Router Table Help: Build or Buy?

[Scott Vigder]

I'm ready to step-up to a permanenet set-up for my router station. I need a fixed surface when using 1/2" bits. I'm currently using an old Hitachi router with a 1/4" collett that I found attached to a small table-top router table at an auction. I also have a PC 893PK with the fixed and plunge bases, but neither of these will fit in the table top router table that I have.
I bought a horizontal router table from MLCS last year, but the plexiglass that holds my heavy router is not stable enough and the router flexes (ever so slightly) when under load. I ordered an aluminum router plate for the PC from Rockler, and after all the time it took to correctly adapt it to the horizontal table :o I find out the plate does not have enough vertical length to work on the MLCS table. Arrgghhh. $200 out the window :eek: .
I've watched Norm build his table, but I wasn't happy with the fence he has. Instead of adjusting the left side of his fence to accommodate for removed stock, he placed (taped, I think) shims on the left side.
So where do I turn for advice? Da Creek, of course! I need some input and direction on tables that have been built by Creekers and which purchased tables seem to work best.
I build mostly tables, desks, chairs, and bookcases and have a 4" DC system.
Thank you for your help.

[Jim Becker]

I firmly believe, despite getting "verbally abused" by a router table manufacturer a few years ago for saying so, that a router table is generally best build by the user. There are so many things you can do to make it match the way you work and it's a perfect opportunity to learn new techniques and "creatively" leverage scrap from previous projects that may be in your shop. I'm on my second one. The first was nice and I learned a lot from it. Same goes for my present one. Definitely worth the time I spent building them.

[Randy Looney]

Hello Scott,

I will have to agree with Jim, build your own table. I have bought 2 router tables at different times in my learning of wood working and what I want in a table the last 3 years. The first table was a quick and easy way for me to learn and the second one I bought out of need to spin larger bits and not having the time to build one. I just purchased a 3 1/4 Hp router. Now I will build a table for it when time allows. Several projects to finish first.:D

[Dave Falkenstein]

My home shop router table has evolved through three generations. My current setup is one I'm very satisfied with, that seems to do whatever I toss at it. I use an Incra Twin Linear fence from Woodpeckers. The fence is fully adjustable on both halves and has super-fine accuracy and repeatability. In addition to normal router table tasks, the fence can be used to do joinery, including dovetails and box joints. Look here for Woodpeckers current fence options:

http://www.woodpeck.com/routersystems.html

After putting off building a second base cabinet for far too long, I bought a steel cabinet from Woodpeckers. Unfortunately those steel cabinets are no longer available. If I were building a cabinet today, I would use the Jointech Routing Center, here:

http://www.jointech.com/routerstation.htm

Jointech also offers some fence options, similar in features to the Incra fences from Woodpeckers.

I built my own top, using two layers of 3/4" MDF, laminated on both sides with Formica and edge banded with 1/2" maple. I have a detailed description of the steps to build that top, and you are welcome to email me if you want a copy.

The router and plate/lift are dependent on each other. I like using a lift, and have the Plunge Lift from Woodpeckers. Chose whatever router you want to use and then select a lift or plate that is compatible with that router. My decision was made several years ago and is not pertinent in the selection of routers available today. The PC 7518 and the Milwaukee above-the-table adjustable routers are favorites of lots of folks. You will want a 3HP router with soft start and adjustable speed.

[Andy London]

I have been through this a few times, I think I'm on my 4th cabinet.....My personal opinion is build the cabinet, buy the top and fence. The cabinet part is a personal thing to me, the setup I have now meets the needs of what I do at each station, I have two of these in my shop although not quite the same.

http://www.picframer.ca/rout1.jpg

http://www.picframer.ca/rout5.jpg

http://www.picframer.ca/rout4.jpg

[Cecil Arnold]

I built for about half what a comparable table would have cost and still think mine is better than any I've seen commercially. I used a plan from The Router Book, which is really very close to the NYW plan. Were I doing it again (and may in the future) I would consider trying to replicate Pat Warner's fence, or look at the Incra system. I have a Woodpeck aluminum lift holding a 3 1/4 hp router (Freud) and a laminated 1 1/2" BB table.

