Today's router/planer station progress.....

[Terry Hatfield]

Howdy,

Man!!!! Who the heck thinks of this kinda stuff besides me???? :confused:

I decided that I would get rid of the little bench top tablesaw in my router/planer station. I never use it any more and I could use the space for storage.

Here is where we were at 10 this morning....

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I already had a piece of mdf cut to size so I proceeded to cut a piece of 3/4" melamine a bit oversize to complete the 2 layer lamination. I sanded the back of the melamine and stuck the two pieces together with contact cement and screws. The plan was to flush rout to the size of the mdf. That plan blew up in my face. More later...

Here is the station with the old top and the saw removed.

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And here is the new top in place. I edgebanded the top with oak. The space under the top in the center will be one BIG drawer for the routers and etc...

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Here is the fence. It's more melamine constructed with pocket screws and edgebanded with 1/4" oak. Yes, that's a 4" DC connection on the fence. :D

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I will install the big Rockler plate as soon as I get the right bit. Thought I had one, but obviously I don't. :( Hopefully I can route grooves for T track in the table to mount the fence and another in the fence itself for featherboards and such tomorrow.

It was a good day...well..except for a couple of things...

My back is killing me and I put a huge gouge in the top of my table saw. I mis-measured...apparently about 5 times.....go figure. :mad: The melamine was supposed to be 1/2" longer than the mdf. It turned out to be 1/2" shorter. :mad: :mad:

I had to hoist (with Cheryl's help) the entire 31 X82 top onto the Exaktor and trim the ends. One screw was not quite countersunk and it did not do my TS top any good. Oh well I suppose. What is that called....Character??? :(

Thanks for looking. I post some more when I get more done.

Terry

[Jeff Hamilton]

T,
The conversion is looking great. I'm sorry to hear about the table saw,but like you say it needed a little charater since it never has any dust on it. HA HA HA Hey I do like the melamine top I got the price on the phenolic top and it is out of the question for now.
Jeff H

[Dennis Peacock]

Well Bud.....

That is looking GREAT!!!!! I really like the improvements!!!! If I built stuff as fast as you do......? I would have every piece of furniture built for the house and wondering what next to start on.!!!! :)

BTW, What widths does the melamine come in? I would like to redo my CMS bench out of that stuff...but I need a top that has got to be at least 24" wide.

Looks great and appreciate you sharing pics of your accomplishments on shop improvements.

[Terry Hatfield]

d,

4' X 8' sheets of 3/4" melamine were $23 at my supplier. They had white and almond. I got almond since it matches the Rockler tables.

t

[Joe Bourbois]

Very nice looking conversion going on there. Sorry about your back and your TS though.

[Terry Hatfield]

Very nice looking conversion going on there. Sorry about your back and your TS though.

Joe,

Thanks. My back will get over it. The tablesaw won't. I'm going to work on it and try to make it less noticeable, but there is NO way that it is ever going to be back like it was. :(

t

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Looks great Terry, but how on earth did you gouge your TS? Sorry about your back...I know your pain daily!!

[Byron Trantham]

Looks great Terry! I love to work with Melamine or Formica, no finish work, it ends up looking great and the surface is pretty tough.

[Mark Singer]

Hi Terry,
Sorry about the back! I have that have that problem too! The rubber pads that you stand on help and comfortable shoes help a lot. I have been using Ecco Walkathons....the fit me like a glove and have great support

[Jim Becker]

Nice conversion job, Terry. It's really nice when you can fully utilize a cabinet like this effectively when your needs change. One question...with the planer oriented like that, what kind of infeed and outfeed length can you accommodate? It's not clear from the picture, at least to me.

[Bart Leetch]

Believe me Terry has plenty of room on the in-feed & out-feed of his planer.

I sneaked around in there when Terry wasn't looking.


Pssss don't tell Terry
Thats how the saw dust got on the floor in front of the Table-saw & if you'll look over under the front edge of the Band-saw & behind the Lathe & SCMS......

Other wise it would never look like anything got cut in there.

Some people's shop look like they have 2 shops one for show & one for go.

You know Terry has a real sucker in there it would suck the dingle-balls off an Elephant.

[Terry Hatfield]

Thanks guy's!!!

Mark,

I have the mats and good shoes. They sure help, but nothing is going to save an old guy's back when he's moving melamine. :D

Jim,

Good question. There is actually 9" from the back of the planer to the wall. Everything had to be lined up just right to get a clear shot to the wall though. :D

Bart,

Good answer. Ther DC does well and I just open all the doors and blow the leftovers onto my neighbor with my compressor. :D

t

[Terry Hatfield]

Well folks.....here is where I'm calling it quits for now....

I got the plate hole routed...I hate doing that!!!. It is go stinkin' easy to screw up the entire porject during that procedure. I also got the T tracks in the table itself. I routed the groove for the T track in the fence, but I am waiting on a Rockler order to arrive before I have anything to install in it.

I am very pleased with the project so far. It's a big improvement over the old top. Lots better fence system for sure. Now, I'm back to trying to decide what to do in the center hole. Maybe I want to make it ALL drawers. Oh well, I'll contemplate that some other day.

Thanks for looking and everyone have a good week,

Terry

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[Bart Leetch]

Gee thats so nice I'll just have to come try it out some day.

[Terry Hatfield]

Gee thats so nice I'll just have to come try it out some day.


Come on down Bart!!! You are more than welcome here anytime.

t

[Kent Cori]

Awesome Terry! That is obviously a first rate job.

[Robert Ducharme]

Very Nice. Gives me something to shoot for.