Custom Fence Build

Dry mock-up

Finally!  This weekend and tonight I got started on the custom router fence construction.  Everything is being built out of 3/4 inch baltic birch plywood... just about the best thing I've ever found for jigs.  This is a great project to ease myself back into the swing of things again because after a month or more of finishing work on the office build it's natural that you get a little "rusty".

The "plan"

So far I've cut all the pieces to rough dimension, milled the dados for the t-tracks and the connection between a couple of the pieces, and confirmed everything fits properly. Tomorrow night I'll do the drilling and if it doesn't get too late routing the slots. At that point all I'll have left is final assembly.

 

It actually looks pretty close to the plan!  :)  The square support blocks here still do need to be cut into triangles, and I need to verify the size of the vacuum insert and get a hole saw blade to cut the opening.  Keep forgetting to go by the home center to do that...

The miter slot kit is sitting on the top of the jig here.  When tightened it's made to expand and hold fast in the slot.  This is how the fence will be anchored to the table surface.  I've abandoned the idea of making a wooden "key" for the underside for now.  If this metal kit works it may be all I'll need.

 The bottom two sliding pieces need to be trimmed just a hair or so yet.  But I'll do that once I've attached the top section and have a good dimension to work from.

I've built a lot of jigs for my little "shop"over the years for a variety of uses.  Quite honestly they've all been just about as satisfying as anything else I've built.