[Peter M. Spirito]

I bought my first, a small Craftsman that I still use for "round overs" etc., built my second like the one used on the Router Workshop. Now I am building my third with a tall fence, t-tracks, miter track, sliding fences with zero clearence fence inserts for the large profile bits, etc. The router table and fence is one piece of equipment that we can build and custom build and display and use in the shop as an example of our work. I say build, its worth it just for the experience.;)

[Mark Pruitt]

If you build your own RT, you get the benefit of dictating the size rather than having to accept what manufacturers offer. That meant a lot to me because I wanted something a little bigger. I built the one out of American Woodworker from spring of 2003, with a couple of modifications including a bigger top, casters, and lower compartment dust collection. The fence has some nice features including sub-fences that can easily be made in bulk and sacrificed when the job calls for zero clearance T-tracks allow for featherboards, stops, etc. There is no miter guage, but a sled can be made that rides in the T-Track, performing the same function as the miter guage. I took my time, gave attention to details, and in addition to saving at least a couple hundred dollars, I got the benefit of a job I could be proud of.
Mark

[tod evans]

build........02 tod

[Dave Walker]

I say build your own too. It's a really fun and functional project.

[Jesse Cloud]

One of these days, I'm gonna build my own, and its on my project list, but twenty items down, so probably a couple of years out. In the mean time, I bought the router table system from Lee Valley. They have put a lot of thought into their system and you can get as much or as little as you want. It has a steel table (no sag), a clever system of inserts for different bit sizes, a two part steel fence, shims, micro-adjustment for the fence, dust control, a router raiser, etc, etc. I got most of the options except the raiser. I used their plans to build a quick and dirty stand for it in a couple of hours. Someday, I might build a cabinet around that stand. But for now, it meets my needs and I can get on to other things that I feel are better learning experiences for me right now.
My two cents...

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Yipper, like they all say, build it.

I'm planning on building mine for the triton I just bought. I want to make it double as a mortising station.

[Don Baer]

I built my own including the fence. I went to pat Warners site and copied some of the ideas from his site for my fence. While I didn't copy the entire fence I will some day.

Here a link

http://www.patwarner.com/routerfence.html

[Don Morris]

I'm in the process of building my second. The first was bought. Didn't meet my needs. I do have a top of line Bench Dog fence. That works OK. But the last table was 2 1" MDF glued with formica on both sides with Maple edgebanding. It had router bit storage, dust collection, tracks (which as a rookie I didn't have positioned as well as I should have...the new table will). And it had a 3 1/4 HP Porter Cable Router mounted on a "Rout-R-Lift". Doesn't matter which kind of lift. I really liked the lift convenience. Only reason I'm doing a new table is I just bought a new table saw and using the opportunity to correct and improve the previous table. I have the table mounted to the right of the table saw for convenience and space utilization in a small shop. Purchased router tables are OK, but a custom built is just that, mine absolutely fits my requirements, space, and pocket book. Plus the joy of accomplishment, which it seems we creekers like. In the end, it's whtever floats your boat.

Don M

[Gary Curtis]

My entire shop is new. The very last equipment on my list was a router table. From the outset,I dreaded this step because I don't want any more machinery hogging valuable floor space.

So I started looking at options for installing a router in my saw table extension leaf. I looked at BenchDog, Lee Valley, Jointech, MCLS, and a few others.

Only in the last few weeks have I gotten some solid and eye-opening info. In a few years from now, router lifts will be history. That is a fact. A few companies are now making routers with a height adjustmentABOVE THE TABLE. That saved me $250.

