties for this use.


Any recommendation on construction of, and wood for the fence.



Don't rule out MDF, easy to replace and you can use add pieces to act as
zero clearance backs to help prevent tear out when cutting cross grain.

BenchDog router tables uses MDF on the daces of their fences. I have
had this brand fence and table for 10 plus years and and like it a lot.

http://www.benchdog.com/ProMax-RT

What ever you use, spray some TopCote on it to make is slippery.

On 5/3/17 9:32 PM, Larry Kraus wrote:
On 5/3/2017 8:56 PM, Keith Nuttle wrote:
A couple of decades a go I got a Table for my Router. At the time I
made a fence, and have used it ever since.

The face of the old one is of a piece of 3/8 plywood, about 3.5 inches
wide. It has brackets so the fence can be adjusted. The plywood has
developed a bend and is laminating on the edges.

For the new one I thought about using a piece of maple, poplar or oak,
for the face of the fence, but was unsure which would have the best
properties for this use.


Any recommendation on construction of, and wood for the fence.



If you can get 20 years out of one face, I'd use 3/8 plywood again.

The faces on my split fence are made from MDF scraps that can slide
along the brackets. They get pushed into the cutter when I want zero
clearance, and are removed and trimmed shorter when I use a different
profile. Consequently, they only last a few years.

I use a split fence, melamine covered MDF. The low friction is a plus
and you can easily make (and remove) pencil marks.

They mount and slide with a T-track embedded into a BB ply sub fence.

As with Larry, I slide them into the router bit when I need zero clearance.

-BR

On Wednesday, May 3, 2017 at 8:56:17 PM UTC-4, wrote:
A couple of decades a go I got a Table for my Router. At the time I
made a fence, and have used it ever since.

The face of the old one is of a piece of 3/8 plywood, about 3.5 inches
wide. It has brackets so the fence can be adjusted. The plywood has
developed a bend and is laminating on the edges.

For the new one I thought about using a piece of maple, poplar or oak,
for the face of the fence, but was unsure which would have the best
properties for this use.


Any recommendation on construction of, and wood for the fence.


--
2017: The year we lean to play the great game of Euchre

Another vote here for Melamine covered MDF-- exactly what I was thinking. However, if you "MUST" use lumber, then I think the question you'd want to ask is "Which species is the most stable under these circumstances?"

So... Where are you located? Is your shop heated? Do you have full climate control, or do you leak air & humidity, etc?

I don't pretend to know relative stability of the species in terms of movement, but those are the questions I'd be asking, and then I'd be comparing cost for the best & better ones.

-- I'm sure one of these woodworkers that's purer than I am will have a species idea for you.

"Keith Nuttle" wrote in message news
A couple of decades a go I got a Table for my Router. At the time I
made a fence, and have used it ever since.

The face of the old one is of a piece of 3/8 plywood, about 3.5 inches
wide. It has brackets so the fence can be adjusted. The plywood has
developed a bend and is laminating on the edges.

For the new one I thought about using a piece of maple, poplar or oak,
for the face of the fence, but was unsure which would have the best
properties for this use.


Any recommendation on construction of, and wood for the fence.


--
2017: The year we lean to play the great game of Euchre

Keith,

I built Pat Warner's Generation 1 of the router fence shown here (
http://www.patwarner.com/routerfence.html ) which is almost the same. At
the time (Issue #144 Sept/Oct 2000 ), he published a "Micro-Adjustable
Router Fence" article in Fine Woodworking that explained almost everything
you needed to know about how to build one. Had to email him several times
for explanation of some steps that got edited out of his article. This is
the link but you need to be a FWW member to get full access.

It was a fun project to build and as he states, it is definitely accurate to
..001". Generation 1 used walnut for the face instead of the poly and has a
split fence as shown in the photos near the bottom of the page he
http://www.patwarner.com/router_table.html

The fence is still in use and is as accurate as the day I built it. It was
used in two kitchen renovations (drawers and doors), several bathroom
makeovers, an entrance door and many other projects over the years. Not
shown in the photo's are several add-on's he designed that mount to the
split fence as adjustable stops - very handy. This video shows the version
I made and the add-on's in use.

His site is an excellent read in everything related to routers. He used to
post here but I haven't seen him chime in on any in over a year - maybe
more. Purchased a couple of the products - all high quality.

Bob S.

On 5/7/2017 10:29 PM, B wrote:
Keith,

I built Pat Warner's Generation 1 of the router fence shown here (
http://www.patwarner.com/routerfence.html ) which is almost the same.
At the time (Issue #144 Sept/Oct 2000 ), he published a
"Micro-Adjustable Router Fence" article in Fine Woodworking that
explained almost everything you needed to know about how to build one.
Had to email him several times for explanation of some steps that got
edited out of his article. This is the link but you need to be a FWW
member to get full access.Thank you

It looks interesting I will look into it.

--
2017: The year we lean to play the great game of Euchre

Forgot to include the link to FWW article I mentioned:

http://www.finewoodworking.com/2000/...e-router-fence

Bob S.