Do I need a router table?

[Al Reynolds]

Morning all,

I am going to get a router, and have read up about all the options on power, collet size, cutter quality and so on, but I'm still not clear on one thing - will I need a table to mount it in?

The job I am buying the router for is to produce a set of 12 wardrobe/cupboard doors. These will probably be cut from some 12mm or 18mm thick wood or MDF. I intend to rout a profile along all four edges of each door, and a groove about 10cm in from the door edge, parallel to the edge of the door.

The total perimeter of all the doors will be somewhere near 21m (and the length of the inset grooves slightly less than this), so there's a fair bit to be done. The doors will not all be the same size.

So, will a table (bought or made up myself) make this job easier/simpler/quicker/safer? If I don't *need* a table then I'll just get the router just now and worry about building or buying a table later.

Thanks in advance, Al

PS Any thoughts on thickness and choice of material for wardrobe/cupboard doors would also be welcome.

[mrcheerful]

It will be very difficult to get consistent results without a table. It is best to buy a ready made one, you won't know the best design till you have had a table or two, then you can build your own, but for most home users their first table will do fine.

mrcheerful

[LSR]

Maybe I've misunderstood the OP, but I don't think you could possible manouvre a whole door through a router table. You'd be much better off with a clamped straight-edge or just the built-in guide if you want to treat the edges as described.

On the other hand, if you want to make some decorative trim to add to a plain door, then yes a table would help greatly.

-- LSR

[Alan]

I just bought a PPPro router table complete with router for £49.99 from B&Q this weekend. I used it for routing the edges of shelves - worked great, better than my home-made table I was using before. At under £50 it's well worth it I figured!

Alan.

[Andy Dingley]

Yes. A table-mouted router is much more useful than a free-range one. A fence is even better.

However you don't need a complex table and you can make your own pretty easily. A simple table can be made from a slab of 3/4" or 1" MDF, with a 2"x1" softwood edge frame. Buy an insert or make it from Tufnol / Perspex / whatever and inset it into a shallow routed recess. Mount it on some legs, or buy a ten-quid fake WorkMate and throw away the top.

For a fence, make an L-girder of biscuit jointed 3/4" MDF with buttresses. Stick two sliding false fences of 1/2" MDF on the front. Cut a clearance chunk out of the middle and optionally box in between a couple of buttresses as a dust extract housing.

fence doesn't need a linear movement - rotation is perfectly adequate. Screw one end down to the table, using a threaded insert and a handwheel bolt. Screw the other end down similarly, but with a slotted hole to allow adjustment. Repeat the threaded inserts at 2" spacing, to allow coarse movement too.

has loads on routers

Those are going to be quite heavy in 18mm MDF, and not very rigid in

12mm. Consider plywood for something that big, or else frame and panel.

You can probably do this best with a free-range router and the door supported on a bench or trestles.

The main reason to go for a table here would be because you're using a large diameter panel fielding cutter. If you're working on one piece, then I guess you're not anyway (large cutters look terrible if you use both sides - for grooved work, use either a small cutter, or take a second pass to make it asymmetric.)

[usenet]

Yes, that was my first reaction too. It's fairly straightforward to rout along long straight edges like that using the guide that comes with the router in my experience. You'll want to practice a bit first on some scrap wood to get the feel of it and to work out what happens at the corners.

[Paper2002AD]

On offer at Makro for about £40 plus vat is a router AND table. I've got the same model and it works a treat. Always rig up a guide to stop vertical movement of the workpiece though

[stuart noble]

If you have the mdf cut to size and you're leaving some of the existing edge intact, you could use a bearing type cutter freehand. If you're going to profile the whole edge, I reckon you'd need a table and a fence, which should not move when you shove a sheet of mdf through it. Unless you've got plenty of space, I'd go for the former option.

[Al Reynolds]

Thanks for all the responses so far...

I'm not planning on doing any mouldings or decorative trim for the door - only routing from a single sheet of wood (probably plywood). The problem basically breaks down into how I do the edge cuts and how I do the inset grooves.

Without a table, I can imagine doing the edge cuts in one of the following ways: (i) with a bearing-type cutter (leaving some of edge intact) so that the bearing runs along the remaining edge (ii) with a side fence in-line with the centre of the cutter so that the fence runs along the workpiece (iii) along a straight edge clamped to the workpiece so that the router runs against the straight edge.

With a table, I assume I would do the edge cuts by setting up the table fence in line with the cutter and then push the material past the cutter against the fence, with something to stop the workpiece from lifting. All the edges could be done in this way. The largest door is going to be 1800mm by 400mm - does this seem a little large to be pushing past a cutter on a small router table? I would obviously need about 12' clear space and possibly an extra hand or two.

With the inset grooves you have the problem of how to stop the router at each end of the groove.

Without a table, I can imagine doing the inset grooves in one of the following ways: (i) with a side fence offset by 10cm from the centre of the cutter so that the fence runs along the workpiece edge (iii) along a straight edge clamped to the workpiece so that the router runs against the straight edge. To stop the router at the end of eacch groove, I could either mark everything up carefully so that I could stop at a marked position by eye, or I could attach end-stops to the work piece. Where the doors are the same dimension e.g. 400mm width, I could probably knock up some kind of jig for all those doors.

With a table, I.m not really clear how I would achieve the inset grooves. If anyone could enlighten me that would be great!

This is leading me to think that I don't need the table yet, but I'd be grateful for any further ideas people have.

Thanks, Al

[nightjar]

I think you would find it much easier without a table, moving the router, rather than the workpiece. I would clamp the workpiece to a couple of Workmates to bring it up to an easy working height. For long straight cuts, I use a rail guide similar to this, except mine is an earlier version:

you are not relying on the edge to provide guidance, you can run right off the end of the workpiece on the edge cuts without any problems. For the stopped cuts, simply clamp a stop (the black bit on the side of the track in the top illustration) to the track in the right place.

Colin Bignell

[Al Reynolds]

That's interesting. I assume the main advantage of one of those clamp guides over a batten clamped to the workpiece is that the clamps are low-profile and won't foul the router handles. Also I can see how it would be useful to be able to attach stop ends direct to the guide.

I'm fairly convinced that I'd be better off just buying a couple of "workmate" clones to use as a bench just now - then I can always convert one of them to be a router table later.

Al

[stuart noble]

Then you could just get it cut to size by the supplier and save yourself all the dust etc. If it's ply, how will you hide the edges?

Accurate stopped grooves are difficult without an overhead router setup, and you're always going to have a radius on the corners. Not important on a 3mm groove but pretty naff on anything bigger. What are these grooves anyway? Decorative on the door faces?

The 400mm side would be difficult/impossible

I don't think you need a table at all for this project. Great for repeat small stuff but this is a case of the tool going to the workpiece.

[nightjar]

That is an important factor. However, the guide also holds the router from moving in two directions, so you don't have to keep the router pressed against it, as you would with a batten. That allows for more delicate control. The fact that you are running along a metal guide also tends to make the movement easier.

Trend also sell kits to make your own table up. I have a table, but very rarely find a use for it.

Colin Bignell

[Al Reynolds]

Ah yes. I can see it now I look again.

[Al Reynolds]

"stuart noble" >only routing from a single sheet of wood (probably plywood).

The doors are to have profiled edges and decorative grooves - but only cut from the sheet, not stuck on.

The whole thing will be painted.

That's what I thought - thanks for the input.

Al