Multi-use Assembly/Outfeed/Router table

Hii Jeff.

I’m a fulltime pro and I have taught classes building a router table that I have designed. I say that not because I think I know more, but so you know where I’m coming from. I want the shop fixtures I build to be safe and permanent and pleasing to the eye and as budget-sensitive as I can accomplish.

First of all, thinking multiple use is good. I like that you plan and ponder.

The purpose of a torsion box is to gain flatness and strength with little weight. Usually the skins are very thin because they have so much support.

3/4 MDF is about 100 lbs. per sheet. And by itself, MDF is pretty darn flat. Would it work for you to build what is essentially a table, with a skirt and four legs and an MDF top?

Then you can build your cabinets for below and slide them in and attach them to the apron and a leg as needed and you’d have a terrifically stout, simple, inexpensive basic structure.

I’m curious about the “removable laminate.” I have plastic laminate (Wilsonart) on my outfeed table and it’s been there for 15 years. Some color is worn through, but it’s intact and smooth enough. There’s overhang so I can clamp things to it if I need to. If it ever failed in any way (Oh, I drilled into it once, but I filled that with Bondo) I’d just scarify it and glue a new layer on it and raise the TS up with laminate pieces.

I have never had the T-slot stuff affiliated with my inverted routers so I can’t speak to its value. I have one in the TS to the right of the blade and one in a separate table which has a fence with two different pivots and an arced slot for fine adjustments.

I hope you get more input so you can glean the best ideas that will work for you. Onward!

Kindly,

Lee

-- "...in his brain, which is as dry as the remainder biscuit after a voyage, he hath strange places cramm'd with observation, the which he vents in mangled forms." --Shakespeare, "As You Like It"