New Router Table part 3

Looks good. I like the improvements. You’ll be glad you set up the dust collection like that. Since you have dust collection above and below the table you should have virtually dust-free routing. Just make sure you don’t lose any suction though air leaks in the box below the router. You might need some sort of seal around the door.

-- Dust collectors suck.

Congratulations to that very nice project.

-- Jiri

Great job. That should help keep the whole shop cleaner.

-- Maplewood, MN

Looking good Rob, The fence lools great, and don’t forget to let me know how you like that lift. I’m seriously looiking at getting one for my new table. Oh, and exactly which one you got as well. Thanks

-- Jim Hallada, Chesterfield, VA

Nice improvements!

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

Nice job! Good old Norm, huh?

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Sounds good but you forgot to tell us if the improvements work better?

-- Ron, Twain Harte, Ca. Portable on site Sawmill Service http://westcoastlands.net/Sawmill.html http://westcoastlands.net/SawBucks2/phpBB3

Wow, what a response. Thanks for the encouragement guys.

Blake, I used expanding styrofoam at all the corners and around the PVC pipe to ensure no suction loss. I left the door without a seal so that there would be some small airflow through the bay. I will probably play with that some to fine tune the airflow.

Jim, I like the lift great, it’s a 421a woodpecker, specifically made for the Porter Cable 7518 router. It is extremely easy to use. The only drawback is when using the lifting and lowering rod you have to have one hand on the bottom of the router, or when you go to release the lever, it kind of falls just a little until the screw threads catch, which I am really afraid would cause wear on the threads. If you keep a hand under it as you release it will catch the threads much easier. Other than that it is awesome.

Ron, I haven’t actually used the table yet, so I don’t know if they are actual improvements, but I am hoping they will all combine to be a nice system.

Okalbert, There is a little story behind the piece of angled steel which I explain in the second part of the project (part 2)

Thanks again for all the support guys.

-- Rob McCune

Wow, great work. That NYW you mention has me fired up as well, I have it saved on TiVO indefinately! Two things had me wondering, and I would like your opinion:

1) Do you think 1/2 MDF followed by 3/4 inch MDF is enough? I had hear two pieces of 3/4 are the way to go.

2) What do you think if screwing the pieces together? I am not sure I would like that idea, as it may affect the flatness of the table.

What do you think? Again, great work.

-- When you earnestly believe you can compensate for a lack of skill by doubling your efforts, there is no end to what you CAN'T do

My top is two pieces of 3/4” glued together and sandwiched between a ton of cauls and every clamp I could muster from my supply. I still think I should find another way though, I am not sure it will be sturdy enough. I am going to get some laminate for it and see how long it lasts. If it doesn’t hold up, well it will only cost me $50 to do it out of 5/4 maple. I am not going to recommend screwing it together as that could take away areas you might want to route through for your miter track or t-tracks. I glued it first, then cut it to size and did all my machine work first before I ever put a screw in it and the only screws I used were for the track and then to screw it to the base. Unlike Norm, I don’t trust gravity to hold it in place. I can’t even get gravity to hold the lift plate in place when I am raising or lowering the router.

-- Rob McCune

I build my router table top out of 2 pieces of 3/4 mdf and laminated both sides. It is flat to within a 64th of an inch. I rolled glue between the 2 pieces of mdf and then used screws to hold the two pieces together. After the glue set, I removed the screws.

-- Dave Herron, Boise, ID -- How hard can it be? It's only wood!

I read somewhere that if you install a blast gate on the bottom dust collection box, it will improve teh dust collection. You can adjust the airflow through the box to capture the dust down your exhaust hose. I did the same on my dust colector fitting on my jointer and it really improved the dust movement to the exhaust hose. It doesn’t take much, so the blast gate is an easy, low-cost way to adjust the airflow through your bottom box. You could mount one on the door on the front so the air flow would be from the front to the back, where your dust collector fitting is.

Your router table looks great! I hope my suggestion helps.

God Bless,
Hawg

-- Saving barnwood from the scrapyards

Thanks for the reply guys. Dave, I really considered screws vs. clamps and finally decided against the screws. I am not good enough at remembering where the screws are and I am sure that 5 years down the road I would have tried to route right through one for some reason. I had the clamps there so it wasn’t hard to get a bunch of 2×4’s to use as clamping cauls. It has proved to be pretty sturdy so far. I still haven’t found any laminate for it, though. I actually took a fall last weekend and hurt my back pretty good, so I haven’t put many hours on the table yet.

Hawg, the dust port in the rear is right at the bottom of the bay, so I left a 1/16th inch gap at the bottom of the front door to create airflow across the bottom of the bay. I am finding that the shop vac is not supplying enough suction to clear the bay out like I would like, but the port on the fence is doing a pretty good job of keeping the table top clean. It llooks like when I finally put in a piping system for the dust collector I will have to provide for the two connections to the router table as well. I am thinking putting in a 4” PVC system out of rain gutter pipe to all the major work stations. If I put a tee at the end of one branch for the two router table dust ports, that should more than do the trick. As I stated elsewhere, the 4” rain gutter PVC piping is not as thick or as expensive as sch 40 or sch 80 PVC and should do the job quite well at a much lower cost. The trick is finding the right fittings for it as the gutter stuff doesn’t have the wide variety of fittings and adaptors that sch40 and 80 do.

-- Rob McCune

Rob, that is a great looking router table. I too would be interested in knowing how well the dust collection works on it. I am in the process of building one too, and haven’t decided on what to do for dust control as of yet. Thanks for posting it.

-- Evil can only thrive when good men do nothing.......E. Burke