DIY Router table

[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. 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