Router edge guide

[Ischgl99]

Woodworking was my first big hobby and part of the reason I initially bought my machine tools was to make things for my woodworking projects. I have been needing an edge guide for my routers for some time and I was eyeing up the Micro Fence, but couldn’t justify the price. The patent expired, so I decided to make one. I tried it out on an open cabinet I am building for my wife’s kitchen appliances and it worked great. I still need to engrave the dial with distance graduations, and the mounting plate for the router might need to be remade since the adjustable fence part doesn’t slide freely the entire length, but overall, it actually works! I did make a mistake by using M6 screws to hold the wood fence on, that should have been smaller, M4 probably would have been plenty.

I will probably add wrench flats to the rods so they can be tightened easily, and I am making an anodizing system so at some point in the future, this will get anodized.

 

[benmychree]

Looks like it adds some serious weight and possible instability to the router.

 

[Eddyde]

Looks very nice! Much better than the almost worthless factory made guides.

Looks like it adds some serious weight and possible instability to the router.

Being quite familiar with routers, I think the extra mass will help absorb vibration. I doubt any instability problems will arise as one usually holds a router very firmly.

 

[Ischgl99]

Looks like it adds some serious weight and possible instability to the router.

It’s not as heavy as it looks, and you can use shorter rods to help reduce the weight if desired. I’ll probably bore a couple holes in the base to reduce the weight a little bit more as well, and the original has an undercut in the part of the base with the rod bushings, but I didn’t have a cutter that could do that. The router is a lot heavier, so when I cut a rabbet with it today, you could hardly tell it was on there.

 

[Ischgl99]

Looks very nice! Much better than the almost worthless factory made guides.

Thank you, and yes, I was not impressed with the factory edge guides, but also even less impressed with buying one when I could make it lol.

 

[FOMOGO]

Nice work. I wonder if a Delrin, or Teflon faced fence might be a little smoother in use. Mike

 

[Ischgl99]

Nice work. I wonder if a Delrin, or Teflon faced fence might be a little smoother in use. Mike

That’s a good idea, the wood fence I have on there seems to work ok, but I actually have some UHMW flat stock I got at a woodworking show I use for runners on my table saw sleds that would work.