Workshop #6: flat, round, and mounted... router in place

Well I took a different approach, I did not finish mounting the router, I went back and framed the second top I had cut yesterday. It was nice and flat, I checked before I put the new frame in it. I also glued it up laying flat on a table rather than clamping to the frame and I think that helped as well. It don’t look to much different than yesterday, but the new top is a nice .012” from the bottom of the fence all the way around.

This shows the mounted router. I still need to countersink the screw holes and get some flathead screws to mate with the router, but the new holes I put in the Benchdog plate are perfect. I used a copper pipe fiting and tape to build a centering jig matching the old router plate to the Benchdog insert.

then positioned my old router plate to find an area that I could drill the new holes and still be able to access the router. Taped the old router faceplate down and punched, pilot holed, and drilled the new mounting holes. Everything fits centered, flush, and flat. I round cornered the edges of the new table top so the MDF won’t chip as bad, and used my own version of a Kerfmaker to make the new dados on the framing.

-- You cannot build a reputation on what you are going to do. - Henry Ford