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I've seen many home made router table fences where the sacrificial plates have a 45 degree angle at their vertical edge at the table router side. Examples are here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Why are the edges of these parts cut in a 45 degree? It is an excess task during the process, especially if one does not have a table saw at his disposal and I can see only the very marginal benefit of having the guiding fence a few millimeter closer to the router in the case of a very shallow rabbet for very short working pieces. In all other cases a "normal" 90 degree cut would result in the same guiding function.

Since so many people do this, there has to be some reason behind it. What could it be?

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    It improves dust collection.
    – Graphus
    Feb 8, 2021 at 1:13
  • I have one guess: given that you sometimes need to cut into the fence with the router bit, (and push most of the router bit behind the front of the fence), you have less material to cut away, and less tearout likely when you cut the right side.
    – Aloysius Defenestrate
    Feb 8, 2021 at 3:06
  • It also gives more room for any dust not sucked away to collect before clogging the bit and the fence opening, potentially pushing the work piece away from the bit and changing the cut.
    – FreeMan
    Feb 10, 2021 at 18:28

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there has to be some reason behind it

The fence is often set to expose only a portion of the bit. Removing some of the fence material behind the front face let’s you position the face of the fence closer to the bit without hitting it in such cases.

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