# Split Fence - Set Up Tips



## Titus A Duxass (Jan 6, 2010)

I had a little spare time this weekend so I put my Trend RT Insert Plate in to my table so that I can mount my Trend T11 in the table - it's much safer there than in my bare hands.

I also built a split fence out of BB ply and mdf offcuts.

Can any one give me some tips regarding the set up of the split fence?
I have set the cutter that it is 1mm proud (higher) than the in feed fence and I have shimmed the out feed fence with business cards so that it is parallel to the cutter height. Do I need to do more?

Also, which Bushes fit in that type of plate.

Cheers
Titus


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

I presume that you intend to use the table like a jointer for producing a flat surface in which case, in spite of your unusual wording, you appear to have it correct. The cutter should protrude beyond the infeed fence by the amount of wood you want to remove in one cut, 1mm sounds fine, and the outfeed fence should be level with the cutter. Because we are working from a central point, the cutter, it doesn't matter what angle the fence is relative to the table.


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## Titus A Duxass (Jan 6, 2010)

Cheers Harry.
And Happy Fathers Day.


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## del schisler (Feb 2, 2006)

Titus A Duxass said:


> I had a little spare time this weekend so I put my Trend RT Insert Plate in to my table so that I can mount my Trend T11 in the table - it's much safer there than in my bare hands.
> 
> I also built a split fence out of BB ply and mdf offcuts.
> 
> ...


Look's like a streight cutter in their ? The out feed table should be set out aprox 1/16" so when you take off the cut from the infeed table it will go across smooth and not catch the out feed table. Now when you go with a we will say a bit with a beiring on it you set both table's even and so the beiring doesn't roll when the wood goes across. This is where brass bar's come into play. You put the bar across the open and move fence so the beiring just toutch's . so that is will give you all the bit will cut. We will say a round over just raise the bit tell you get what you want. Now for profile just raise it some more. You work with 2 set up's as far as the fence goes. When you are putting a streight side on board for glueing that you use the 1/16" set up. Now with the other's with beiring the other fence. Here is a site that has the best fence's. You know you can just use a fence across the table and don't have to use what you have. Look here and you will get a idea. good luck
Oak Park Enterprises Ltd.: Catalogue

Oak Park Enterprises Ltd.: Catalogue

Oak Park Enterprises Ltd.: Catalogue


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

HI Titus

Do I need to do more?= no, that will work fine, but I would suggest using playing cards,,in that way you can stack one or two to move the fence out just a bit more than the business cards way.. the XXXX rated ones work the best and will charge your battery at the same time 
++++++++++

Also, which Bushes fit in that type of plate.?

Locks like it will take on the PC type Bushes..that you can get anywhere..

10 Piece Router Template Guide Set

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Titus A Duxass said:


> I had a little spare time this weekend so I put my Trend RT Insert Plate in to my table so that I can mount my Trend T11 in the table - it's much safer there than in my bare hands.
> 
> I also built a split fence out of BB ply and mdf offcuts.
> 
> ...


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## Titus A Duxass (Jan 6, 2010)

Bob,
Thanks for the playing card tip, I should be able to get some XXXX ones from down town Leipzig.

I think this Guide Brush set looks about the same as the one you link to.

Ooops forgot the link

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-245122-Piece-Guide-Brush/dp/B0019JRL4O/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=diy&qid=1283782896&sr=8-3


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Titus


hahahahahahaha the set I have it's bit used and getting hard to see with the old eyes of mine been thinking of getting a new set and bigger hahahahaha, _I ask my Boss to pickup a set if she saw one and she said WHAT ?, I said it's for the shop and she said SURE it is.. 


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Titus A Duxass said:


> Bob,
> Thanks for the playing card tip, I should be able to get some XXXX ones from down town Leipzig.
> 
> I think this Guide Brush set looks about the same as the one you link to.
> ...


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## Santé (Jan 14, 2010)

Hi,

"Can any one give me some tips regarding the set up of the split fence?"

You can see how I solve this problem on the photo. On this picture, this part of my fence is advanced 2 mm

Cheers
Santé


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Santé

This is how I do it on the router table It's built in to the router table fence, 1/16" or 1/32" quick and easy 

See below

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Santé said:


> Hi,
> 
> "Can any one give me some tips regarding the set up of the split fence?"
> 
> ...


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## Santé (Jan 14, 2010)

Yes, it is an other solution to solve the problem


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## Titus A Duxass (Jan 6, 2010)

Thanks for all the tips guys.

Sante - you provide, as always, an elegant solution to the problem.

Del - It is a straight bit, in fact it is a bearing guided 20mm Dia x 30 mm long twin bladed cutter which cost me a fortune but cuts like the proverbial hot knife.

