Router tables

[Phillip Gregory]

I am currently needing a router table and after a little research I intend to build a router table largely using the design from Woodsmith #131. I probably will modify it a little by making a slightly wider table surface (and probably laminating two pieces of MDF to the hardboard in the top rather than one) and a unified rather than separate cabinet top/bottom and possibly the screw adjustment to the fence such as in Pat Warner's design. I am thinking of getting the large 3 1/4 hp Porter Cable (7519) as a local supplier has them, or possibly it's little brother the 892.

I have never made a router table and am curious if there are any pitfalls/things you wish you would have done when you made yours. The router table I used when I was younger was a really cheesy stamped-metal Sears one that I do not wish to emulate. My father in law made his own table from similar plans to the Woodsmith ones (actually from an older Woodsmith plan in the '80s) and uses an older P-C router similar to the 892 and likes it a lot, although he doesn't use it very much. I am also curious to as what insert you guys would recommend for a non-lift insert as well.

[Brad Cambell]

http://www.crestonwood.com/gallery.php

I am building this router table as we speak. I built the carcass Saturday. I am dry fitting the carcass tonight. If everything goes well, I will glue up but I might not have enough clamps. That is another thing I need.

I will be watching this thread for some tips.

[Phillip Gregory]

That is also a very nice set of plans. Let us know how it goes.

[Don Morris]

I've made several, you sound like you've done your research. I also have a 7518 and couple 690 series routers. The 7518 is a beast but it's bullet proof. Lots of good ways to mount it with a variety of lifts. Just make sure the MDF is two pieces of THICK MDF and cover with a quality surface. After a couple shop size upgrades, my last upgrade was to build a table with a preformed phenolic top. There are a lot of them out there that are made with perfectly sized cutouts for whatever lift you choose, tracks, etc. not terribly expensive. By the time you put all the expense together for the MDF,edge banding, your own tracks, etc. it's not that much more $$$. Got that advise from the guy who builds the tables for the Kreg pocket hole system. Built the rest of my table using a lot of, but not all of, that system, but custom built it to my needs. Choices, choices, chloices, figure what suits your needs and budget, do the research, build it.

[Brian Brightwell]

This is what I built. 7518 router, Joint Tech fence,and Jessem lift. I have the DC connected I will take a new photo today.

http://i773.photobucket.com/albums/yy11/bebrightwell/Sept2012054-Copy_zpsc5252a9a.jpg
http://i773.photobucket.com/albums/yy11/bebrightwell/Sept2012073_zpsc283cb96.jpg

[Myk Rian]

If the MDF has any warp to it, you can cancel that out by cementing the convex sides together, like this )(
You don't need hard board on it. I just used paste wax on it, spread thickly then buffed.
Shellac is also good to use.

[Don Morris]

Phillip,

Found a couple photos of the latest table I built from several years ago. Used old 3/4" ply for the table. The top is a Bench Dog phenolic that holds the Bench Dog lift. It's also pretty much bullet proof, but a little costly. Have used all the tracks and like their placement. I had the Bench Dog fence for years, was happy with it, so I kept it. I had an old JessEm lift before and it was OK. I just couldn't change the bits easily on the old lift so I looked for a model that would allow changing the bit above the top pretty easily and the Bench Dog I bought does that just fine. Now it seems that it's a question of "pay your money, take your choice", or, do your research and get the best deal.


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[Mike Cogswell]

http://www.crestonwood.com/gallery.php

I am building this router table as we speak. I built the carcass Saturday. I am dry fitting the carcass tonight. If everything goes well, I will glue up but I might not have enough clamps. That is another thing I need.

I will be watching this thread for some tips.

That looks a lot like the New Yankee Workshop design.

[Phillip Gregory]

Phillip,

Found a couple photos of the latest table I built from several years ago. Used old 3/4" ply for the table. The top is a Bench Dog phenolic that holds the Bench Dog lift. It's also pretty much bullet proof, but a little costly. Have used all the tracks and like their placement. I had the Bench Dog fence for years, was happy with it, so I kept it. I had an old JessEm lift before and it was OK. I just couldn't change the bits easily on the old lift so I looked for a model that would allow changing the bit above the top pretty easily and the Bench Dog I bought does that just fine. Now it seems that it's a question of "pay your money, take your choice", or, do your research and get the best deal.

That top, lift, and router are well over a grand. That's a very nice setup but more than a little bit rich for my blood.


That looks a lot like the New Yankee Workshop design.

