Posts Tagged ‘custom router table’

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

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.

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.

As you may know, we love router tables. We like to build them, talk about them and profile them and when we find a good one, we always like to share what we have found. This particular router table was found in the popular Lumberjocks forum, and what a beauty it is. We have permission from the builder to reprint and feature the router table because the design and outcome is so GOOD. This is the Rolls Royce of router tables because of the great design and the great features.

The main benefit is for you to get some good ideas and see what other folks are building out there in their workshops. If you have a router table that you would like featured on our site please contact us at supportibn@gmail.com.

This is a router table I’m working on for my shop. I was able to incorporate most the features I needed and plan to use it often. It isn’t finished but most the major parts are in place. I purchased the Incra twin linear, router table top, woodpeckers router lift and the porter cable 7518 motor from Woodpeckers Inc about 6 or 7 years back. Finally, she’s in working order.

Since the last post I was able to complete the rear portion which really dressed up this side of my table. I needed a place to keep the large Incra template guide booklet handy. Again I included dowels in the construction of these new parts, this kept things looking uniform.

There’s also a new picture of the inside of the vacuum enclosure.
Some of the important features include:

* locking casters
* 16” ball bearing full extension slides for all 4 drawers
* concealed hinges on the inset doors
* grizzly power switch and aux power outlet on the front of the cabinet
* Power is supplied by a 30 foot cord reel (I just installed a male plug to the end of the reel) built in
* I put 3/8th” stained dowels in the panels of the doors and drawers on the sides
* the dust collection enclosure is fabricated out of 1/2” mdf (the inside is smoothed, all corners have a 1” radius filled in and the bottom is made with an mdf frame and fiberglass in order to maximize dust flow) hooked up to 4” thin wall drain pipe (pvc)
* the reason the two side doors open facing the operator is for future bit or accessory storage access
* Incra template library drawer (I built a series of removable boards which house templates on both sides behind 1/8” lexan or acrylic)
* plexi windows for viewing the router and lift in action
* constructed from different types of pine and mdf

Future plans include:

* trimming out the inside of the cabinet around the plexi windows
* would like to add a Wixey digital router lift gauge
* need a coat or three of Polystain or some finish haven’t decided
* use this table more and master all that its capable of!

You can also see more information about Incra fences here.