When using it in Bearing mode I use another simple fence (two bits of BB ply screwed together to form an L.

I prefer the fence along the table, when facing 1,0 metre lengths I like the extra support. 
I like the Rick & Bob approach (their exaggerated positioning of the fence often raises a smile) for small bits but I didn't build an 800mm long top for fun.

Thanks for the links to fences but the shipping costs from the US are unbelievable! What are they doing for that money swimming over with the parts?

The brass set-up bars are nice but useless to me as I only deal in new money.
I picked up some bits (off cuts) of ally box extrusion which are surprisingly accurate and use those as metric set-up bars.

Would you believe that I had to convert 1/16" to mm to get a feel for this (it is 1.5875 btw). Thank you but I'll stick to the much simpler metric system.

To all,
I did a couple of test passes last night on some 30 x 15 mm lengths of Ash with very satisfactory results apart from a problem at the end of the cut. I believe that this is called "snipe" but I'm not sure.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Titus A Duxass said:


> Thanks for all the tips guys.
> 
> Sante - you provide, as always, an elegant solution to the problem.
> 
> ...


I'm very surprised that you got snipe Titus, it means that the wood wasn't pressed firmly against the fence all the way until it had passed the cutter. Snipe is usually associated with thickness planers for a variety of reasons.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Santé said:


> Hi,
> 
> "Can any one give me some tips regarding the set up of the split fence?"
> 
> ...


That Daniel is a simple, elegant solution, the sort that you have become noted for in the short time that you have been a member of routerforums.


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## Titus A Duxass (Jan 6, 2010)

Harry,
I think it's snipe.
At the end of the length there is a step down, the length of this step equates to the width of the gap between the two fence faces.

I've probably got a set-up problem.

But I ended up with clean and true (square) lengths of Ash from rough sawn timber so I am happy.

Now I can construct my stool.


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## Shepherduke (Apr 30, 2010)

Question from a complete novice. I can see the sense in a split fence, where the outfeed fence is forward of the infeed fence by the same amount that is being removed by the cutter. How then is the outfeed end of a parallel one piece fence able to maintain a parallel/equal cut? Hope this makes sense!


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## jschaben (Jun 21, 2009)

Shepherduke said:


> Question from a complete novice. I can see the sense in a split fence, where the outfeed fence is forward of the infeed fence by the same amount that is being removed by the cutter. How then is the outfeed end of a parallel one piece fence able to maintain a parallel/equal cut? Hope this makes sense!


Hi Kevin - If I understand your question correctly, for jointing operations with a 1 piece fence, I believe most just double face tape a piece of thin material, laminate or similar onto the face of the outfeed fence. For most operations, profiling and such, the infeed and outfeed fences need to be aligned, jointing is a bit different. 

Titus - I've had similar problems. Try closing your fence up on the bit or, better yet, zero clearance insert. I think the stock starts to "rattle" when released by the infeed fence.


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## Shepherduke (Apr 30, 2010)

Thanks John. I can see the logic in it now!


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## Santé (Jan 14, 2010)

Thanks Harry for your appreciation !

Daniel


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## istracpsboss (Sep 14, 2008)

Titus A Duxass said:


> I picked up some bits (off cuts) of ally box extrusion which are surprisingly accurate and use those as metric set-up bars.


Extrusions usually are. I've a chunky piece of hex bar and another of 3" square with chuck registers machined on them to enable me to do simple dividing on material held in the chuck and they work well. That's an old watchmaker's trick if you haven't got a dividing head.

Cheers

Peter


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## jschaben (Jun 21, 2009)

I guess I did mine a little differently. My split fence is an aluminum "L" extrusion with laminated particle board faces (recycled counter top). I picked up a piece of 20 gauge aluminum (calipers out to about .045") and cut two shims which I placed between the faces of both the inboard and outboard fence. When i want to joint, I just remove the one from the infeed side.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

jschaben said:


> I guess I did mine a little differently. My split fence is an aluminum "L" extrusion with laminated particle board faces (recycled counter top). I picked up a piece of 20 gauge aluminum (calipers out to about .045") and cut two shims which I placed between the faces of both the inboard and outboard fence. When i want to joint, I just remove the one from the infeed side.


I bought this router table some years ago because of what looked like a high tech. fence. Because I have a jointer it was never used for this purpose and overall, proved to be a rather useless piece of junk, nowhere near as accurate or useful as my basic tall fence.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Harry

Now that you have a new router( extra router around the shop) you can now build a Horz.router table fixture for your router and and put your pink mouse hole fence on the wall, you will be amazed how much more you can do if the stock is flat on the table top   it's almost like finding out the ski jig setup, like I said almost.. new doors ways will open for you..with the Horz.router table setup..

