You know how manufacturers will add a feature that 90% of woodworkers will never use.... A blade guard on a TS comes to mind. If they did not include the slot on a router table they would lose sales. I have never used a TS blade guard but would not buy one with out the guard, strictly from a resale point of view.
IMHO the only use for the router table slot is to provide a spot to mount the feather board.
There are jigs designed to run in the miter channel. The Incra box joint jig is one example.
Which came first - the chicken or the jig?
That was my thought. It's not a big deal to add one. Like I said, I've just always seen them and hadn't considered how one would actually be used.
An "Exact 22.5"?
Have you never use a sled on the router table (or shaper)? I use one on the shaper when coping rail ends, amongst other things.
My sled rides along the fence.
That won't work for coping rail ends.
Why not? That's how sleds work.
Dumb question: Is a sled not a more sophisticated version of a miter gauge?
A crosscut sled and coping sled are different, IMO. One is a table saw tool that uses the slot as a reference. It has a miter gauge to select the angle and usually doesn't hold the workpiece fast. It's used to crosscut (side-grain). The miter gauge isn't used with the fence to avoid kickback if the workpiece gets trapped between the blade and fence.
The coping sled is more or less a workpiece carrier to keep the world from ending when the blade hits the end-grain. It keeps it from exploding your fingers and supports the backside of a, perhaps complicated, cut to limit tearout. Its angle setting is more of a secondary function. It's used to help cut end-grain rather than side-grain. The coping sled's reference is the fence not the other end of the workpiece (or none).
Can both be used to help cut angles in wood? Sure but both a saw and a router cut wood. They aren't the same thing.
Of course it will.
Either method works right? But you use what you have. For a coping for a cabinet door frame a miter guage work for thats what I have.
Will concede any Craftsman router table is worth more as scrap than a tool.
That wasn't the point of Scott's comment or my response. Scott implied that you need a miter gauge to cope an end rail end because a coping sled held against the fence won't work. I simply pointed out that that was not true.
I didn't say anything about not using a miter gauge. The point is that you don't *need* one for that operation.
That's a bit drastic and also contradicts the very premise of your response: "But you use what you have."
Back when my kids were racing Soap Box Derby cars I made some money by making parts using a Craftsman router in a Craftsman router table. I was able to sell the parts for way less than All American SBD organization was selling them for.
I used Craftsman router in a Craftsman router table because, as you said, "you use what you have".
That is just my opinion of Craftsman's router tables, depending on the price of aluminum scrap, it may also be a true statement.
If what "you" have is a Craftman and it does the job good enough, that is a good thing.
Kind of like the first jointer I bought at Lowes, cost maybe $100 did what I wanted but it is still a cheap bench top tool.
Key point here: *had*, not *have* ;-)
I'm 3 upgrades removed from the Craftsman and very happy with the router table that I built into my table saw. Better than any benchtop table I've used and always set-up, ready to use. Sure would have made making those Derby parts easier.
I understood you no longer have the Craftsman router table, the reason I put you in quotes. My router tale setup is a Rockler top attached to the Unisaw, like you I am happy with that setup.
Do you have the extended table on the Unisaw? If you're short of space, that's a good place to put the router. If not, an outfeed table works well. A table top of a table doesn't seem to be a good idea to me.
I may put a router in my Unisaw table but I'm not space limited so am worried about one interfering with the other (junk from one operation impeding the other's).
I toook off one of the cast iron wing on the right side of the saw and replace it with the router setup. At the same time I replace round tube fence with Vega style fence, attached the table to the saw with rails for the fence.
Sold both the rails and fence and cast iron wing on Ebay many many moons ago.
So your table is free-standing but is stabilized by the rails? Is it hard to keep it flat/level with the saw top?
I wouldn't give up my cast wings but that's just me. I have the 50" Unisaw (36-L31X) with a Biesemeyer fence. It would be easy to drop a router in the side table.
There are also cast wings with router plate/lift holes but they're (way) on the expensive side. I considered it but I'd have to buy a new lift too. Mine is apparently an odd size. I thought JessEM made them a standard size but it's an inch too wide (deep, or whatever).
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