I have had a Jessem Master Excel I router table for years and love it. I have seen the Excel II at Woodcraft many times and love it but the upgrades are not enough for me to make take the (expensive) plunge. If I remember the Ta fence’s main differences are 1. that you can micro adjust an offset in the two fence halves for jointing. In all these years of using a router table I have never had to shim the outfeed fence so I not sure I really need that (but I can’t help but think it is cool)!. 2. I need a torx driver handy to adjust the fence halves and I believe that the new one is tool less with knobs on the back side. 3. The slider is redesigned completely to slide on a carriage on a rail where mine is not removable as it slides on a chrome tube. Mine works great but the new one is much more elegant.

It has been a while since I drooled over one so I am sure that I have forgotten other features.

Thanks for the responses.

I remember seeing the fence 3 years ago at a woodworking show. However, my Incra was new back then so I handn't found all the pain points back then and didn't give the Jessem too much attention.  I do have various other Jessem tools and the build quality is amazing.  So, I think I might see if anyone has any good black Friday deals. There's not many suppliers in Europe so it's much harder to see one or get good deals!

Here it is attached to my Incra LS positioner with some CNC'd brackets I knocked up. Had to get an angle on the vacuum outlet so we will see how that works. I use my CTL-SYS above the table and larger Dewalt extractor underneath. Next step is to mount the rails on the side of the CML-VL si I can use it without the Incra LS for simple stuff, need to get creative as they aren't quite deep enough to just slide into the track on the MFT profile.

I've not tried using it yet, but it feels solid. This thing is serious engineering and weight in all the aluminium. First impressions is that it's nice how it all fits together compared to the Incra having main fences, subfences and all the rest. Adjustments are super easy with the knurled knobs on the back and I can leave ClearCut guides in the front track while moving the fences. I also got the Mire-R-Slide and that feels so solid compared to the Incra right angle. 


I've got a little Christmas gift project coming up so I'll get to use it in the next week.

Wow, that looks awesome! Great work! I’ve been wondering how that fence could be adapted to fit the LS positioner since the first time I saw it. I love how the TA Fence color closely matches the Incra’s (other than the black adjustable faces).

One of the big bonuses I see is being able to use Jessem’s new Mite-R-Slide II with it (the Mite-R-Slide II won’t attach to the Incra fence). I think the Mite-R-Slide II looks like a better option than the Mite-R-Slide since it’s removable and even comes with the built in stop which would be a great substitute for Incra’s Right Angle unit and Incra’s stop.

Could you post more pictures of the custom bracket by chance? I would love to hear how it’s working out as well.

Full beast mode with the slider!  The end stops are even sprung

To run the dovetails like the Incra right angle jig it will need a sacrificial backer board mounting on the fence so the cutter can go into the aluminium fence and also to give you something to clamp the pieces to as the small fence on the Jessem doesn't have any great clamping points. I'll by trying some dovetails next week so I'll post an update.

I've attached a sketch with the dimensions. It should be pretty easy to cut out using a band saw and a little sanding.

I cut my first dovetails on it last night.  I checked and Mite-R-Slide II was square to the fence out of the box, checked the TA fence was square to the table, then just needed a slight adjustment to square the fence on the Mite-R-Slide II which was easy job. 

After everything was square I drilled a piece of melamine scrap to attach it to the t-track so I had a longer support and somewhere to clamp the pieces to. I placed a couple of pieces against both fences and pushed them hard up then used a clamp as they are the strongest I have for holding the pieces. I double checked with a square that the pieces were squared perfect.  Then pushed through, I set the end-stop so that the Mite-R-Slide aluminium fence wouldn't touch bit.  Everything worked very smoothly. Only slight issue was my Festool clamp interfered with the bit gaurd operating properly, but that's easily fixed maybe something like you suggest that will go into a t-track such as the Armor B5-HH clamp.

For the last operation on the dovetails with the piece flat on the table I used a Jessem stop on the fence to stop the cut going too deep.  The only caution is the thickness of the stop so you sometimes can't do the nearest cut with the fence in place otherwise it will hit the stop. I think some sort of very thin <3mm stop attachment is needed for these cases (won't be a problem with larger dovetails in thicker wood) or it's easy enough to do this one by hand.

I've put on a picture of a variable spaced dovetail I created with the pyRouterJig program to fit a 60mm piece of wood and cut using the Jessem TA / Mite-R-Slide II fence.

And as far as thin pieces sliding under the Mite-R-Slide II’s safety guard/stop I was thinking you could attach a piece of scrap wood to the bottom of the guard to fill up some of the gap if that makes sense.

