When a recent project found our shop in need of an adjustable router fence, we fabricated an adjustable jig out of materials we had on hand. As illustrated below, the jig incorporates a pivoting fence and a replacement baseplate for a router.

FIGURE 1: ROUTER FENCE CONSTRUCTION DETAILS

MATERIAL CHOICES

The baseplate material we used is probably the best choice: ¼″ clear acrylic provides excellent work visibility and is thick enough to accept countersinks. The fence material, on the other hand, can be wood, plastic, or metal, as long as the stock is thick enough to take a countersink. We used a ½″-wide strip of ½″-thick UHMW.

CONSTRUCTION AND ASSEMBLY

Obviously, the dimensions and some of the hole-to-hole distances used in building a jig like this depend on the design of a particular router and on personal preference. But, as the construction sequence we followed illustrates, those measurements are not entirely arbitrary.

First we cut a piece of the acrylic into an 8″ × 9¼″ rectangle and used our router’s stock baseplate as a template to mark the location of the mounting holes and work hole in one corner of the rectangle. Near the other corner along the 8″ side, we marked the location of the pivot bolt hole.

Cutting the fence itself and drilling its two bolt holes was the next step. We made the fence 9″ long and drilled its holes 7¾″ apart — far enough that the wing nut on the adjusting bolt would clear the router’s base when the fence pivoted in close to the work hole. That 7¾″ distance determined the radius of the adjustment slot, whose arc we next scribed into the acrylic with a compass.

With layout now complete, we drilled the various holes in the baseplate, countersank all the bolt holes, and used a saber saw to cut the ¼″-wide adjustment slot centered along the arc we had scribed. One end of the slot had to allow the fence to pivot under the work hole, the other had to allow the fence to swing parallel to the baseplate’s longer sides.

We attached the fence to the baseplate with ¼″ flat head bolts, double-nutting the pivot bolt so that it wouldn’t vibrate loose and providing a lock washer and wing nut on the adjusting bolt for ease of adjustment. Once we had attached the assembled jig to the router with the router’s stock mounting screws, we were ready to go back to work.

FINAL NOTES

So why not just buy the manufacturer’s stock fence for one of your routers? This jig has two advantages worth considering. First, other sets of mounting holes can be drilled around the work hole so that this jig can be made to fit many different router models and brands. Second, the jig was fabricated in 30 minutes from salvaged materials — much faster and much cheaper than taking a trip to the store.