Router newbie needs an education in top configuration

[Doyle Alley]

I'm trying to educate myself in preparation for buying/building my first router station. I'm significantly confused by what looks to be two totally different configurations in router table tops. One style has fairly significant vacant real estate on the left and right sides of the router. That seems logical when thinking of feeding stock in one side and out the other. A variation on this with some tops is a significant vacant space in front of the router (between the operator and the bit). This also makes sense when you think about supporting door panels.

The one that makes no sense to me is the type of offset configuation where there is a lot of vacant land behind the router. Is there any purpose for this? The only thing I can think of is a way to slide the fence well back of any work without having to remove it.

[Scott Loven]

Don't want to get your piece between the bit and the fence ever, talk about your basic missile launcher!

[Michael Ballent]

The first thing you have to remember is that there is not "front" or "back" on a router table. You can clamp a straight piece of wood to the table from any angle on a router table and make your cut.

With that being said, as you have more space available to you on the router table you can cut further into the wood. If you can place a fence 50" away from the router bit you can route a dado up to the center of a 100" piece. Naturally these are extreme measurements and only used as examples :D If you can watch the Router Workshop (it's not aired all the time) you will see that a router table can be a very simple to a very complex tool, depending on your needs. Hope that helps you out :D

[John Brennaman]

Doyle,

I'm on my 3rd router table, each one a different size than the last. I suggest dimensions that make you comfortable when pushing a long or wide piece of stock past the bit. You don't want it too far back in the top of the table that you are leaning too far forward. That could be dangerous if you slip and also uncomfortable. However, you want plenty of space up front to support wide pieces and you also want plenty of space on each side to support longer ones. The center of my bit is 18 inches back from the front of the table and I have 24 inches on each side. It seems to work out okay for me.

John

[Tom Jones III]

My suggestion is to check out Pat Warners site (www.patwarner.com). Then, build a router table consisting of 4 legs, aprons and an mdf top. Use a flat and square 2x4 clamped to the table for a fence. Use this until you know what you want. I used this for a couple years and just now built a simplified version of Pat's fence. I am so glad that I didn't blow hundreds of $ on a prebuilt table/fence that I would not have been satisfied with.

[Craig Stueve]

The one that makes no sense to me is the type of offset configuation where there is a lot of vacant land behind the router. Is there any purpose for this? The only thing I can think of is a way to slide the fence well back of any work without having to remove it.
I think what you are refering to here are tables designed for a router system like the Incra or Jointech. If you do a web search for either one and add router fence you will get all kinds of pictures.

Hope this helps,
Craig

I am by NO means an expert however!

[Doyle Alley]

[QUOTE=Craig Stueve]I think what you are refering to here are tables designed for a router system like the Incra or Jointech. If you do a web search for either one and add router fence you will get all kinds of pictures.
QUOTE]

That is the best answer so far. I knew you wouldn't feed the work between the fence and the cutter, but I couldn't figure out why you would need all that extra space behind the cutter. What I was originally referring to when talking about moving the fence back was when you are cutting using a bearing and no fence. Moving it way back might be a way to get it out of the way without having to remove it totally. However, the Incra fence thing makes good sense now. I saw one of them at a show not that I recall.

Thanks for setting me straight.