I made an Jeseem > Incra finger stop for half-blind dovetails. Small bit of 6mm plastic milled down to 3mm with a couple of prongs that clip into the two holes on the Jessem stops.  Works well and easily disposable if you get the bit a little close to the bit it's only made out of plastic so will snap rather than cause any damage.

Hi guys,

I am thinking about the same as @simonh to attach Incra LS positioner to Jessem TA fence. My priority no.1 is easy to use as it will be in community workshop. It means. If it is yours, you have a time to learn how to use your specific tool. But in community workshop, everything have to be as easy and dumb friendly as possible. It means, laser lines everywhere, robust constructions with no play and precise stops (90°, 45°). That is why I am considering this hybrid. It seems, that LS positioner is much easier to use in terms of positioning the fence and maintaining right angle or paralel line.
My question is. Is LS positioner strong enough to keep the fence (any fence) in paralel. Does it bend when you force your piece towards the fence at start? I don't want something, what will bend and screw the piece. Of course, I want to buy the Clear cut with it, so the force, will not be massive. But, I want to get rid of the two T tracks and nobs. As LS is just one leaver.
So, is Incra LS positioner sturdy enough?

Thanks in advance for your experiences.

I'd recommend going to the JessEm site and downloading the 3D PDF model as this allows you to get a good view of how everything on the JessEm fits together, and you can take dimensions from the drawings. See: https://jessem.com/collections/router-table-fences/products/ta-fence-for-router-tables-with-jointing-feature under the 3D version tab.

On the JessEm side rails I unbolted the part that is usually screwed to the underside of your router table. My initial hope was that I could then just bolt it to the side rails of the MFT using the T-track. Unfortunately, the JessEm side rails aren’t quite tall enough for the bolt holes to align with the T-track.  My first preference would have been to mill some adaptors that fit in the MFT T-track and then the side rail would have bolted onto them as this would make it easy to remove them or adjust.  But I couldn’t be bothered as I just wanted to use it, and in reality I'll probably never remove them!  So instead, I tapped a couple of M6 holes (as I have plenty around in various length, the original bolts are ¼-20) in the MFT extrusions between the T-track and V groove. They don’t have to be spot on as you have up-down adjustment when you tighten to level with the table, and the rulers can also move to calibrate with the center of the router bit.

This will probably make more sense if you get the 3d model and pan around to look at the JessEm extrusions and how it all fits together.

Just a thought... I'm using longer extrusions on the sides of the CMS-VL (a couple of the MFT/3 side extrusions) to make a wider table than the standard CMS-VL.  This may make a difference as to whether the you can align the JessEm scale on their rails to the center of your router bit depending where on the table your router plate is located. A quick measurement looks like you need around 300mm behind the bit and about 120mm to the front.

@simonh

I’m curious how you attached your router table to the MFT extrusions. Is this actually attached to your CMS-VL? Would you be able to post a few pictures of your setup both close up and at a distance? I’m working on possibly doing something similar.

Thanks in advance for any help

@simonh I have a few questions if you don't mind answering;

How you like the Incra cleansweep in general, would you recommend it?
Is it made of metal or any plastic parts?
If my router bit lock mechanism is under, would it be easy to access?
Do you use the standard Jessem insert?
Do the blast gate is accumulating saw dust?

Thanks!

The Jessem Ultimate Excel II Package should be here this week (cross fingers) and I'm trying to find the best solution to capture saw dust.

Mario,

I like the clean sweep as it saves a lot of cleanup and dust been thrown around.  The grey parts are plastic, the front and back doors are powder-coated steel.  I'd say it would be difficult to access the router once it is in place.  I use the router lift prestige with a Dewalt plunge router and the Musclechuck so I don't ever go underneath the table unless I need to alter the router speed.  If operating without dust extraction and the blast gate closed it says to keep the door fully open to avoid overheating the motor of the router.

I'm not sure the CleanSweep will fit the Excel II as you have the crank for height adjustment underneath the table, also looking at the pictures it looks like there are some aluminium stiffeners right about where the CleanSweep would mount.  I'm sure I saw somewhere the Excell II comes with a dust shroud mounted underneath the table (not fully enclosed) that can connect up to a dust extraction?

Seth,

The Clear cut guide fit in either the gold track or in the black track on the moveable fences. 

The swinging guard comes as part of the Mite-R-Slide II accessory.  The fixed guard is supplied with the standard fence.

If you take off the black vac port on the back there's just a big square hole in the aluminium.  So, there'd be no metal that you could tap to bolt the Incra steel bracket to.  Also, you'd need a thicker plate to lift the Incra higher so the steel bracket cleared the aluminium extrusion on the Jessem if that makes sense.

Hope that helps. But let me know if you have any further questions as I know how hard it is trying to find information.