Router extension question

[Clint Brown]

I have a pretty small shop and have decided to make a router extension table on my table saw, simlar to the one in Wood's Idea Shop 5 back in October.

Being a newbie I have what may be an obvious question. I've noticed that all of the setups of this type have the router setup on the right side of the saw.

What is the reason that the right side is preferred to the left? It seems to me that it would be preferrable to have it so that you feed either the saw or the router from the same side of the table.

Clint

[Mark Singer]

There is no table on the left of most saws. If you were to add one,
it would inhibit many tablsaw operations and make the saw unsafe. You sometimes need to move around the blade to the back side. I don't reccomend a table on the left side of the blade.

[Kurt Aebi]

The only tables that I can think of that are on the left side of the blade are sliding miter tables and I think for safety's sake that's the way it should remain.

[Clint Brown]

One reason that I was asking is that this Bench Dog table is attached to the left side, while most homemade ones are typically on the right.

http://www.benchdog.com/Products/Protop/ProMAX.htm

[Dave Richards]

I think if the router table is replacing the left wing as in the Bench Dog picture, there wouldn't be much problem. Mark makes a good point in that adding more surface to the left, beyond the wing could create problems for you getting around the saw quickly if you need to.

There's little need for a large router table surface if you are using it as a wing as well.

I suspect the reason for putting it on the right has more to do with the fact that the fence rails tend to extend that direction anyway and there's a bunch of available real estate that doesn't get used for much except when ripping wide stuff like sheet goods.

I personally prefer to move stock across in front of my body during most router table ops so putting it on the left end seems sensible to me.
If you would be building it from scratch consider making it as small as practical (no bigger than the existing wing) and remove the OEM wing to swap it with the table.

[Jim Becker]

I think that Dave has some good thoughts. The one down-side to mounting a router in the right table board comes into play if you decide to equip your saw with an overarm blade guard for safety and dust collection. These almost universally interfere with router operation so the left wing location is a lot more practical at that point for routing. If I for some reason decided to add a second "router table" setup to my shop (I have a dedicated table), it would likely be in the left-side position of the saw because of the overarm guard.