Just wondering if this would be good Idea!

[BD]

Has anyone ever heard of someone making a router table out of Granite counter top material??

[CW]

[bdeditch]

[Jim]

Somebody who makes granite table tops might know. Perhaps multiple passes with a wet saw aranged to cut a groove would work (eventually anyway). Jim

[bridgerfafc]

all of the tools for working wood have stoneworking equivalents. t slots could be cut with a waterfeed diamond router.

granite doesn't have the tenstile strength of wood or iron. t slots would be in danger of breaking off if a lot of upward pressure was applied, like using the slot as a clamping fixture base. a plain slot would be more likely to survive used as a sliding jig guide only.

granite has really good wear characteristics, and it is pretty rigid, so if you can avoid the brittleness of it you could have a really sweet router table. I'd pass on the slots. instead, have it cut with the 2 long sides accurately parallel to each other and makes sleds that straddle the whole table.

the hard part will be getting the drop in recess made.

[todd]

No. My guess is that without access to a lot of specialized cutting tools, this is a bad idea in practice. You could probably buy a nice top for less than paying to get a granite one cut the way you want. And I know you could build a nice top for less.

todd

[Clint]

My thoughts... Granite and sharp router bits doesn't seem to be a match made in heaven. I try to be careful with my bits, but if they hit a formica or wood table, they're not going to get nicked.

My router table top also gets used for other things, like an assembly table or whatever else I need it for. I wouldn't feel comfortable putting down a hammer or something like that on a granite table. It would probably be fine unless I actually dropped the hammer on it, but the noise would make me nervous each time, I think.

In summary, it would probably work ok (IMHO), but I wouldn't go out of my way to make it happen. The hassles of shaping/assembling it, the worry of putting tools on it, and all the rest of it would outweigh the benefits like it's mass, flatness, etc.

Clint

[bf]

Doesn't seem very practical. It's going to be a huge PITA to cut out the area to drop your mounting plate into. It's so easy to get a sheet of 3/4 plywood and put some formica on it.. why go through all that trouble?