Archive for the ‘Readers Projects’ Category

Router Table, Custom, Reader’s Project

Here is another custom project router table from my friend Chip.  He originally posted it on Lumberjocks and has graceiously given us permission to reprint it.  It has some really good information and a lot of pictures.  One of the things I like about this router table is its enormous attention to detail.  It has been well thought out and its design leans more towards practicality and useability instead of upscale design and finish.  It has slide out bit drawers (one of my personal favorites and a design I use myself)  An Incra fence with a custom design for dust control and a stable cabinet stand.  Nothing against all the truely gorgeous router tables we have featured in the past, but this one screams out “please use me now”

Well, I am sure some of you have seen my old router table in my workshop pictures. It was thrown together out of necessity and time and material restrictions. Well last night I had a dream, no really, I had a dream I made a new router table out of some extra wood I had laying around in the shop. I was very specific in my dream how to make it too. So I followed my plans to a tee and holy shit, I had just the right pieces and just enough of them too to complete my task out of 3/4 inch Maple Plywood and other bits and pieces laying around.

I learned from past experience it is not good to put your router in a vacuum box and suck the waste from under the table. It works great for removing debris but it will destroy your router sooner than latter. and for those of you who have not made the switch to Ridgid Tools this can be a very expensive repair (replace) Lucky for me I have two Routers and I sent my Ridgid in and they fixed it for free. I also have a Dewalt, but it does not have the same features as my ridgid and would not work as well under a table. The Ridgid has a built in feature to adjust depth/ height from under the router with a T handle. So when you use it in a table you can adjust from the table top. It also has more horse Powers and better Speed adjustments suitable for under table mounting.

I also have an IncraJig fence with a custom Fence on it that I can hook up to my Dust Collection system, if you look you can see I can turn the section on and off at the table with a control handle that goes to the front of the table. This allows me to remove the fence, and unhook the vacuum line or rehook the vacuum line in to a dust should or other collector and have control of it from the table.

Hope you enjoy.
Chip

There was a very interesting question in the forum that really deserves to be revisited, I have posted it for your information.

Could you please explain why under the table vacuum port is bad in a router table? I thought it was pretty common. I was actually thinking of enclosing my router table from underneath for sound deadening and better vacuuming from underneath.

A router draws air from the bottom of the tool and runs it past the motor and bearings for cooling then it blows it out past the bit to clear dust and keep bit cool too. If you enclose the router in a vacuum box to suck the dust right back into the enviorment the router lives in you then recycle some of the dust through the router. PS some routers are not as noisy as others, my dewalt is LOUD! Back to dust, you can hook up an isolator to the bottom of the router to suck dust down and avoid going through the router case with it, but then you need to move more air than the router forces through its self, you need a big shop vac. Shop vac’s are noisier than routers. My Dust Collector moves more air than a shop vac but at a lower volocity so to keep particles in suspension you need to maintain airflow. My sugestion is to make the oppening for fresh air to the back of the table and have an access door on the front for ajustments to deaden the sound. I like this idea but I also like having access to the router more for speed adjustments and locking the case after making slight hight adjustments. So I opter to leave the front open and I push most of my excess dust and particles off to the rear and that could cause issues. Point is if you run your router alot you need to keep it clean and cool. Heat is the electric motors enemy

Router Table Fence

This project comes from my friend Stefang on Lumberjocks.  He built a really nice tall router table fence and used some great joinery to make sure it lasts in his shop.  With his permission  I am reprinting here for your enjoyment.  If you have a project that you would like featured contact me at theroutermaniac at gmail

I needed a special fence for routing lock miter joints. I found one designed by Norman Ellis who sent it in as a tip to another website. The fence I made below is 7” tall. It can be clamped to your regular router table fence. I jointed the top and bottom edges of this fence making sure that they were parallel.

Here it is with the sliding fence mounted and another pic with a workpiece clamped onto the slider. When you rout it you should hold the lower portion of the workpiece with medium hand pressure pressing it toward the fence without getting your hands anywhere near the bit.

Some slider details: The 2nd shot is the back of the slider.

Here are two pics of a routed lock miter joint. Keep in mind that this is construction quality Fir. Note the tear out on the trailing edge. This is normal with LM bits, but a thin Ply backer between the slider fence an the workpiece might reduce that. I haven’t tried it yet. Unless it is plywood you should route lock miter joints in one go to prevent chipping.

More good news! you can also use this set-up to rout tenons. The faces are routed with the workpiece clamped in the jig as in the first photo.

I routed the edges by clamping one of the other tenon workpieces in the slider and then holding the current workpiece edge against the fence and it’s face against the edge of the one in the clamp. It was routed like this being hand held.

