Hi guys,

Wasn't sure whether this belonged in this forum so please let me know if it's a better fit elsewhere.

I wanted to document my router table build so far. I started last week and am part-way done at the moment. I just finished a fight between one of my fingers and a 12mm straight bit in a hand-held router so am out of commission for a week or so (I hope!) and so figured this is the next best thing to actually building. Typing one handed is no fun though!!

I needed a router table. Bought some Jessem bits and pieces and a cast iron top. But I decided to knock up a base for it myself.

Design brief was - sturdy and simple with some storage and dust collection.

I decided to build it from construction grade Tassie Oak since it's easy to get a hold of (Melbourne Australia) and cheap compared with other solid timber options. The downside is to get nice clean timbers you need to be very picky and sort through a lot of timber haha.

After drawing a quick front-view sketch to capture the critical dimensions I was off breaking down stock and milling, beginning with the primary components.

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I decided to go with traditional mortise and tenon joinery for the primary structure. While far from experienced in the few projects I've made I find I like to start with mortises.

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Then I generally cut the tenons slightly oversize (width) on the bandsaw and plane them to the correct offset and thickness using my LN Jack Rebate plane. I typically cut the haunches with a hand saw and shoulders either with a hand-saw and chisel to the line or on the table-saw. I went with table saw this time, but still had to chisel to the line for many.
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Close up of tenons after final paring.

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More to follow shortly.

Cheers, Dom