Router table comparison question

[Jeff Charland]

I'm lookin at purchasing a good quality router tabletop/fence combo. I've just bought my first house (read - money pit) and I've beent aksed with building kitchen and bathroom cabinets, builtin hutches and some entertainment units too. I'm considering the JESS-EM, FREUD and Veritas (Lee Valley) units.

I'm looking for some advice, is one of these any better than the other?

I don't know about anyone else but I'm having trouble finding objective tool comparisons anywhere. One magasine rates one tool high, the other mag rips the same unit. Yikes...

Thanks in advance for taking the time to respond,

Jeff Charland

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Depends on what you want. I did some comparison and found most were pretty good. My choice was Benchdog.

What made my decision was:

Excellent fence, easily adjusted Closed cabinet & drawers Nice lift (this was the big deciding factor for me) Easy to use featherboards on the table or fence or both, easy to set up stops.

Others were also very good and may suit your needs. A couple are just tops on stands or legs. Makes dust collection harder, but keeps cost down.

What is better for me may be meaningless for you. Consider making your own or making your own cabinet with a commercial top/fence system. Take a look at

for more idea. Ed

[Rob V]

Hoestly - make your own - to suit your needs + it will be cheaper.

My opinion - the NYW deluxe router table w/ the pat warner fence.

[WoodChuck34]

Jeff,

I have never bought a router fence, but if I had an extra $300 and didn't need any other tools, I would buy an Incra.

That being said, I did what the others suggested and built my own. I built the split fence out of Router Magic and it has served me well. I doubt I spent $50 in material and it was very easy to make. I think at the time I only had a TS and my router.

I am now working on making a Pat Warner Micro Adjustable fence, and I have been really taking my time. The major disadvantage of the Router Magic version and other homemade versions like it is the inability to fine tune the position, making it more time consuming to use it for cabinet doors and other precision cuts. I think I spent about $70 to gather all the material for the Pat Warner fence.

If you really want to buy one, I think any of the fences you mentioned would work fine from what I hear.

Chuck

[DJ Delorie]

If you're talking about the original two-part Incra Jig, they're adjustable only in 1/32 inch increments. The "micro adjust" involves shimming with bits of paper, and I never got it to do anything useful that way. I still use it occasionally, but nice as it is, it's junk compared to the latest Incra systems.

[Silvan]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

You don't know the half of it!

(I just hope you don't end up learning the same expensive lessons I have. Hoo boy. We watched "The Money Pit" before we got this place as sort of a joke. Little did we know... Little did we know....)

Congratulations though. Money pit, schumuny pit. Being a homeowner is great, warts and all.

Oh, and the Crapsman router table is, well, a piece of crap. If you were considering that one, don't.