Tool thoughts #25: Shop clean out Done! Next!

At this point, despite taking today ‘off’ from shop time, I’m going to call the interior shop cleaning ‘done’, in that once I put away what is left on top of my bench, I will have it all cleaned up and ready to work. Now it is on to bigger & better things.

I’ve had my shop in various states of progress for about a decade. I’ve made a bunch of things from the shop itself, to several beds, a bunch of cutting boards and so forth. One thing I haven’t had access to in almost 8 years is a router table. My mentor John had one, but when he and I split up our joint shop, I packed up my PC 690 router, and he kept his Hitachi M12 with its router table. (among other things)
I suppose I’m pretty typical for a north american electron burning woodworker; I use my TS as the ‘central tool’ in my shop. This has served me pretty well up til now, but there have been times when i wanted to have a router table again.
I’m of two minds on what to build:

Router Wing Extension: given how small my shop is, I suspect this will be something I will build eventually. I’m not all that enamored with that solution, in that when you’re set up for router work, the TS isn’t available and vice versa. For larger pieces, a larger table will be useful, but honestly, the next 6 months, I expect I won’t be doing That many large pieces.

Benchtop Router table: This is what I’m planning on building. I’ve got a large ‘working’ bench which will easily support a benchtop table. I’ve read a bunch of finished projects here on LJ, and have decided I’m going with a simple box with a hinged top. I’m going to keep it pretty basic. I have a piece of laminated countertop (actually I have several), which is a) free, and b) disposable if I screw things up. I have a couple of spare fixed bases, one of which will be dedicated to this table.

This coming week is going to mark a slow down in actual woodworking time for me, I do church directory photos for a living, and I’ve got a bunch of commuting to do this week, between home and Rochester NY, about 2 hours one way. Luckily, I’ll be near a Woodcraft, so at some point on Saturday I’ll be going toy and supply shopping a bit. Woohoo! Thanks all for checking in. See you on the boards.

-- Ned - 2B1ASK1 http://nedswoodshop.blogspot.com