I have question for you what do you do if you need to use a bit that is 2" diam.  that looks like a small mouse hole...I know mice can get in a small hole but routers bits ?


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harrysin said:


> I bought this router table some years ago because of what looked like a high tech. fence. Because I have a jointer it was never used for this purpose and overall, proved to be a rather useless piece of junk, nowhere near as accurate or useful as my basic tall fence.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

"I have question for you what do you do if you need to use a bit that is 2" diam. that looks like a small mouse hole...I know mice can get in a small hole but routers bits ?"
To use one of YOUR sayings Bob, duck soup, my beautiful tall pink fence has a rat, not a mouse hole! An indication of our friendship is the fact that it took me ages to find this Imperial rule just so that there was no confusion about the size of the rat hole!
As for the horizontal router table, if I were only ten years younger I would definitely have a go at making one, but as I'll soon be 77, I've left it too late.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Harry

You old fart you will being going strong at 95 and just think having a Horz.router may make your life a bit easy-er on that old bod mate..


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harrysin said:


> "I have question for you what do you do if you need to use a bit that is 2" diam. that looks like a small mouse hole...I know mice can get in a small hole but routers bits ?"
> To use one of YOUR sayings Bob, duck soup, my beautiful tall pink fence has a rat, not a mouse hole! An indication of our friendship is the fact that it took me ages to find this Imperial rule just so that there was no confusion about the size of the rat hole!
> As for the horizontal router table, if I were only ten years younger I would definitely have a go at making one, but as I'll soon be 77, I've left it too late.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

bobj3 said:


> Hi Harry
> 
> You old fart you will being going strong at 95 and just think having a Horz.router may make your life a bit easy-er on that old bod mate..
> 
> ...


The way the world is going, I'm not sure that I want to be around that long.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Harry

I said the same thing when I was 25 but still just plugging along just one day at a time..  but it comes to all of us in time..so why not make the best of it..  and Make a Horz.router table,,,,,,,,, hahahahahahaha..



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harrysin said:


> The way the world is going, I'm not sure that I want to be around that long.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

The best new reason I can come up with Bob is that I don't want to risk showing you up!!!


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Harry

hahahahahahahahaha I said the same thing about the ski jig setup but the old goat go me to try it and I'm very glad I did.. , now I have them all over the shop  8 at last count..  I should post the new rods 1/4" to 1/2" with threads on the ends only. 
But once you have seen one, they are all the same  that's what my dad said..

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harrysin said:


> The best new reason I can come up with Bob is that I don't want to risk showing you up!!!


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

"I should post the new rods 1/4" to 1/2" with threads on the ends only."

Bob, you just HAVE to post some shots, I can't believe that after trying to convince you of the advantages, you have finally succumbed to temptation.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Harry

I will but I still use and like the threaded rod type and still have it on the jigs 
I may put some all the Trend jig because I think it would work better with them..

http://www.routerforums.com/attachments/jigs-fixtures/36611d1278872812-trend-jig-100_1787.jpg
http://www.routerforums.com/attachments/jigs-fixtures/36612d1278872812-trend-jig-100_1786.jpg
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harrysin said:


> "I should post the new rods 1/4" to 1/2" with threads on the ends only."
> 
> Bob, you just HAVE to post some shots, I can't believe that after trying to convince you of the advantages, you have finally succumbed to temptation.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Bob, it pains me to have to say it, but you have turned the simple concept of the skis into something so complex that it has, at the same time lost most of it's versatility. This remark is in no way intended to lessen the ingenuity and skill displayed in this work of art and I'm sure there isn't a single member who in some way isn't envious of your proven skills, BUT, I remember the times when you, like me believed in KISS, keep it super simple!


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Titus A Duxass said:


> Harry,
> I think it's snipe.
> At the end of the length there is a step down, the length of this step equates to the width of the gap between the two fence faces.
> 
> ...


What that means Titus is that as the wood was about to pass the gap, instead of keeping pressure to the left of the gap, you allowed the wood to tilt towards the gap. When starting a cut, the pressure must be on the in-feed side then after passing the cutter pressure must be applied to the out-feed side as close as possible to the gap using a hand over hand technique.


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## Titus A Duxass (Jan 6, 2010)

harrysin said:


> What that means Titus is that as the wood was about to pass the gap, instead of keeping pressure to the left of the gap, you allowed the wood to tilt towards the gap. When starting a cut, the pressure must be on the in-feed side then after passing the cutter pressure must be applied to the out-feed side as close as possible to the gap using a hand over hand technique.



I fear that you may be correct.
I'll have to practice my technique.


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