Router Table build, Need Orientation Advice

[Paul Richard]

Hi All,

Just a general THANKS to everyone for responses to my various questions! I'm making some suggested upgrades to my dust collection, fixed my joinery issue and have learned LOTS. I appreciate everyone's help!

OK, new question. :-)

I'm building a router table. I have a table top Bosch that I'm happy with but find it too small for some of the template work I've done. I also picked up an older Incra fence that I want to use on this new table. I like the idea of making minute, accurate fence adjustments with it. I'm also attempting to build a Wonder Fence kind of set up that I found somewhere. Anyway, I'd really appreciate some feedback on where and why you guys would orient the location of the insert. Here are some pics to give you some perspective.

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Rough dimensions of the table are 48" x 28".

Thoughts?

Thanks again!

- Paul

[Prashun Patel]

I have the incra. I would orient it as in your first pics. This gives maximum travel of the carriage. That will be nice when doing drawer joinery or dados.

The downside is that the table sticks out from the wall further than the other way. I make do with this, but you may prefer swivel, locking casters so you can pivot it for storage.

[Paul Richard]

I have casters on the cabinet for exactly that reason, so I can pull the fence onto the table in either orientation and roll the whole cabinet into a corner when not in use.

OK, so one vote for "long-ways" orientation.

Thanks Prashun!

[Chris Hachet]

I have the incra. I would orient it as in your first pics. This gives maximum travel of the carriage. That will be nice when doing drawer joinery or dados.

The downside is that the table sticks out from the wall further than the other way. I make do with this, but you may prefer swivel, locking casters so you can pivot it for storage.


I have the Incra and I would concur.

[Keith Weber]

If you ever want to try those fancy dovetails that you see in your Incra manuals, you'll thank yourself for choosing the first orientation.

[Paul Richard]

Three votes is good enough for me! :-) Long-ways it is!

Thanks guys!

[Mark Gibney]

My vote is for the orientation in pics 3 and 4.

I placed my router lift fairly close to the front edge of the table top and it saves me having to lean in a distance to guide a piece past the bit. At the end of the day my back is happier for that.

[Chris Schoenthal]

My thought is that you made it 48" for a reason.
If you plan on only running shorter pieces along the fence, then picture #1 is the way to go.
For longer pieces, you need the support offered from orientation #3.

[Paul Richard]

The 48" dimension is what I had available to me, it was not necessarily chosen that length. Plus after some research it looks like most that use that fence have the long-ways orientation. However, you make a good point about longer pieces. When I've used my existing table (Bosch, about 24" wide) I've not had an issue with supporting the work piece. This may sound like a stupid question, but can you give me an example of what I might be doing that would require more support? Is there something you've worked on where the additional support was needed? Just trying to understand a use case or two, to see if they would apply to me.

[Prashun Patel]

I agree that longer support is needed for longer pieces. I disagree that orienting the table as in 3/4 is the right way to do that. That might be true if you typically route pieces that are just barely too long to be adequately supported by 1/2 but just barely short enough to be adequately supported by 3/4. I can't think of any times this has been the case for me (YMMV). When I need infeed/outfeed support is when I'm routing longer pieces of molding, etc that would be too long even for the 3/4 orientation. Because of this, I subsidize my support with auxiliary supports as needed.

Gotta say, though, 99% of my routing would be satisfied by either orientation. So, you can't really go too wrong...

[Keith Weber]

Paul,

Mark made a good point about leaning too far over the table being hard on the back. My router table is sort of similar to your layout, but my top is 40" long instead of 48". In addition to leaning over when using it, being too far in could be difficult when accessing the router from below. I'm sure I'd be constantly hitting my head on the overhang.

I still like the layout of the first two pics, but I'd consider shortening the table up a bit or moving it closer to the end.

Here's a pic of mine for reference. I cant remember if the width is 26" or 28". It's an old pic. I've since replaced the Rockler plate and Bosch router with a PC 7518 and an Incra Mast-R-Lift II router lift.

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You might also want to think of putting in a track like I have in mine. I use it with a Milescraft 1406 Featherboard to keep the workpiece against the fence when routing really long pieces. Very handy.

[Stew Hagerty]

I have an Incra and wholeheartedly concur with setting it the long way as in photos #1 & #2. To really take advantage of the Incra, you need the travel.

I have never had any problems at all running long items across mine so I don't find that argument valid. I do agree with Keith about adding the track, sometimes using a miter gauge comes in really handy. The center-line of my insert is 12" from the edge.

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