The tenon routing finished

The routed morise

Here the tenon edges have been rounded to match the routed mortise.

and finally a dry fit. What do you know? It came out perfect!

I hope you find something interesting here and get some use from it. Thanks for viewing.

So Fire up that router and get out in the shop and make some sawdust!

This one comes from my friend Greg the Who Dat from Lumberjocks.  He built this really cool table that can be extremely helpful in organizing the shop.  Not only does it sit flush to the saw, but it gives you a perfect extension for cutting large pieces of stock.  Now all it needs is a router insert plate! (but he has a seperate table)  Looks like he pulled out all the stops by using an Incra fence system.

I recently moved my table saw from one end of my shop to the other side and no longer had the nearby shelves where I stored my table saw accessories. I decided to build a storage shelf that would also act as a extension for my table saw top.
It is nothing fancy…just useful, and it gave me a use for the 3/4 sheet of ply and the maroon formica that has been gathering dust in the corner. The trim around the top is cumaru…hard as a rock…and the plugs are walnut.
I wanted something to hang the woodpeck “T- Square” on without scratching it so I drilled the springs out of 2 wire nuts and screwed them to the cabinet side.
It took about 3-4 hours to build it. I am now thinking I probably will build a face frame and some doors to keep the dust out.

Here is another readers project table and its a beauty.  In fact I think I would be afraid to scratch it.  This is a good example of detail if you are building your own table.  The fence is nice and high which gives you the ability to vertical router cabinet doors with a good degree of safety.  T-track is in all the right places as well.  Another great feature is drawers.  Drawers are key to keeping all your components for routing in one place.  I once built a table with two drawers and was amazed at how much stuff I had for my router table when I started gathering it all.  Keeping it in one spot will make you work more efficiently and keep things organized.  Again I found this table on Lumberjocks and asked Wisty for permission to post it here.  He has done an amazing job!

I love seeing other peoples projects, so I am always eager to show off what everyone else is building.  This makes the site more fun and more community oriented.  This one comes from a friend on lumberjocks, skywalker.  He took a rockler table idea and built out his own table using some recovered parts.  This is a great way to save money and use up items that you may have sitting around the shop already.  I really like the on/off switch to the four plug box under the table.  This is very easy to make and makes life easy if you want to plug in a shop vac or small dust collector. 

The fence clamps that grip the table are also beefy and very effective at holding your fence exactly where you want it.  Who says that a router table has to be white in color?  I really dig the yellow laminate.   

I have also enclosed the authors notes and thoughts about building this project.  Well Done!

I copied this from the version they sell at rockler. I just planed and jointed some 2×4’s to make up the frame. It is mortise and tenon construction and it is really sturdy. The top is 3/4” plywood with a solid oak edge band then covered with a yellow laminate. The track is from Highland Woodworking and the rulers are from Northern tool. I routed a tiny little groove to put the rulers into with epoxy. The rulers have etched out numbers and lines so that they don’t wear out over time. The router plate is 3/8” acrylic that I had laying around. I put small threaded inserts in the plywood top so that I can level the plate accurately with screws that go through the acrylic. The fence’s main part is the 1.5” aluminum angle. All the parts connecting to it are just solid oak. I’m not sure that this will cause problems later or not what with wood movement. I haven’t noticed any yet and it cuts a really straight line still after almost a year so I’m happy with it for now. The two halves of the fence can be spread apart to account for larger bits or putting the bit behind the fence for edge work. There are no slots for the fence, the clamps on the ends hold it in place, made out of rock maple and some bolts and threaded inserts. That way all I have to do to remove the fence for any reason I just loosen them up and slide it off the back or front. My table saw came with a router table insert and a dust collection piece that I salvaged and put on the back of the fence. None of the pictures show it but its basically a clear tube that folds down over the fence and above the bit. I really like it and it’’s quite accurate. dialing in precise measurements are real simple and it’s a joy to use.

 

Well it is the holiday’s and if you have some woodworking skills (and I assume you do) then putting them to work as gifts seems like a natural idea.  I originally started out making kids furniture to sell on Ebay (highly recomended by the way, so go ahead and steal that idea).  Of course this year we have a new munchkin in the family so it only seemed naturally to dust off the old kids chair project.  I use to make the chairs the hard way which is cutting all the sides and doweling them together and hoping it comes out flat.  I have (fnally) learned that this takes way too long to do and there is a different way to skin this cat.  This year I redrew the design to be cut on the cnc machine.

