Your router bit should go within 1/8 inch of the bottom of your collet. I do not think that is your problem though. In installing your router to the table did you remove the router base? This is many times the cause of the problem of what you described.

As far as a fence goes, there are may available on the market. I use the Oak-Park fences on mine and love them. You can also make a fence, but you need to be sure it is jointed flat to achieve the desired results.

 

Hi JE Bishop, glad your having fun with your router! I would just go to the links shown and you will see some basic and more sophisticated fences. A good easy to use fence that is made for straight up routing is the Oak Park phenolic fences. Just clamp them down nothing fancy but they do the job. I bought one for my mini table and I have a Bench Dog Pro Fence on my big table. A fence can be as simple as a board or as complicated as you want.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=894
http://www.eagleamerica.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_415-7500_A_cn_E_56072
http://www.benchdog.com/profence.htm
http://us.oak-park.com/catalogue.html?list=TF01--

Hope this helps.
Corey

 

I just grabbed a straight piece of 1x3 or 1x4, cut it to length, and clamped it to the top... just like they do in The Routerworkshop shows... so far, so good...

... just move it into the bit to form a home for the bit...

 

Router fences?

Hey Guys!


P.S. Anyone have any good pics of router fences?

Jump in there Bj.

 

Hi JEBishop

A picture of the table would help on this one or a link to the table you have ,model number.

Many of the cheap plastic tables can be reworked to do a good job but I think we need a picture or two to see what you are dealing with.

"What should be the depth a router bit goes into the collet?" take the nut all the way off take a hard look at it, if it has slots down the side of the collet the router bits needs to just be at the bottom of the collet nut, a easy way to make sure you get them in right is just to take the nut off all the time then just pop it in the router , or your can take a BLACK marker and mark all your bits.... one of the paint markers work well for this job (white paint type so you can see it in the dark hole)

You can see many.many router fences on the forum from just a board to a super duty one with all the bells... and the super ones do have there place and you will be glad you made one some day...it's 1/2 of a good router table.

Bj


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Hey Guys!

I managed to get to try out my router table Santa brought me. Table was good,solid. The 1.5hp router that cam with it seemed to have plenty of power. However the fence really sucked!! The moveable part of the fence to make up the diff from what you cut off did not fit good I had to do some filing on it. And they used molded plastic pieces, which did not fit very well either. Am thinking about scraping all of it and attaching a solid piece across the fence,(I am Not up to jointing at this point) That way the fence will be all the same from one end to another. Any Ideas? Another question, when I put the bit in the router as per the instruction video, I did not have the height I needed. What should be the depth a router bit goes into the collet? I have 1/4 shank bits. Thanks John
P.S. Anyone have any good pics of router fences?

 

It is a model R161RTA Table combo kit,will snap a pic later. And I did take off the base plate. Got online to see if I could snag a Pic and found out the throat plates have been re-called. Have done OK so far without them. John

Here are Pics of my table:

 

I'm glad you were able to mount your router directly (without an adapter or baseplate)
I saw a little basic Ryobi table the other day I ALMOST bought due to the price. Until I discovered it was not bored for Ryobi routers (go figure). It DID come with a 'universal mounting adapter' I could have attached to my router so it would fit --- but that's essentially a base plate and would have resulted in the loss of bit depth as you mentioned.
The table top was MDF and the manual did state that I could just bore my own holes to fit my router. If I am going to have to do that -- might as well stick with my original plan and build my own.
Anyway - glad your luck was better.

 

Hi jbishop

Thanks for the snapshots

On this type of router table it's not so much the fence but the table,,, it can be a real pain to change the bit or to adjusting the bit without fliping it on it's side or getting down on your knees and playing with it, it's true that it's easy to flip over but it's still hard to get in and replace the bit and it can be such a drag, in time you will not want to use it at all...the router table is a fun tool but you must out think the Mfg. it can do about 85% of your router jobs .

You can get a offset wrench (bent type) that will make it easyer to change the bit from the top but then you still need to flip it or get on yor knees to set it.

This is what I would suggest take the legs off the table and get some MDF or brich plywood and bolt them to the MDF/Plywood , make a new top that will let you mount the router to a sq.base drop in base plate, in this way you can do all the bit changing and adjustments from the top side of the table without getting on your knees and praying to the router god every time you want to use the router.

Make the top just a bit bigger say about 18" x 22" and make a fence out of the same 3/4" MDF, I like the swing type fence with the T & G inserts and a Vac.pickup on the back side of the fence...
The fence and the Vac. pickup, are easy ones to make about a hour job or so.
Router a sq. hole in the top for the drop in base plate and you have it done.

You can get the sq. base plate from Oak-Park or many other outlets and it will let you bolt up your router in a heat beat.. drop and router so to speak and you will use your router all the time because now it's easy to do the job

I will post some links for the base plates and the fence if you ask .

Bj

It is a model R161RTA Table combo kit,will snap a pic later. And I did take off the base plate. Got online to see if I could snag a Pic and found out the throat plates have been re-called. Have done OK so far without them. John

Here are Pics of my table:

 

Hi John

Here are just some of them..we talked about in the P.M.

http://www.woodpeck.com/inserts.html
http://www.woodpeck.com/tlrphenolicplate.html
http://www.woodpeck.com/inserttemplate.html

Fence
You can buy many high end fences but don't you can make your own quick and easy.
http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/router_table_fence.html
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=894&filter=router table

The easy way is just buy the top and the fence at the same time if you don't want to take the time to make your own they will come done and ready to go to work, for 100 to 150 bucks then you are set to put your router to work.

Take your legs off the one you have now so you can use them on the new top and use it on the work bench like you are now.

You can go with the Oak-Park router SYStem but it is a total system,,,
http://us.oak-park.com/catalogue.html?list=RT01--
http://us.oak-park.com/catalogue.html?list=TF01--
http://us.oak-park.com/catalogue.html?list=BYOT--
http://us.oak-park.com/catalogue.html?list=BP--

If you need more info PLS. just ask.
Bj