router table questions

Please, any recommendations for a router table?

Three considerations

  1. to hold a 'full size' router (ie with 12mm/0.5in bit capacity). Preferably usable by most router makes.

  1. to be able to tilt either the table bed, or the router itself, so that non-standard chamfer angles can be cut on the edge of timber with a standard straight flute bit.

  2. tough/rigid enough so that there isn't a great deal of flexing in the table to knock the work 'off centre'

Alternatively, are there any router mounts/guides available in which the workpiece stays put whilst the router is fixed to a mount which moves along a sliding adjustable rail?

TIA

Reply to
jim
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Make your own. Easy, cheap, better.

Tilting is too hard, and usually much less rigid. Instead make interchangeable inserts to carry the router at the few different angles you use.

To do tilting (or to make the inserts), also look up "sine bars" as an easy way to set up angles.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Look for "wood rat" to address your last point maybe.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Minchin

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I needed to get a 22.5 degree cut on several lengths of timber last week and tried to work out how to make a workable tilting board. There appeared to be so many problems to overcome that I gave up on the idea and used my table saw to get the angle. I would be very interested to hear if anybody has produced something to get non-standard angles. I found this company whilst looking for angled bits, but they're standard, fixed angles and a bit expensive:

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you want to continue with a 'grinding' method you could use a bench planer (with tilting fence) or possibly find a mounting for an electric hand planer.

Cic.

Reply to
Cicero

I have to agree. I bought the fancy CMT one from Axminster, and (nice though it is) with hindsight, making one would have resulted in something *ideal*.

There's little that's difficult to make, the fence doesn't need to slide or stay parallel with anything (it can even just pivot at one end), and the router itself just needs to bolt to the underside of a substantial board

The one bit it might be worth buying to incorporate into your table is a router lift to give ultra-easy fine height adjust, and easier bit- changing.

Reply to
RubberBiker

Many router bases will have at least two holes which can accept

6mm or 10mm machine screws. If they don't its easy enough to drill a pair of holes. Then for the table all you need is a piece 9mm or 12mm birch ply with corresponding holes and a pair of machine screws. Just make sure the screws are short enough and so positioned that they don't foul the router body on a full plunge. You may need bracing stiffeners on the ply depending on how large the table is as any thicker and you would be losing too much depth on the router cutters. A fancy job would used thinner sheet steel or aluminium. The hole where the bit goes through you can either make with the first cut of your largest bottom cutting bit or use a hole saw. Any fences are made in the same way. Made out of ply and secured with machine screws. Holes drilled in the angle of the fences, and matching slots in the table cut with the router.

It's often easier to make a simple jig which tilts the work at the proper angle. If theres a lot of repeat work then its a simple matter to put the jig to one side, rather than having to again set up the angle each time.

That's achieved by bracing underneath unless you go down the steel aluminium route. Otherwise as above you lose to much depth off the cutter unless you restrict yourself to very long straight worktop cutters.

There's a thing which which is screwed to the wall which costs a couple of hundred quid whose name I forget which sometimes comes up on eBay. Just judging by appearances it looks like a lot of gimmick inventions with loads of plastic components which will eventually fail. Many people who sell them say they're sinply too complicated to use.

The whole point of routers is that it should be possible to knock up just about any jigs you're likely to need either out of plywood or perspex just by using the router itself.

michael adams

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Reply to
michael adams

The odd thing is that toy router tables attempt to combine a spindle moulder, and table router in one, with reasonable success.

To get tilt., knock up an angled wood carrier out of MDF or an adapter plate for longer lengths as previously suggested.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

I made one years ago from 18mm ply, but I routed out a circle to fit the router base about 10mm deep on the underside to overcome the depth of cut problem.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

Took me ages to figure that out when I made my first router table :-)

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

I would have ripped a strip to 22.5 degrees on the table saw and stuck that to the router table if I needed a better finish.

Reply to
dennis

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