Part IV
Guide fence |
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A good fence is important, and
looking at the ones on sale commercially. They aren't all that
good, some are made from cheap plastic, alot are very low, preventing
you from safely holding work vertically, and also preventing you
from clamping accessories to the fence.
I've started by cutting 2 fair sized parts of MDF. High fence
here. |
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I've worked out the centre of the fence,
and i'm using a compass to mark a mouse hole shape on the front
of my fence.
This will compensate for the height of the bit, i'm also going
to create one on the horizontal part which will compensate for
the thickness of the bit.
Once these are marked, I cut them out using the jigsaw. |
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I'm routing 2 slots here, these will allow me
to slide my fence backwards and forwards. I have clamped a straight
edge to guide my router. |
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It is important to keep the router firmly
against the straight edge, this slot must be accurate.
Another important thing is to go slow. Do not take off too much
material at one time, I made my slots in 2 passes. |
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Here you can see the slot, there will be 4 bolts
which will glide in this slot. |
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This is how the fence will be held in place.
There will be 4 bolts (2 in each slot) fixed to the table top
with a nut, the nut is below the table surface and will stop the
whole bolt from spinning when I tighten down the fence with a
wing-nut on top.
I have seen other solutions, but this is a fairly simple yet
effective one. |
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Here you can see how the fence will glide
smoothly with this system. If I had only used 1 bolt on either
slot the fence would not remain square at all times.
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