[FlyingSawdust]

Pat Warner, a router guru, who has unfortunately left us, illustrated the design of his micro-adjustable router table fence in an article in the September-October 2000 edition of Fine Woodworking magazine. I include a copy of the first page of the referenced article illustrating his design.

I’m contemplating building a semblance of Pat Warner’s micro-adjustable router table fence. Most likely I’ll leave off the dial indicator in my first attempt, but allow for its addition in the future in my original effort.

I say that mine will be a semblance because my router table is in the right wing extension of my Sawstop cast iron tabletop. I added an additional Sawstop cast iron extension to the Sawstop top, and an General Excalibur cast iron router table. Even with this weight added to the right wing, it is very stable, does not tip over, and yet I can move the entire “land yacht” in my small shop with one hand.

Pat Warner’s router fence is designed to be used on a wooden or MDF router table. He attached the router fence to the router table via the two handled bolts (lever and stud) at the rear of the fence. Since I’m not drilling into the Sawstop cast iron extension wing nor the cast iron router table, I propose to use a couple of Magswitch’s Magjig 95 switchable magnetic clamps to secure my router table fence to the cast iron surface. I’ll drill two holes in the approximate location of Pat Warner’s handle bolts in the attached illustrations. I’ll be able to switch the magnetic clamps off to move the router table fence, and on to secure it when ready to route. With two switchable magnetic clamps I’d have 190 pounds of holding force. I doubt I’d be applying that much force to the fence while routing. Of course, additional Magjig 95s could be added, or I could replace the 95s with 150s or 235s, if needed.

I also attach a photo of a dust collection jig I have designed and attached to the cast iron tabletop with smaller Magjig 60s switchable magnetic clamps. This dust collection jig is connected via a flex hose to a dust collection “Y” underneath the router table that then leads to my dust collector. I can move this tabletop dust collection jig with ease by switching the magnetic switches off, and secure it by turning the switches on. Since this works great, I expect securing the router table fence with larger Magjig switchable magnetic clamps will work just as well. Heck, maybe I can get by with two Magjig 60s.

I’d appreciate your thoughts.

 

[DesertRatTom]

Interesting DC solution. I take it the plate isn't ferrous metal so the magnets have to be secured to the iron table only. That would put it 4-6 inches back from the bit. Mag switches on the base of the fence will most likely work, Kreg has a mag fence for band saws that I've heard works OK. The DC setup could be clipped onto the base of the fence by adding a couple of metal plates for the DC unit to clip on to. That would allow you to put the DC over the plate, closer to the bit. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Bstrom]

I particularly like the Kreg router fence design as it appears to keep things square a little easier and make adjustments less wonky as with a 'free' fence that will cock and catch on its own hardware - like mine.

 

[harrysin]

The second from last shot shows the original micro-adjustable fence that came with this table. There were too many things to go wrong, adjustments and flexing. My joints deteriorated when I started to use this table, and whilst I made some modifications which improved the fence, I soon made this simple tall fence which solved all problems. To set it up semi lock the fence, one side tighter than the other then, with a hammer gently tap the fence "till it's exactly as you want it.
Whilst this table had the threaded holes, it's easy enough to drill and tap holes in cast iron. The forum motto used to be KISS, keep it super simple.

 

[DesertRatTom]

Correction: The mag fence is made by Carter, and it's for the band saw. I'll be very interested in how well this works for making ultra fine adjustments.
@harrysin I really like that vertical fence. Simple, yet very functional.

 

[Herb Stoops]

I have the same cast iron table Harry has. The after market fence I replaced the original fence with was the Eagle American X-1.
It came with angle irons to bolt on the cast iron top and then mount the "T" channels that carry the guides to hold down the fence.
Herb

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

The mag switches should work well. I have DC built into my fence and it looks similar to yours. I found that the square edge between the table and the plywood base caused turbulence which caused debris to drop out of the air stream and build up in that area. I had to bevel the plywood base leading into the DC chute in order to stop that from happening.

 

[harrysin]

After making the modification shown, things improved but still it wasn't perfect. The tall pink one that I made was 3/4" MDF salvaged from the ghastly pink and grey kitchen that was in this house when we bought it in 2002.

 

[DaninVan]

Yeh...I was gonna ask about your colour scheme.