Advantages to edge guide routing?
The biggest advantage to this observer is that you might be able to put off making or buying a router table. Many, if not most, small cutter table operations can be done with an edge guided router. Not as well, due to handling and control problems, but possible nonetheless. Edge guides adjust continuously, some quite precisely, just like the router table fence. A 3/8 straight bit, for example, with an edge guide, can take a 31/64″ swipe of the work. Bearing guided cutters can emboss a work edge, not the fence on the edge guide. The forces are distributed evenly and cancel out some of the edge defects, so edge guided cuts can be crisper. More on the edge guide.