I bought a Milwaukee 5616 configured that way. One or two Porter Cables and a Bosch model offer the same feature. $30 on the current sale at Amazon. I already have a DeWalt 625 for plunge routing.

Because of my workload getting this entire shop done,I won't make a fence. Though that is a good way to go because it is relatively easy. I overlooked a small item in the WoodHaven catalog that answered my need. They make a Split Router fence, with dust collection, that clamps to your rip fence on a table saw. If you've got a good fence (I have Biesemeyer), not you have excellent position of the router fence taken care of.

The fence has sliding T-tracks for hold-downs, safety guards, and a lateral push-bar. The outfeed side comes with shims for jointing.

No need for the $1000 digital positioning fences out there. More money in your pocket.

And I found out from Pat Warner - who has that wonderful webset on router uses and products - that my particle-board extension table is just fine at supporting a router insert plate. All I need to do is brace it a bit with 1x2 joists.

WoodHaven is drilling my insert plate for $20 so it has the correct bolt pattern for the router base and above-table access to the height adjustment with a speed wrench.

In all, it seemed crazy to heap over $1000 into routing equipment.

Gary Curtis

[Steve Clardy]

I've always built mine. Have a dual table, beside a single or two.
Working on another dual table. Set them up like you want them.

[Tom Peterson]

I bought a fence ans table top and went from there. The one thing I did was make it a lot taller than most plans. The table top is up higher so I do not have to bend over. The cabinet also come off of the stand so I can put my planner on there until I buy one of those MSUV's that everyone is ranting about. Again, these are things you can customize

[Mike Kelly]

Agree with J Becker. Build your own. Here is a previous link with several examples of fine ideas. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=8507

[Jerry Olexa]

Bill Hylton has a great book w many ideas of building your own called "Router Magic". I'd compromise on top and fence though and buy those. But best is build ur own.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Build your own, I did, and I like it very much!

http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/router_table/rt_finished.jpg

Cheers!

[Dave Bennett]

Well it seems as if everyone that made a reply missed the point. I see lots of photos of vertical router tables but no Horizontal Router Tables. I would suggest that you remove the Lexan mounting plate and make a new one out of solid Phenolic. You shouldn't have any troble machining it with regular woodworking tools. It it much more structurally sound than lexan and should prevent the flexing that you mentioned. I did wonder whether or not you were attempting to take too big of a "bite" out of the wood you were machining though since I have the very same horizontal router table and haven't experienced any flexing of the mounting plate. I have built a couple dozen entry doors out of red oak, southern yellow pine, ash and poplar with it, making 3 1/2" motises and tenons without any problems. I do plan to replace the Lexan with Phenolic though since it is a much tougher material. Another idea would be to visit Woodhaven. I have a good freind that bought their Horizontal Router Table and have used it several times. It costs a great deal more than the MLCS model but it is a very nice piece of equipment. Hope you solve your flexing problem. :-)

[David Weaver]

Build it. Even from the perspective of a novice, if you're a hobbyist, having the fastest router table in the world (changing bits and adjusting height) isn't necessary. The only real money I spent on mine was to get a machined plate to fix the router to, and I think that was about $60. The rest of the table probably cost $30, and it's made so that if I groove the mdf top, I can just unbolt it, put another one on it, plane it flat and wax it and use the table again - for $6.

[glenn bradley]

I bought a Rockler top, plate and fence and built the cabinet under it. The fence is basic and straight forward and meets all my needs. If you're gonna go with an Incra Positioner or some such I would go ahead and build the table and cabinet to your specs. I guess what I'm saying is decide on your fence system and go from there. If the fence to table mounting is complex, buy. If it is not integrated, build.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Build it. It'll be better.

