DIY Router table

[marlin adams]

Alright i got my roll of formica, got my t-tracks but still kicking around the ideal of using t-tracks for my router fence or end clamps. The base I am going to use a 55 gallon steel drum since I am limited on storage on my tools (I work from my deck) and going to make the router top detachable to where I can store it inside my shed. My top will be 24x32 size. The fence will be made out of some type of hardwood with adjustable faces. Now I am planning on making the top setup where it will be easy for me to beable to adjust the router up and down manually and also provide support to the top it self.

Now the plywood I got is the 3/4" sanded plywood not birch and it is smooth on both sides it is flat and everything but just wondering if I should go with birch plywood. I am planning on doing 3 layers and 1/4" pinewood as banding material around the sides.

Waiting on good weather again to work on deck, alot of rain so far.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Just remember to provide lots of ventilation for the router.
They heat up real hot and real fast when they are under a table top.

[Carlos Alvarez]

Just remember to provide lots of ventilation for the router.
They heat up real hot and real fast when they are under a table top.

Why would you run it without dust collection? I've had a lot of issues with the router if I don't have good collection going.

[Myk Rian]

3 layers of 3/4" is going to be quite heavy, and overkill. 2 will do it. Just make sure you glue the panels together with the convex sides together. )( That will keep it flat.

[Mike Wilkins]

Since you are looking for a portable solution, why not look at one of the table top router cabinets. Bosch has a nice one at the local Lowes store. Even though I have a full size roll-around router cabinet, I have been tempted to get one anyway.

[mike falconer]

have any of you found a cheep mounting plate? ive been looking around and cant seem to find one under 50 bucks

[jack duren]

Blow it out every so often Carlos...

[Rich Engelhardt]

Why would you run it without dust collection?That's the same thing as providing ventilation right? As long as there's a bunch of cooling air moving past the router body it doesn't really matter what other function it's doing does it?

[Stan Calow]

For my second table, I used a solid-surface kitchen countertop cut-out from a local cabinet shop for the top. Dead-flat and smooth surface, for $3. The shop guy said he keeps a few around for this purpose. I'd go with t-tracks to hold the fence down. Clamps too easy to bump.

[marlin adams]

have any of you found a cheep mounting plate? ive been looking around and cant seem to find one under 50 bucks
Yes I have a bosch benchtop router plate that is aluminum. I got mine for 12.99 and its a standard plate maybe a hair smaller

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[marlin adams]

All right seems like I got everything now including a heatgun to help flatten the formica that came in a roll. tuesday is suppose to be starting of some nice weather :)

[marlin adams]

3 layers of 3/4" is going to be quite heavy, and overkill. 2 will do it. Just make sure you glue the panels together with the convex sides together. )( That will keep it flat.

Yea after you mention that and especially being 24"x32" it will be :) so 2 it will be.

[marlin adams]

Since you are looking for a portable solution, why not look at one of the table top router cabinets. Bosch has a nice one at the local Lowes store. Even though I have a full size roll-around router cabinet, I have been tempted to get one anyway.

I have thought of that but the tables are a little smaller than what I want. Since I am limited on storage space and having to work outside on my small deck I am going to build a router table that will basically do a alot more that then what your standard router table will do.

[marlin adams]

WOW My wife went to a estate sale and called me from it and they had a brand new black and decker workmate 225 still in the box for 25 dollors :) She got it home and everything was still in their packing material and I got it together :). I now have a base for my router top and once I get everything together I will take pictures of it. Dont worry I am having the top mounted on the workmate where it can easly be taken off and stored and I can still use the workmate as a workmate :)

[Keith Outten]

Marlin,

That's what I did in the sign shop at CNU. I made a Corian top and fastened a router to the bottom then glued two large blocks to the bottom of the table so I could hold the top in the workmate vise. Make sure the blocks are at least as wide as your router base.

I edge routed several thousand signs on that old workmate before I made another Corian top that I mounted on shelf brackets on the wall to save space and be able to use both the router and the workmate at the same time. It was a very low budget operation. Later when I got a helper we used the workmate router table when we needed to have either two setups at a time or when both of us were edge routing signs.

I still have two of my workmates in my shop at home that I use often. They are pretty old so its time to replace the tops so I am planning to make Corian tops and double the thickness at the vise edges. I think this will be a more serviceable table top than MDF or Plywood. I wish someone would make metal clips to hold the legs up when you fold the tables, the plastic ones don't last very long.

[Mike Cutler]

Marlin

You might want to consider throwing some sand in the bottom of that 55 gallon drum. I have a sneaky suspicion that high frequency vibration may become a problem. The sand will damping that vibration.

[marlin adams]

Marlin

You might want to consider throwing some sand in the bottom of that 55 gallon drum. I have a sneaky suspicion that high frequency vibration may become a problem. The sand will damping that vibration.

Well not using the barrel now since my wife found the workmate 225 I am going to do like Keith Outten did his and clamp my router table to it.

[Mike Cutler]

Well not using the barrel now since my wife found the workmate 225 I am going to do like Keith Outten did his and clamp my router table to it.

Oh, I see where you're going now.I misunderstood, and thought you were still using the drum for the base.

I was actually kinda looking forward to seeing a 55 gallon drum re-purposed into a router table base.

[Nick Decker]

Marlin

You might want to consider throwing some sand in the bottom of that 55 gallon drum. I have a sneaky suspicion that high frequency vibration may become a problem. The sand will damping that vibration.

I was thinking the same thing, Mike. That drum would amplify what is already a pretty nasty noise. I'm thinking banshee from hell.

Marlin, I once mounted a small router table top in an old Workmate and it was definitely workable. Kinda low to the ground for comfortable use, but it wasn't bad.

