I have been debating on whether to make one or buy a router table top. I was thinking of 3/4" MDF with Formica all around, what size I don't know yet. It will be on a sturdy base so I'm not worried about sagging. The fence maybe a combo of parallel and pivot. How far from the router bit to place the T track, don't know yet. I would buy a plate to mount my router. Would I be better off with a metal angle for the fence or would a wooden one be better, if so what type of wood?
A bought tabletop would be nice, you're all set to go with some assembly but does it do what you want it to? Is the top big enough? Does everything slide easily without a lot of play? Does it sag overtime?
I have been looking at some Incra's but I'm not ready for that type of work yet.
Fri, Nov 9, 2007, 12:27am noreaster1athotmaildotcom (noreaster) doth query: What are your opinions?
I tried a boughten router table. Once. Then made my own - about 3 versions so far. My opinion is - I'd rather go with a router table I know will answer my needs, rather than what someone else claims will answer my needs. But, you're a big boy, it's your money, spend it the way you want.
JOAT Viet Nam. Divorce. Cancer. Been there, done that, got over it. Now where the Hell are my T-shirts?
I constructed my router table top and fence, using Norm's plan. I edge-trimmed the laminated top with white oak. Not sure what kind of wood I used for the fence. The top looks good enough for a kitchen countertop, although much sturdier. I believe I sandwiched (face-glued together) 3/4" ply, 1/2" ply, and contact cemented plastic laminate.
As a moderate amateur, I decided to build my own. I used a plan form American Woodworker from about 2-3 years ago. It used a double 3/4" MDF glue up for the top. Trimmed in maple and formica'ed on both sides. The plan included a center support (with the plate not centered) the offers excellent support for the top. The plan also contained a nice fence system. I used a Rockler aluminum plate and later upgraded to the Rockler (Jessem) lift (same size as regular plate). The nice thing is I can still switch back to the aluminum plate. Dust collection under the cabinet is not very good. I would think about Norm's cabinet/plan.
I built my own, because I'm cheap, and didn't mind putting the time into it. I found a countertop place in my area and bought a piece of Corian that they had boogered up on an install, about 3' by 5', and used about 2' by 3' of it for my tabletop. I edged it with plain old poplar just to make it look nice, and put in table saw sized miter slot in front of the router, and 2 smaller aluminum T tracks in back to hold the fence down. I built mine with 2 layers of 3/4" plywood supporting the Corian. The tabletop is just sitting on a thrown together open 2x4 frame with a shelf on the bottom. It took me like an hour to put together.
The nice thing about building your own stuff is that you can control how high the thing is. My router table is about 4 feet off the floor, which puts it at a comfortable working height, which lets me concentrate more on my work. And at my level of experience, I need all the concentration I can get!
I built the fence from a simple plan I found online out of birch plywood.
Some notes I'll share: Good sharp router bits will shape Corian very nicely. I wouldn't recommend using anything but sharp bits. Good sharp bits will also trim the aluminum miter track nicely. I cut mine to about 1/8" proud of the tabletop and my router trimmed it up very nicely. I got my "good sharp bit" from Woodcraft when they had a $5 bit sale. I wouldn't use anything super-nice, since Corian and aluminum will be a lot harder on the bit than wood, so try and find a medium quality bit for cheap to use. Make sure your fence can slide far enough back on the table to change your bits without needing to take the fence entirely off the table. On mine I have about 1/2" of clearance for changing bits before the fence has to come off, and if I want to remove the plate, I have to take the fence off entirely. It's a PITA, but not enough to redo the whole thing since my router just slides out the bottom without me needing to take the plate out of the table.
After constructing a half-dozen different designs over years for use in full-time production work, the best router table I found is the downsized shaper table with a router bit collet. Both Delta and Powermatic make a one-horse model, small enough to pick up and move against the wall for storage, but heavy enough to absorb the vibrations. The table facilitates all adjustment, and the router bearing may be eliminated for greater flexibility in the cut. Before anybody complains of the slower speed...7000/10,000 vs
25,000...it is significant to the finished cut, it reduces high-speed chatter and promotes a higher degree of safety and longevity in the life of the bit at the slower speeds. The weight of the cast iron tabletop provides a factor in the quality of the cut that is apparent the first time you use it.
Good arguments can be made for buying or building. If you truly are a woodworker for the fun of it, building a table should be a good project. OTOH, if you want to get to making trivets for Christmas gifts, buying makes some sense.
In my case, my wife insisted she wanted to buy me a gift. Rather than argue, I conceded. I have a Benchdog and like it a lot.
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Take a look at the specs, including top thickness. Take a look at the location of the plate, towards the front. I found that to be a nice feature since it can be used on either the short or long side as needed.
Given a choice where time isn't an problem, I'd build it. That way you get exactly what you want and don't have to settle for what someone else decided to offer for sale. I've built a lot of different tables over the years, adding features that I've found I need and getting rid of innovations that I never use and now I've got a table that nobody anywhere offers anything like. Add to that the experience you get by making it yourself and there really is no question.
Store-bought tables are great for people who need it right now or who have no skills or who have more money than sense, but otherwise... do it yourself. It'll give you something to be proud of every time you use it.
Nothing says you only have to have one either, I've got my standalone table and I've got another router mounted in the wing of my saw, simply because I was doing a lot of cutting, then routing one day and it was a pain to go into the other room to get to the router table. I had the materials and an extra router plate, I put it together in about an hour, made an auxilliary fence that slips over the TS fence and I was set.
All the fancy doo-dads are on the standalone table, but if it's something small I need to do and don't want to go to the router station, I'll fire up the one in the wing.
I feel like I'm a slacker here. I built the frame of my router table out of pressure-treated wood because it's heavy and I made the top out of MDF. I sometimes drill holes in the top to clamp jigs and if I never need to I'll just to buy another top and install in 20 minutes. I put a hinge on the MDF top so I can lift it and change the router blades easier. I cut a 3/4 slot in the MDF for my t-square and use different version of straight oak and two clamps (like on the Router Workshop) for my fences. I put a Bosch 1617 in it because I have one and the switch is sometimes a problem with these, and so it's plugged into a power strip that's mounted to the frame. I built some some cubbies and drawers. That's my unlovely but much used router table.
I see that you have a 2-part fence, which seem common now... Is it just for router bit clearance, or do the 2 sides move independently or something, like a jointer?
Most fences like that are done to keep the infeed and outfeed straight, like a jointer. If you're trimming material off one side, you set the outfeed in a little bit so the stock remains square.
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