[Dave Bennett]

Scott's original post was about a flexing problem with his HORIZONTAL ROUTER TABLE. I am astounded that so many woodworkers on here are still reccommending that he build one. I challenge any woodworker to build a horizontal router table that has the precision of adjustment that is afforded by the MLCS unit. It can be done but it is not nearly as easy as a verticle table. There are literally dozens of presicion motor lifts available for verticle tables but horizontal tables are not as common. I think that a motor lift might be useful for depth of cut adjustments on a HORIZONTAL ROUTER TABLE (I use a DeWalt 625) but a plunge router works best. The verticle movement of the motor is a precision adjustment too and needs a precision screw. Easier to buy one already made than to do the engineering yourself. I would also point out that machining tenons on the ends of long pieces of is not easy with a vertical table. Standing a 50" 2x6 on end against a fence while cutting a 3 1/2 tenon makes for a scary adventure. Making mortises and tenons on long pieces of wood is best accomplished using a horizontal router set up. I do understand what everyone is trying to state about building your own VERTICAL router table and in fact I built my vertical table based on Norm Abrams design. I have already begun to design a new HORIZONTAL router table that will utilize the parts from my MLCS HORIZONTAL router table that I will build myself making some needed improvements but the mechanism which adjusts my router up and down 1/16" per revolution is the basis for my "new" table and I use a Woodrat plunge bar to set my depth.

[Jerry Olexa]

I bought a Rockler top, plate and fence and built the cabinet under it. The fence is basic and straight forward and meets all my needs. If you're gonna go with an Incra Positioner or some such I would go ahead and build the table and cabinet to your specs. I guess what I'm saying is decide on your fence system and go from there. If the fence to table mounting is complex, buy. If it is not integrated, build.

I echo Glenn's remarks. I did the same and have been very happy with the Rockler setup. Since then, I 've added a 2nd bigger table with a bigger router (Milw 5625) and find they both have their place. IMHO, building the top and fence to precision is a challenge G'Luck

[Justin McCurdy]

Build it. I did the NYW router table and it came out great. I can't say that I would've changed much. The best thing about making your own is that you always have a direct link to the manufacturer. If you are not happy with something, change it.

[Brian Penning]

I guess I'm one of the minorities. I have the Lee Valley system and couldn't be happier with it.
If you do build one I think one of their new top inserts would be great to have.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&cat=1,43053&p=50264

[Ed Falis]

One of these days, I'm gonna build my own, and its on my project list, but twenty items down, so probably a couple of years out. In the mean time, I bought the router table system from Lee Valley. They have put a lot of thought into their system and you can get as much or as little as you want. It has a steel table (no sag), a clever system of inserts for different bit sizes, a two part steel fence, shims, micro-adjustment for the fence, dust control, a router raiser, etc, etc. I got most of the options except the raiser. I used their plans to build a quick and dirty stand for it in a couple of hours. Someday, I might build a cabinet around that stand. But for now, it meets my needs and I can get on to other things that I feel are better learning experiences for me right now.
My two cents...

I'm like Jesse - it's a good setup, and I got other fish to fry for now.

[Jeff A. Smith]

Since you do a lot of table tops, desk tops, and big stuff... One thing to think about is the size of the top. I once had use of a REALLY BIG top router table... you could lay a desktop on it and edge-route the whole thing -- which to me, was much preferred over a hand-held router approach. And you could edge-route an 8-ft cabinet end without having to use a lot of infeed/outfeedt support (some required, but not much). It was nice. I always think if I build another, I will make it BIG.

Just a thought.

Jeff

[Steven Wilson]

Horizontal or vertical router table? I don't have a horizontal router table but have thought of building or making one. In either case I would go with a light weight router (say PC690 class) on a horizontal table - you're not going to spin big bits on a horizontal table. For my regular old router table I bought the table top, fence, and lift from Bench Dog (for a PC7518) and built a cabinet based on Norms; it has worked flawlessly over the years and the dust collection is great.

[Art Mann]

The way I read the original post, the guy is looking to buy or build a normal vertical router table. The information on the horizontal router table was just incidental. I have plans that I am confident will support a heavy 15A router horizontally, but have never seen the necessity of building them.