I had the CNC cut all the parts and it tool like 5 minutes and they came out perfect.  Next we rounded over the edges with a palm router.  Anytime you finish an edge, wood becomes furniture in my opinion.  I do realize that not everyone has access to a CNC machine, but if you do, this can be really fun.  Next up was some good old fashioned hand sanding.  I used MDF on this project.  I know what your thinking, it will break, or its cheap, or whats your problem?

Here is my reasoning, and it comes from making a lot of these.  First of all, kids do not weigh that much, so weight is not an issue.  If you use decent joinery along with glue, they really cannot break it.  I use to build the chairs and ship them out assembled.  They were made out of maple, which is about as tough as it gets.  Federal Express still managed to destroy them, so I switched to building them as flat stock with “some assembly required” (like the rest of the world)  Once you put it together, its amazingly strong.  I had the conversation of building it out of other materials, it went like this:

Maniac: maybe we should cut them out of plywood?  CNCoperator: You will spend forever filling the voids and somehow chinese plywood has infiltrated the lumber yards and its full of voids, you will have to sand the heck out of it and I know you hate that.  You could go with Russian Birch, but thats like $80 a sheet.

Maniac: How about getting some 12″ hardwood like poplar and cutting it from that?  CNCoperator: If you can find it, its not very stable and chances are it will split.  If you send it out west where the humidity is low, it will almost always split and then you have that to deal with.  Smaller pieces with intricate joinery always make for better stability, or you can use this MDF.

Maniac: How about some other engineered material?  CNCoperator: everything is so expensive are you sure you want to go that direction?

Maniac: How about if we make the outsides out of hardwood and the support pieces out of MDF to save money?  CNCoperator: Now your bugging me.

Maniac: Or we could use decent hardwood cut on the CNC from like 6″ pieces and then pocket join them together?  CNCoperator: not a bad idea but do you want to see all those holes?

Maniac: Or we could make it out of MDF.  CNCoperator: You drink too much coffee.

See part 2 for video of the CNC and of the finished product (gift).

After cutting all the parts and do a dry fit with clamps, you will next need to prep the stock.  In my case I used MDF for the chairs and that means the end cuts have to be sanded.  If you don’t sand them it will continue to suck up paint or primer forever.  I recomend using an 80 grit then an 120 grit.  You might think that is not enough, but here is why.  The minute you prime the ends of MDF, you will raise the grain (so to speak)  Then you will have to go back and sand again.  Some use some sort of sealer, joint compound, spackling, and even bondo (yep).  But I have found that if you sand once, prime it, sand again, and then prime again you should be ok.  The last prime will of course need a sanding, and I use a 240 paper for that.

Prime the stock

I use two coats of primer on my chairs and table.  This helps me and saves some paint since the stock somewhat sucks up the primer fairly quickly.  This can be time consuming but if you are making a future family heirloom, it does not matter.  Besides most primer today is quick drying and you can reprime it fairly fast.

Next I lightly sand the primer and then paint with my final colors.  If you are going to do some art work, I recommend using a flat latex paint.  The satin finish and gloss finishes make it hard for the acrylics that most artists use to work with.  After you get the artwork done, let it cure for a couple of days.

Seal

I like to seal my artwork since little kids are involved and they like to bang on everything.  I have had very good luck with polyacrylic protective finish by Minwax.  It comes in a blue can and I like clear satin for the gloss factor.  Again I let everything cure for a while before shipping or using the item.

Here is another feature project that you just have to look at.  First of all, the whole thing is beautiful, I think I would be afraid of using it in my shop.  It could easily be furniture in my house.  My router tables get scratched and used and covered in dust and scraps, I would probably be cleaning this one off everyday.  Notice the very good design using a Jessem Router Lift.  There is tons of storage which will help you keep all your router accessories in one spot.  I also love the top which has the wood trim around the edges.  This makes for some great detail work, even the on/off switch is wood and matches the table beautifully.  Again the whole idea of feature other woodworkers projects is to stimulate ideas.  You may not walk away with the idea of having bookmatched front doors on your router table, but it may spur you on to make something similar and that is the whole idea.

Here is another featured table.  This is a router table extension for a table saw and is a great example of “out of the box” thinking.  I really like the use of tweaking the project for the table saw.  Of course this saves a lot of room but it also solves a lot of problems for the small workshop.  This has been reprinted with permission to inspire you with your own design.  Almost all woodworkers have a table saw in their shop, adding this type of router table can give you a great workspace without taking up addtional space on the floor.  It also serves as a great extension for the saw, which will help you if you cut your own stock.  This is an awesome project that has been done excepetionally well.

Here is my new router table I finished this weekend. I still need to add the leveling screws to bring the plate up 1/64”, as well as build an auxillary fence but the table is all set. This was a lot of fun to build, and I can’t wait to actually use it.

