Router table fence question brought on by Dan Mooney's fence rebuild.

Bart Leetch

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Location
Clinton, Washington on Whidbey Island
I have seen a fence that is fastened down on the out feed end with a pivot pin & you just move the in feed end to the position needed depending on the work your doing. I have never talked to anyone that has one to find out how well it works though.

Has anyone else seen a fence like this or heard how well it works.

My thoughts are that the out feed end would have to have a pin in the bottom of the fence & an insert in the table for the pin to go into, if you want to have a clear table when the fence is removed. Also the way this system measures distance from the cutter is in an arc so this may be a little more difficult to set up if you want a direct reading scale right on your router table.

Here are a couple of URL's that help show this type of fence.

http://www.tunelab-world.com/routerscale.pdf



http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...sg=AFQjCNGlvQXeWrOGsNbunFzDCkQgDrwjww&cad=rja
 
I usually make small adjustments on one side only. If your router is in the middle, for small moves you can just move the one side twice as far as you want at the bit. It's close enough I certainly can't tell the difference from any arc related error. I usually just use a straight edge and ruler to get close and move once side for fine adjustment.

I could see the advantage if you had your pivot point really close the router bit, and the floating end say 4x further away. That way you would only get 1/4" the change at the bit as you do at your scale on the floating end, allowing very percise adjustments of the fence.
 
The only problem I could see with this kind of fence would be if you are using the fence along with the miter gauge, like coping the end of of board.

Yes, it would be a problem with a miter slot. Sommerfields uses that type of fence at the Woodworking Shows. If you think about it, it works perfectly well, as all you are doing is moving the fence closer or further away from the bit. And since the bit is round and spins in a circle, moving only one end of the fence makes no difference. I don't use a miter slot or a pivoting fence, but that's just me. Jim.
 
I have 2 of the older model Sommerfeld tables that were made by CMT. The fence allows you to use the fence by sliding back & forth to use the track for sleds that use the slot or you can pivot the fence to adjust. The pivot point is on the right infeed side & the adjustment knob on the left outfeed side. I always use the pivot to adjust the fence & have never used the other option for fence adjustment.

http://www.amazon.com/CMT-999-500-02-Industrio-Precision-Clearance/dp/B000Q930DO
 
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