Router Table for Incra LS 17 #2: drawer configuration

Very nice layout, I have the same Incra and need to build a cabinet for mine also. I will be watching your progress closely.

Thanks for posting.

-- Grant...."GO BUCKEYES"

The only thing I am wondering about is where you will put the on-off switch. Mounted on the side maybe? Also, remember even if you are hooked up to an external dust collector, you will still need a controllable “in” port for airflow and cross ventilation so the dust does not pile up under your router. The space around your router bit is a very small hole… it can’t be the only place air enters.

Other than that it looks great.

Just curious… why would you take the time to “draw the joinery” in Sketchup?

-- Check out my new website! http://www.blakeweberwoodworking.com

Blake, good point on the air flow.

My present router table is an open frame design with a Rockler insert with a single sized ring. Without dust control I get most of the chips down under the router sitting on the shelf below. I also get a pile up on the table right in the fence opening. I figured I would pull half of the air from inside the box and half from up on the fence. The incra wonder fence has a built in dust port that exits off the side and my existing straight fence has a dust port right behind the bit. I’m leaning toward a 4 inch fitting on the back of the router enclosure and a 2.5 inch flex hose up to the fence. I wasn’t convinced I needed more air flow through the cabinet.

I know you added cross flow, and a sloped shelf on your table. I wondered why you did that. Without cross flow is the air stream through the cabinet too small to carry the chips? I am initially thinking to go with no cross flow but if it looks like I need to add some I figured I’d either add some to the side near the door or in the door like your table. I was hoping that as the chips entered the cabinet around the bit they would “immediately” get directed and sucked into the dust collector, you’re thinking that’s not gonna happen huh?

As for the power switch, I want it on the left side under the table, near the top. That’s where it is on my table saw and I like it there, easily accessible by my left hand. If I use a standard wall switch I’ll inset it into the side of the cabinet. If I go for a more industrial switch, like the kind you find hanging under the side of a table saw I’ll mount it on the left exterior of the cabinet. That is what I was leaning toward, an exterior mounted industrial switch, but I haven’t price them out yet and may end up back to an inset standard switch. I guess I could always build a small enclosure for a standard wall switch and still do the exterior mount.

As for drawing the joinery in sketchup, I have a few reasons.

First I just like drawing stuff in sketchup. Drawing all the details allows me to grow and practice my sketchup skills.

Second, as I draw the joinery I can play with concepts. I can think about directions, sizes, complexities, order of operations, etc. I can puzzle and play with different joinery ideas. Kind of a design playground

Third I find that if I draw all the little details I can go straight from the drawings to the shop. I can pull dimensions straight from the sketchup drawings and cut the pieces just that size. I dont have to remember to add a little here or leave a little extra there to leave room for the joinery. Kind of an electronic version of measure twice, cut once.

Finally, and probably most important to me, I can walk through all of the steps of constructing the project electronically before committing to shop time. I find that if I’ve walked through the entire construction process once or more times in sketchup the shop time just goes that much faster and smoother. I dont have to “design on the fly”, adding in detail on the fly that I didn’t already think through. I can go to the shop, crank out the pieces, put them together, and have a pretty high confidence they’re going to fit.

Blake – drawing the joinery in sketchup is also very useful when you end up getting a cut list from the plan, as the joinery will change the lengths of your parts. Also it’s nice to play around with joinery and see how different joints look before committing to them, and cutting the wood.

-- When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.