The process:

I used 2 sheets of 3/4” MDF and glued them together. I then cut that slab down to size as I knew the glue would cause them to slide around a bit and not be completely square.

Once that was done I used contact cement to glue an oversized piece of white formica on the top. Once it was dry I used a flush trim bit to get the formica the same size as the MDF. (I knew I was going to put a border of 3/4” maple around it so I obviously adjusted the size of my table accordingly.)

The next step for me was to cut all of these maple border pieces and miter them. They are 3/4” x 2” x Length Needed. I lined them up in a dry fit to make sure they fit together. I then drilled 5 5/16” holes in the edge of the cast iron where the maple border was going to connect to. Once it was drilled I lined up the maple that was going to be there and made it flush with the table top and traced out the holes on the maple so I could see exactly where to drill. I also measured where the T-bolts were going to slide in on the rails and marked off the two side pieces of maple so I could drill them at the same time. I used 3 bolts for the front fence and 2 for the rear fence.

After drilling the holes and dry fitting just the 3 border pieces of maple to the saw using the bolts, and making any adjustments, it was time make a slot for the nut, bolt, and washer under the table. This part was a little tricky for me to figure out but I kind of did it as I went along. I used a forstner bit to drill down (from the bottom of the table) about 3/4” to allow enough room for the nut to spin on the bolt and enough room for the bolt to go past the maple. The big question for me was going to be ‘how do I tighten the nuts once I slide the bolts table onto the fence. I ended up using a chisel just wider than the nut and pared away at the MDF (which was very easy) to create angles on each side to move a combination wrench at least 1/6 of a turn so I could pull the wrench out and do it again.

Once these were set I needed to secure the maple to the table. I ended up using my Kreg Pocket Hole jig and did 8 screws each on the 27” sides, and 6 screws on the 20” sides. I clamped everything down to my table saw to actually screw it together, being the flattest surface, in order to try and get the table and maple border flush with each other.

At this point I put the bolts in and slid it into the table and tightened it down. I also used lock nuts on every other bolt. It may be overkill but I didn’t want the vibration of the table saw or the router to cause the nuts to get loose. After all of this I just routed out a place for the miter/ttrack as well as the router plate.

Edit: Added retractable/folding legs to the router table for support.

To make both of these legs I ended up getting 1” aluminum tubing that is 1/16” thick, leaving 7/8” inside diameter. I then bought a 7/8” poplar dowel to fit inside of it. I used 2 feet of each material so it would overlap by 1 foot, but still be able to fold up to just over 2 ft total. I used some angled aluminum as the brace with a coupld of #10 screws and a nyloc nut. On the bottom of the poplar I also added a t-nut so I could thread in an adjustable foot depending on where I move my saw and how level the ground is. Once I got the basice height set I drilled a 1/4” hole through both the aluminum and poplar to put a pin which will hold it steady until I want to fold it up.

Here is a very interesting bench top design that can easily be built quickly.  Its simple design shows you how you can save some real money by not buy all the “official” router accessories and using some brain cells instead.  I really like the simple design of the fence.  You only need to small pieces of angle bracket to hold it square.  The all wood design really saves some money since aluminum fence cores are very expensive.  This builders project is sure to give you some great ideas on how to build your own custom table.  Be sure to incorporate the use of router bit storage into your design as shown.  This will help keep your shop neat and clean and keep all your router related items together in one spot.  We also would like to encourage you to submit your project to be featured on the website.  The aim is to help your fellow woodworkers with interesting or simple design and get good ideas yourself.  That is what woodworking is all about.

This was (is) my first Router table, and was made about 2.5 years ago. As you can see it is not a high quality piece of equipment, and has no finish on it.

I bought the T-track, cam-locks, and dust collection nozzle from Rockler, and the isolation switch from a local hardware store specifically for this job. I also bought the knobs from Rockler on special, but as part of my starting stock for future Jigs that I knew I would be making one day. Other than that, I had some plywood offcuts, some brandering and some Aluminium angle lying around from previous jobs. The power plug was also a leftover from a previous home repair. The sacrificial MDF fences were leftover from when I replaced my RAS sacrificial table. The table-top was rescued from a dumpster when my then office had some remodeling done.

I had seen a similar design somewhere on-line, but couldn’t find it when I decided to make this, so I basically went by memory. I didn’t “design” it so much as sketch a basic idea on my RAS table and the rest was done on-the-fly. The table-top needs to be replaced sometime soon as the old one is curving from humidity. I probably won’t replace the top,but rather make a new table for my new workshop while making the cabinets. I’ve done a basic design in SketchUp for the new table which includes better dust collection.