[Bob Feeser]

Get both. I have the Bench Dog table saw extension router table, as well as a Jessem Rout R Slide, and have built a couple of side double extension router tables as well. Having at least 3 stations, however you achieve that is very handy in conserving bit registration set up time. Although I have heard from someone who uses a high end router lift, that he claims he can recapture a setting on accurately in only a minute. Myself, I do as the router book claims, and have at least 3 tables. Since floor space conservation is a key ingredient, creating a double, or 3 station table saw set up conserves space, and leaves your options open. It also creates a very stable platform when you are routing larger, or should I say longer stock. My Jessem table, can be a little touchy with extra long heavy stock, if I am not careful. It's very light weight, so controlling a work piece, especially when you are pushing it through, then when you get to the tail end of the run, you are realizing that the super light weight of the table is something to consider. It never really got close to tipping over, but you do have to consider a long board, hanging out one end.

[Dick Scott]

I also just bought the Triton router last week and Norms router table plans arrived today in the mail.

[Ray Newman]

I agree w/ building your own: you'll have the size you need &/or want.

A few years ago, I built my own touter table & the best things I did were:

-- Install hinges on the back of table to lift it up if needed.
-- Dual action DC --on the fence & from of the cabinet.
-- In the cabinet base, full extension ball bearing slides on the two large storage drawers for a hand-held router & other accessories.

I found it easier to have one router dedicated for router table use only.

Also regular blowing out of the router w/ a compressed air is a very cheap prevenative maintenance.

[Dave MacArthur]

ooooooooold thread, resurrected twice now... HOW do you guys find these things? ;) Always love reading about saw extension router tables.

[Stephen Edwards]

One gentleman mentioned that router lifts will one day be history. I agree to a point. However, hopefully, within the next year or so a motorized electronic router lift will be on the market that will replace the current generation of manually operated lifts.

This new lift is so simple and so accurate that we'll all wonder why it wasn't offered years ago! It will have a toggle switch for reversing the travel, variable speed control on the lift mechanism, over 4 inches of vertical travel for above the table bit changes and can be operated either with a front mounted height adjustment switch or a foot pedal switch. It will also have a digital read out on the lift itself and a remote readout above the table accurate to .0001 thousandths of an inch.

I'm excited about this new motorized router lift! I'm itiching to get mine as soon as it becomes available.

[Brent Ring]

I am in on the build you own group. However, it is good to finish it. I have mine about 3/4's finished and keep finding other things that need to be done. Its gonna happen soon though!

[Peter M. Spirito]

Way back in post #7 I was working on a router table. Well it is finished and I am very pleased with the results. There is an extensive write up and many photos on my web site. ;) Take a look. http://www.peterspirito.com/routertable.htm

[Kevin Mishler]

I love my Woodpecker router lift, table top and fence. Their quality is incredible. It's such a pleasure to use.

Kevin

[Ian Trehearne]

Hi. I am not familiar with forums, so I don't know if this is the correct protocol for asking questions. I'm not even sure I could find any answers that were given to my question.:confused: I am wondering if I could mount a Black & Decker 7616 router to a router table? The screws on the base plate look too small to handle the torque, and they only go in a few turns, so I'm worried they will come loose, or strip the threads.Any ideas?
Maybe I should wait untill I can afford a newer unit. I've been considering a RONA router kit that comes with both fixed and plunge bases.
Thanks for any help.
Ian Trehearne

[Jerome Hanby]

I think it depends on your luck. I took advantage of a combo deal at Woodcraft to get Freud's monster sized router and their top of the line table and fence for about $400. I had never considered buying a router table, but for that price it was a no brainer. Turns out to be a decent table with a super fence and the above table height adjustment and bit changing is a huge savings over buying a lift.

I'll still build a router table one of these days (actually a wing for my table saw complete with dust collection and digital height adjustment) just to get double duty out of my Incra fence and joinery system.