[glenn bradley]

WOW My wife went to a estate sale and called me from it and they had a brand new black and decker workmate 225 still in the box for 25 dollors :) She got it home and everything was still in their packing material and I got it together :). I now have a base for my router top and once I get everything together I will take pictures of it. Dont worry I am having the top mounted on the workmate where it can easly be taken off and stored and I can still use the workmate as a workmate :)

What a great and timely score! Search Google images for "work mate router table" and you will get lots of ideas.

[Norman Pirollo]

Instead of laminating multiple pieces of Baltic Birch together ,, consider a torsion box. This design will eliminate table sagging , is super rigid and only consists of two cut pieces of Baltic Birch with short vertical pieces in between. think of it as an Engineered approach. My DIY router table is built this way and is flat as can be after many years. It supports a Triton plunge router.

Norman

[marlin adams]

Oh, I see where you're going now.I misunderstood, and thought you were still using the drum for the base.

I was actually kinda looking forward to seeing a 55 gallon drum re-purposed into a router table base.

Well I am got a ideal going since I have a lid clamp and lid on the 55 gallon drum. making it a dust catcher since all I have is a wet dry vac. And I was gonna use the 55 gal drum until my wife got me the workmate 225 :)

[Keith Outten]

If you use a WorkMate to mount your router table top it will never sag because the WorkMate table surface supports the router table top. All you need is to fasten two large blocks to the underside of the router table so the WorkMate vise can grab and hold the blocks securely. On second thought I could be wrong about this depending on the material you use for your router table top. I used 1/2" thick Corian and over several years the table remained perfectly flat. I'm sure that the blocks I fastened to the bottom of the table also helped keep the table top flat but I can't prove it.

I have mentioned this many times but I will once again share this with all of you. If you can get a piece of solid surface material large enough for a router table top and polish the surface, then apply a coat of paste wax you will have a surface that is incredibly slick. It is a so nice to use a table top that basically defies friction and is smooth as silk particularly when you are edge prepping or machining molding for extended periods of time.

[Jim Becker]

I still have two of my workmates in my shop at home that I use often. They are pretty old so its time to replace the tops so I am planning to make Corian tops and double the thickness at the vise edges. I think this will be a more serviceable table top than MDF or Plywood. I wish someone would make metal clips to hold the legs up when you fold the tables, the plastic ones don't last very long.

I actually made new tops for an old Workmate not long ago as the originals had swelled massively when it was inadvertently left out on the front porch for "a long time". Like a year. :D While I did use MDF, I can see the benefit of something like solid surface material here for sure.

[marlin adams]

Well I luck out and will have some extra money from some stuff I had and think about getting a dedicated router lift and using my porter cable 690 lr router motor around the first of the month. I am thinking on the jessum rout-r-lift ll since it will be in my price range. Just wondering about it since I want to do more precise work and work with smaller pieces than what the bosch 1617 router and base might provide if mounted to a table. Has anyone use the jessum lift and what are your thoughts on it.

[Phillip Gregory]

All right seems like I got everything now including a heatgun to help flatten the formica that came in a roll. tuesday is suppose to be starting of some nice weather :)

Formica in a roll will flatten out once you glue it to its substrate. I got a full 4x8 sheet rolled up into about a 2' diameter roll recently and it flattened very nicely once I glued/rolled it. I don't think you need a heat gun to flatten it.

[Kevin Beitz]

If you have a table saw you could put your router in the table extension and use the table saw slot for your guide.
When your not using it just crank it down.

[marlin adams]

well I am going to have to redo my router table because of the way I router it out for the bosch router plate. The way it is will not work well with the jessem router lift. Luckly I have plenty of 3/4 inch birch plywood left over. Now to finish the top to make it slick enough. I do have some extra formica and it was the cheapest I could afford at the time but LOL it has a floral pattern to it and it was about 36 dollars for 30x96 roll while the rest was higher including just white for about 56 dollars. What else is out there that I could use?

[Peter Christensen]

Sand the plywood smooth, oil it with your favourite oil, (linseed, tung, etc.) and then paste wax it. Looks good, slippery enough and if you ever want to screw some jig to the top the holes can be filled and waxed after.

[marlin adams]

Cool will do make it look more manly besides that floral pattern formica :)

[marlin adams]

385267385269Alright got my jessem rout-r-lift II in today :). To bad its raining since I work off my deck :(. But suppose to be nice this weekend :) so I will be finishing up my router table. Now I got 3 inserts and one of the 3 I can use guides in.

[Dave Brandt]

How is the router attached to the solid surface?

[marlin adams]

How is the router attached to the solid surface?

I am using the motor from a porter cable 690LR and it attaches to the underside by sliding in and being clamp in place

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[marlin adams]

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Alright LOL finally got to work on my router table :). The table size is 31'x 23" made with 2 3/4' birch plywood glued together. I got the hole for the jess-um router lift cut out but I decided to leave a 3/4' lip and cut it about 1/8' inch deeper than the directions recommended so I could epoxy in 1/2' x 3/4' aluminum angle so my leveling screws will have something to sit on besides the wood lip. I still need to route out the channels for my t-slots for my fence and also I am putting a Dual / Combo T-track Miter T-slot Jig Fixture across the bottom for jigs and such. And the Jessum router lift fits snug thanks to the jessum template I bought. Instead of formica top I am going to wax it with paste wax and I got some cheap Home Depot yardsticks to put around the edge to cover up the raw edge of the plywood.

[marlin adams]

Alright finally got the tracks in, used minwax spar polyurethane on the bottom did 2 coats and minwax furniture wax on the top to slick it up. All that is left is the fence which the main fence will be baltic birch and the sliding fench parts will be poplar.

[marlin adams]

well finally got it done :) Now to work on a adapter for my ridgid 2 1/4 vac hose to the dust collection port I bought that is 2 1/2 :)