Rockler Pro Router Table Fence 47905 Review
The Rockler ProFence 47905 Router Table is a strong addition to the Rockler router table line of products. I selected the Rockler ProPhenolic Table, Rockler Aluminum Router Lift FX and the Rockler Router Table Dust Bucket a couple years ago, and was using this set up with an old router fence. I was interested to see the differences of a premium fence versus an old stock fence.
Fence Assembly
The Rockler ProFence 47905 package has 29 parts, but takes less than 10 minutes to assemble. The parts are all well-made and the aluminum L shaped fence was a true 90%.
The base of the fence rides on 3 grooved bands which provides good support, even if your table is not spotless.
Fence Kit Provides:
- 2 sets of mounting bolts
- hex bolts for MDF or wood tables
- carriage bolts for the ProPhenolic table
Using the carriage bolts gives a positive lock for the square under head and provides a strong positive lock for the fence without having to crank down the locking knob.
Fence Design
The design of the sub fence (the 2 white fences on either side of the bit) uses a t-track along the entire length of the sub fence. It will be easy to make additional fences. This means that you can carefully push the right hand fence into to a router bit to form a zero clearance fence on the input. You do not need a zero clearance on the out-feed, close works fine. If an extra fence is made long, you can trim the end to make a fresh surface for the next operation. One auxiliary fence can be used multiple times.
I was impressed that there was no catching on the out feed fence in my instal tests. I usually put a light chamfer on out feed fences, but so far it is not needed on this fence.
One surprise is that the white sub-fences sits about 5/64” proud of the top T-Track. Installing stock feeds or feather boards require a washer to fit. While this does prevent interference with a tall workpiece, it seems imprecise in a otherwise well made fence.
The Fence kit comes with 2 jointer bars (sitting on top of the sub fence in the first picture). These fit in grooves on the out-feed side of the fence and will move the out-feed sub-fence either 1/32” or 1/16”. T his is very useful for jointing small or thin pieces. The instructions are excellent and I recommend keeping then with the rods.
Overall Impression
Overall, this fence is an excellent and overdue upgrade for my router table. Before signing off, I’d like to share my impressions of the entire Rockler Table set up. With the addition of the Router Bucket (Rockler item #32321) and the connection of both the bucket and the fence to a dust collector, the router table is dustless. I am sensitive to dust, but I don’t need to wear a mask when using the table/fence. The Rockler router lift (model 23194) is a robust router lift that allows fine adjustments and above table bit changing.
This is now a first rate router table setup!