It is, the guy's page says so and even has a picture of a smiling Norm Abram in front of a similar looking table.

[Don Morris]

Phillip,

Your comment: "That top, lift, and router are well over a grand. That's a very nice setup but more than a little bit rich for my blood" is true. But I guess what I meant to point out was that I built two MDF tops then switched to a top-of-the-line phenolic top. There are a number of not expensive phenolic/or other material tops out there with precut holes for lifts, and/or tracks that aren't expensive. I just happened to chose a top-of-the-line phenolic router top, lift, etc. Go to any woodworking show and there are many tops for sale at good prices.

[Chris E Smith]

Two things I like about mine are the large drawers to store my handheld routers and the electrical setup. I have two switches near the front, one to turn on the shopvac and one for the router. There is also an unswitched outlet for an adjustable lamp. The router enclosure has the switched outlet for the router to plug in.
I happened to find some metal drawer units from cubicle office furniture that fit nicely so I didn't have to build drawers. You can also take some old metal desks apart ( Steelcase brand) and use the drawer units because they are built as separate modules. I often see these sitting by the curb or at the scrap yard. The box around my router is made of MDF and has a sloped bottom going to the dust collection point. The MDF really cuts down on the noise.

[Dave Richards]

Phillip, what sort of stuff do you intend to use your router table for? I ask because maybe there's an alternative to consider. I have a nice Bench Dog router table and fence and a Woodpecker's lift for a DW621 router but I rarely use it as a router table. Most of the time it has my PC-121 sander in it. Instead of using the router table, I use my Router Boss for nearly everything. and I don't need a bunch of additional jigs to do things like dovetails or box joints or mortises & tenons. Maybe it's something you would want to look into.

[Phillip Gregory]

Dave,

I mainly intend to rout profiles on edges. My table-saw is my go-to tool for doing things like dadoes, tenons, and rabbets. I haven't had the occasion to make a box joint yet but I would prefer to do that with a table saw box joint jig rather than a router. I suppose I could get a small shaper and cut edge profiles just as well but after reading the multiple threads of debate, I think a router would be a better choice for me at the present. I don't intend to make kitchen cabinets or doors which need the ability to swing a huge raised panel bit which apparently is the real reason to pick a shaper over a router table.

[Dave Richards]

I see.

Of course you can do edge profiling with the Router Boss as well as many other things. Like I said, it was just an idea that might be worth exploring. Or maybe not in your case.

[Brian Brightwell]

I agree Phillip, box joints are best done on the tablesaw. I had a shaper when I built my router table. There is nothing wrong with having both.

http://i773.photobucket.com/albums/yy11/bebrightwell/P1010012_zps99b47f18.jpg
http://i773.photobucket.com/albums/yy11/bebrightwell/P1010014-1_zpsf8d53bf9.jpg

[Dave Richards]

The beauty of woodworking is there is often more than one way to get to the same end. I like doing box joints with a router and for me it works just fine. And I don't need a box joint jig of any sort to make them.

[Brian Brightwell]

Yes Dave a router will work for box joints I just prefer the robustness of a dado blade to a router bit for this task.

[Phillip Gregory]

Update: I decided to go with the Norm Abram router table design. I got some surprisingly nice 3/4" birch plywood, 3/4" MDF, and a very inexpensive piece of "odds and ends" laminate from Menards over the weekend during their sale. The laminate is a somewhat different reddish color but cost a whopping $10 for nearly a full sheet so can't complain too much. I modified the plans slightly to make the top with two pieces of 3/4" MDF instead of a 1/2" and a 3/4" and also made the top a half inch narrower at 24" so I could cut the entire thing from a 4' x 4' sheet of MDF. I cut the MDF for the top and glued it together and also got the carcase cut out of the birch plywood and got a few of the dadoes cut.

As a side note I am VERY happy with the fact that I spent a little more on a nice cabinet saw with 52" rails, a stack dado, and the 80 tooth Freud "ultimate cutoff" blade. That sure beats trying to cut plywood with a contractor saw or a circular saw and a straightedge. I did break down the plywood with a circular saw but cut it to exact dimensions with the cabinet saw. No chipout, the pieces are all straight and square, and the stack dado with the shims let me get the dado *exactly* to plywood thickness and with a nice flat bottom.

Now all I need to do is find a good router. I am strongly leaning towards a 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 hp model with both regular and plunge bases because I want to cut mortises and the plunge base would be very handy for that. I also don't have the budget to buy a big 3 hp router and a smaller plunge router.

