Homemade router table

Great work Claire.

I also have the large Triton router in my table, also mounted with screws, for exactly the same reasons as you. You can see it here.

Also, me thinks by the fence on the table and the bits in the bottom drawer, you have on of Rogers wonderful jigs!!!

-- GazAly Design. Maker of fine...wood...stuff!

I’ve seen a lot of homemade router tables, and this may be my favorite. I really like the idea of being able to mount your Triton in there semi-permanently, and not even need an insert. My current setup is a store-bought benchtop router table mounted on a rolling stand I built, but I would really like to build on like yours and get a powerful router like the Triton for it. That would free up my little PC690 for hand-held work.

Great job!

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Super router table! Great job constructing this and then modifying it to suit your desires.

-- Tom, Surfside Beach, SC - Romans 8:28

I really like the table.

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

Nice Job Claire.
You make a good point about the standard plan for tables being a bit on the low side.
I made mine when I knew no better and was thinking the other day how nice it would be if it were just below where I bend my elbows.
I need to see the bit when I’m routing and have enough control to press the stock to the fence but 32” is a bit low for me. I moved my lathe up with 4×4” posts and relieved my back aches considerably.
I’ll have to look at putting a box under the present router set up and see how it works for me.

Thanks for the post.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Claire -

Excellent! That is a very sturdy table for a beeefy router.

-- http://foldingrule.blogspot.com

Nice work, Claire.

I like the use of plywood. As an aside, good quality plywood is hard to come-by in Oz. Where do you purchase yours?

Nicely done project. I’ve mounted my Triton in a table but use a Unilift.

-- CanuckDon "I just love small wooden boxes!" http://www.hilsbiblechurch.org/

Thanks for the comments everyone.

GazAlyDesign – yes, I use a Gifkins dovetail jig – used it to make the drawers for the router cabinet. I just had a look at yours – very fancy. Must be jarrah? I also have other fences for taller work, plus one of the original incra fence and jig – like yours. Haven’t mounted it yet, though.

Bob#2 – I highly recommend making it higher, particularly with the Triton routers.

Don – the plywood is nothing fancy. I probably got it from Bunnings or Magnet Mart, I can’t remember now. I just make sure I only get it when they have stock that is not full of voids – you can generally tell, by looking at the edges. It’s been sanded back lightly and has a coat of clear varnish.

Thanks again everyone.

-- cheers, Claire (in Oz!)

Nice Job! Those drawers look beefy.

-- Bud, NY, http://tpww.libsyn.com/

Hello Claire, do you have a link to the design for your beautiful router table? I am new to routing and would like to make this table to make things easy. Is your router just screwed directly onto the ply wood top surface? In your picture I see a second board under the table top, what is this second board for?

top notch router table.

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop, custom furniture, woodworking school, heirloomwoodshop.com

Thanks A1Jim – glad you liked it

Spicerman – the plans I got from Australian Woodsmith No.17 (you will find it in the US version of a round that time or a little earlier). It featured as the cover photo.

Yes I screwed the router directly to the underneath of the table top. Because I didn’t want to lose too much useful length, I rebated the underneath by about half an inch (the table top is 3/4” ply with laminate fixed top and bottom).

The second board you refer to is because the top cabinet (with the router and doors) lifts off the base cabinet (with the three drawers). The top cabinet has four rubber feet which lift it off the base a little. It means the router table is mobile (put it in the car or move it to a different bench) while at the same time it sits very solidly on the base – located by the top extension of the aluminium corner braces. The base has lockable caster wheels, so it too is mobile.

All in all, it’s a very easy to build and versatile router cabinet. The mods I did was use a bigger table top, put in three drawers in the base rather than 1 draw and 2 doors, didn’t use a router insert and added a 4” outlet at the back of the top cabinet for a vacuum hose. And I didn’t put in the mitre track.

If you are going to build a table without using a router insert you need to think about the maximum size router bit you will use, because you don’t want a big hole. Im my case I knew I would only be using this router table with smaller diameter bits – mainly for box making and building and other small work (small rebates and grooves and a Gifkin dovetail jig). The hole in mine is 40mm in diameter so I couldn’t use a large bit – like a raised panel bit or a cope and stick bit set. For bigger work I always intended fitting the larger of my routers into another router top on the RHS of my table saw. I bought a phenolic router insert (Woodpeckers) a couple of years ago, but have never got around to fitting it.

Good luck

-- cheers, Claire (in Oz!)