Best material to use for router fence

[CW]

Just looked again. Thought it was the old one. Nope.

[Salmo]

I bought a Freud adjustable router fence a year or so ago. It uses laminate fencing ...The thing I found was that the laminate would bend slightly when running through wood, thus giving an inaccurate cut. I solved it by adding a couple of slotted adjustable arms to the rear of each side of the fence. Once I have the fence where I want it I simply slide the arms up to it and tighten them down...works fine. Too bad I can't post a picture here.

BTW - I contacted Freud and told them about this, offering my solution, but never ever got even an acknowledgment that they received it.

Recently I bought two hefty pieces of aluminium angle and plan to make a fence, similar to the laminate one, to replace it. Once that's positioned I can't see it flexing.

Keith

[BobS]

CW,

I built the "old" one that Pat had written an article for FWW a few years back. That router fence design is one of the best I've ever seen or used. I think Freud "borrowed" some of Pat's design, cheapened it up and generally made a mess of what could have been a decent fence. But as someone else has written already - it flexes easily and doesn't hold alignment well. I had a chance to use one when they first hit the market and found it to be lacking in a lot of ways.

Pat's design may be overkill for some applications - as he's stated many times, a 2x4 will work. But if you want a solid router fence that is versatile, precision adjustable and repeatable - then this is the fence to have:

understand that he has made some minor improvements on the initial design. It is definitely not a toy and while it's not rocket science to build one, it does present some challenges and you better have some knowledge of what it takes to make some precision cuts in order to get the 1 thou (or better) accuracy. Do you need that kind of accuracy? Depends on what you're doing of course but knowing it is capable of that and that you can dial-in your cuts sure is nice...

I've coupled it with the Jessem Rout-R-Lift and it makes for a helluva combination. It was one of the most challenging shop projects I've done but it is one of the most used tools in the shop. I've learned a lot from Pat's books and his articles - he knows what he's talking about and is an excellent teacher.

Bob S.

[Larry Kraus]

Home Depot, Lowes...

May not be the highest quality, or cheapest, but is adequate and convenient. Like most of their other stuff, I guess.