[John Piwaron]

http://www.crestonwood.com/gallery.php

I am building this router table as we speak. I built the carcass Saturday. I am dry fitting the carcass tonight. If everything goes well, I will glue up but I might not have enough clamps. That is another thing I need.

I will be watching this thread for some tips.

That looks almost exactly like the Deluxe Router Table built by Norm on NYW. I built that router table almost 1 year ago but with plenty of modifications from my own experience.

[Brad Cambell]

How is your router table coming? Regarding the router, buy what you can afford. You can buy a bigger router at a later date.

Your cabinet sounds like it will be very nice. I built mine entirely out of MDF. I went with MDF because I wanted to build it as cheap as I could because I didn't know if I would even use a router table. Do you have any pictures? I would like to see your progress.

[Jim Andrew]

My last router table I built from lumber I sawed myself. The top is hardwood which I cut a hole for a home made plate from 1/2" plastic. The main thing I did to make it stable was finish it on all sides and edges. Has stayed nice and flat. Used the Rockler T tracks on the fence as well as the table, and stool bolts with Rockler T nuts. Made my own feather boards from ash, much stiffer than plastic. Had a Sears table, which I used the feather boards as a pattern for the wood, and gave the Sears table to my nephew. Along with the Sears router. I like Hitachi routers, have a M12v 3 1/4 hp and 2 M12 vc. They run much smoother than my PC routers, and have built in speed control.

[Phillip Gregory]

How is your router table coming? Regarding the router, buy what you can afford. You can buy a bigger router at a later date.

Your cabinet sounds like it will be very nice. I built mine entirely out of MDF. I went with MDF because I wanted to build it as cheap as I could because I didn't know if I would even use a router table. Do you have any pictures? I would like to see your progress.

I've just cut and dadoed the panels right now, so it doesn't look like much. I'll get some pictures once I get it glued together.

[Phillip Gregory]

All right, I have gotten the carcase assembled except for the inner walls of the router compartment as I need the clearance to get the drawer guides in for the top drawers. I am getting the drawers glued together and have gotten much of the facing trim installed. I just used some ripped 3/4" pine and screwed and plugged it to the carcase; this IS a shop tool and not a piece of fine furniture. Here are some pictures:

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[Jonathan Clement]

Unless you want to be able to quickly remove the router from the table, you might want to consider the Triton MOF001 router which you can raise and lower and change bits from the top. We wimped out of making our own table and got a Kreg which works well with the Triton.

[Phillip Gregory]

Got the table done:
261510261511261514261515261516261517

It has a Porter-Cable 890 router in it and uses the Rockler #1 insert. I haven't done much with the table yet besides put a roundover bit in it and round over the edge on the trim boards on the top. The only suggestions I would make would be to put a piece of Masonite underneath the MDF in the bit drawers instead of laminate and to definitely use the 3" wheels. I originally picked up some 5" wheels because I thought they would roll better over wood chips and such, but they just left the table sitting too high and made it very tippy.

[John Piwaron]

I like this. Nice work.

You did one modification I did - a track for those adjustable fence parts and the fence mount instead of a router cut. :)

[Phillip Gregory]

MDF is not very durable and I wanted the fence and wings to stay nice and square for a long time, so I added the tracks. I might end up adding some of the rest of my T-track to the left-hand wing for stop blocks at some point in the future.

[John Piwaron]

MDF is not very durable and I wanted the fence and wings to stay nice and square for a long time, so I added the tracks. I might end up adding some of the rest of my T-track to the left-hand wing for stop blocks at some point in the future.

It's not durable for use as a T track. I modified Norm's fence design by foregoing those angled cuts on top and running T track the entire length. I use it for stops and feather boards. I also put a T track next to the miter gauge slot. I didn't have any of that combo stuff that's available nowadays. I also put a micro adjust doodad in back of the fence for the times I want to move it just a hair. I posted pix of all that.

[Rich Engelhardt]

definitely use the 3" wheels. I originally picked up some 5" wheels because I thought they would roll better over wood chips and such, but they just left the table sitting too high and made it very tippy.+1 to leaving it top heavy. My router table is of a similar design & it really needs some outriggers of some sort. It's been fine so far for smaller stuff, but, I have some future plans that call for larger stock & I'll have to add something to keep it from tipping.

[Paul Wunder]

Don,

Can you explain how you connected your phenolic top to your table? I will be using a Jessum phenolic and I have never worked with it before. Thanks.