I walked into our shop one day and noticed one of our craftsmen, Steve, working at his router table. What struck me as odd was the simplicity of his setup: a basic table, a Porter-Cable 690 router, and most surprisingly, a scrap of hardwood for a fence. There was no fancy fence with a microadjuster. In spite of its simplicity, he was routing perfect profiles.
After ribbing Steve about his setup, I realized his “back-to-basics” approach deserved a closer look. As I said, his fence is nothing but a straightedged board with both edges are jointed straight. However one side is notched with a dado blade or Forstner bit to provide clearance for the router bit. The notched edge of the fence for profiling the edge of a workpiece. I sized the notch just slightly larger than the diameter of the bit. This provides the maximum support for the edge of the workpiece as you’re routing.
The straight edge can be used for routing grooves and dadoes. Just clamp the fence to the router table, positioning it away from the bit to properly locate the dado or groove in the workpiece.
