ANYONE USE A TABLE SAW EXTENSION FOR ROUTER USE?

[Rob Mills]

to "clean off " the tablesaw to use the router...

[Roger M.]

I am a mechanic by trade and often use a mill to make parts for machinery. I might get another wing extension and mill a recessed hole for my router. But then......I often do more than one woodworking project at a time and it is very possible that.........

Router mght be in the way, after being painstakingly adjusted, when I need the space for sawing.

Router mght be in the way, after being painstakingly adjusted, when I need the space for sawing.

Router mght be in the way, after being painstakingly adjusted, when I need the space for sawing.

Router mght be in the way, after being painstakingly adjusted, when I need the space for sawing.

Router mght be in the way, after being painstakingly adjusted, when I need the space for sawing.

Router mght be in the way, after being painstakingly adjusted, when I need the space for sawing.

There is much to think about....thanks again for giving me more insight!!

[Larry Blanchard]

I finally replaced some open steel shelving with a closed bench height cabinet and an overhead cabinet. Now I have a place to put the Nova Comet lathe I bought several years ago.

Hey - this turning stuff is fun! I may have to put off that entertainment center my wife has been begging for :-).

[bf]

Roger,

I considered doing a table wing router saw too.

I ended up making a free standing unit. The big reason was because I realized that I could make it the same height as the table saw and thus use the router table as an infeed table when cutting big sheets of plywood on the tablesaw. It actually gets more use that way than as a router table.

Something to think about if you make a lot of rips on long pieces of wood or cut a lot of plywood.

[Bill Otten]

I built a router cabinet onto the left table extension of my saw. Works great. When it's not a router table the 2" thick oak top doubles as a small woodworking bench too.

bill otten

[Bob G.]

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Turning is fun....although I do not do it as much as I used to But years ago when my sons were little leaguers I remember them begging me to teach them how to use the lathe (to Turn their own baseball bats....).... They made a couple...And I had a ball

BUT the end result is that 25-30 years later they both are confirmed woodworkers and just this Christmas one came up to me and was bitching that "his" son did not want any stink en wood bat....he wanted an Aluminum Bat.... Ah Sheet! what's today's kids coming to....?

PS...My wife is retired from Alcoa .. (Think .. Beer Cans.. ...I can support that .... but not Aluminum Bats..

Bob Griffiths.

[bridger]

the right wing of my saw has several drop in sections just kind of floating loose. I swap them out for various configurations of router table type things on occasion, though most of my table router work is done on a stand alone router table. one of the operations I do on the saw wing most often is raising panels with a vertical panel raising bit, but with the router in the horizontal position. for that I made a qiuckie single purpose table to drop into the wing and haven't needed to modify it since.

[Rob Mitchell]

Yes, you can obtain good results. Using the rip fence for the router works well for me. Also, I have a pretty long set of rails so I have made a 'jointer fence' that runs lengthways down the table for edge flattening with the router. I sometimes make a long channel, lengthwise on the tables to cut edge mouldings and put featherboards on it to hold the work against the long fence. With this setup I can safely climb cut the edge profile to eliminate tearout.

Another poster mentioned that the router can be in the way of the saw and I find that is true too sometimes.

I rigged up an outlet and control box with some relays to control my router/tablesaw with a footswitch, easily switch between saw and router (so I can use the magnetic contactor) and automatically turn on the vacuum on when I turn on either saw or router. (the resistive braking didn't work though ;( ) Overall, it functions pretty well.

If your saw rails didn't come with a table, just make one out of mdf and laminate. I used the one that came with my saw, but it is substandard. If you make one, consider making it sit on leveling feet or shims (on the rails) so you can adjust it to be perfectly flat with the tabletop. Otherwise, the rip fence may bind.

You can buy a router base plate for a few bucks, or buy a router lift.

[Joe User]

Mine is on a "drop-in" mouting plate; if the router is in the way, I pull it out and drop a solid blank in the hole. When finished sawing drop it back in, settings are all fine.

If your router bolts or is otherwise permanently affixed to the table, this is a problem, but it isn't for me....

BTW, I got one of the previous generation Craftman with a solid cast iron left extension and an oversize MDF right extension. I pulled the factory MDF extension out of the sheet metal frame and built a router table top to fit. Works great for me, saves space in my small shop, get to re-use the TS fence, etc. I still need to box it in for dust collection purposes, though.

-j