Router Table

[Sam Berlyn]

Hi,

Can you please tell me what's the point of using a router in a table.. I could make one but I need to know why first :-)

[bridger]

lots of reasons.

control. think about trying to use your router on small pieces of wood, then think about the router being held still and running the wood through it.

safety. with the router held down and the wood controlled by fences and featherboards you can pay more attention to making sure your fingers stay the heck away from that spinning cutter.

accuracy. think of the router table as a great big base plate, with the whole thing turned upside down. there is that much more of your control surface touching the wood.

versatility. with all of that table area available to clamp stuff to and lots of stuff to clamp to it like fences, featherboards, starting pins, dust collection nozzles and a pretty much infinite array of bits and pieces you make up as you go along...

spend a little time surfing over to here:

[Sam Berlyn]

Hi,

Could I build a "portable" router table, being building a sawhorse the same height as my workmate, then a board that would go between. Would this work?

Sam

[Upscale]

Absolutely. Many people get started with a piece of plywood with a hole in it as their first router table. After using something like that for awhile, you'll be much more knowledgeable about what you want in buying a router table. You may even find depending on your use of it, that you may not need to buy one.

[Andy Dingley]

My Really Rubbish Router Table is a table of MDF on a frame of 1"x2" softwood, all supported on a ten quid folding workbench leg frame. The insert is cement board from the back of an old gas fire surround (a much under-rated material !) It folds for storage and hangs on a wall.

The fence is an L-girder of MDF.

An old router table of mine was made from plywood and a pair of spare jaw mounting blocks for a workmate (a cheap spare from B&D). It went onto my Workmate in place of the rear jaw, then the front jaw clamped it in place. Not a bad table, but access to the router was poor because the Workmate frame gets in the way.

I wouldn't build a router table as a "bridge" between two things. It sounds awkward, it sound big, and it would tie up both your workmate and your saw horse when you might want to be using them. Giving it its own legs isn't hard.

[Mark Jerde]

To give you ideas of what others have done, this is a multifunction table that has a router table option. I may build one someday... ;-)

-- Mark

[George]

Some people with lots of years in woodworking are still using an MDO box which stores under the JET 12"disc 6" belt sander when not in use, then clamps into the Workmate for action.

Others pay as much for a router/table as they would pay for a decent shaper.

[JMWEBER987]

Try these links for plans utilizing a workmate as a router station.

in Arkansas

[RonB]

There are lots of opportunities to drop up to $1,000 in a router table - even more. Some of the best ones I have seen are shop-built, and not necessarily elaborate.

A local custom woodworker, who does a lot of detail router work including many jewelry and music boxes (fine-routing intensive) has a pretty basic setup.

- The tabletop is a section of salvaged kitchen countertop

- The plate is this $35 special:

Fence is fairly beefy but simple 1x4 construction, held to the tabletop with glue clamps. No laminates, inserts, etc. He does have a simple dust collection port screwed to it.

- The table is 2x4s, a recent upgrade from sawhorses.

He considers this a vast improvement over the sheet of plywood with a router screwed to its bottom that he used for 20 years. Did damn good work on it though.

[J. Clarke]

I would think that making one that just clamped into the Workmate would be easier. As to why you would want one, the bottom line is that if you don't know why then you don't need one.

The main benefit is that you move the stock and not the router--that in many cases gives you more control. Beyond that you can add features to the table that let you do things more precisely than you can easily do hand-held.

You might want to look through Pat Warner's site to get some ideas of what you can do with one.

[Ken Yee]

"J. Clarke" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Yep...like this one :-)

ken