Beginner Router Table

[mike]

I am looking for plans to make a simple  router table and cabinet. I have never used a router and someone has given me a router to use. I saw some plans online but I need  step by step instructions. I am just a beginner and need that reassurance of looking at the plans. Does anyone have plans or can direct me to dummy proof plans to get me started. 

Thanks,

Mike

[Jay Boutwell]

Hi Mike, I see that no one has replied to your request so I took interest and hopefully can help you with your questions.  In building a router table it will depend on several things from what type of table do you want.  It depends on the type of router you have and type of work you want to do on it.  The router must be one of which you can adjust the router motor within its housing or base so that you can adjust your bit for different cuts. 

You will need a flat warp free table large enough to support the work you intend to do.  You need an adjustable fence in order to control the material being routed across the bit.

There are several sources of information on building a router table on the web.  One is from  wood shopsmith and is a PDF file of which you can get some good information and diagram from the attached link.  I hope it will help you out and if I can be of any help please contact me.

 

http://www.woodsmithshop.com/download/303/routertable.pdf

[Sean Redmond]

Thanks for that link, was just what I was looking for.

[Shawn]

Hi Mike

The router is a great tool and can do more than I have figured out at the moment. After I graduated from just routing edges of projects I started by building a very simple table by mounting my router to a piece of 3/4 MDF and plunging the bit through the surface to make the hole in the middle. Simply clamped a 2x4 to the MDF table to act as a fence. It served it's purpose until i realized the value of a professionally fabricated router table. I have semi-upgraded to the Ryobi professional router table which is by no means top quality but it will get you doing some advanced router table techniques for a very reasonable price. Just my two cents enjoy the router and table you will be on a whole new level.

Shawn

[Russ Haynes]

Mike - if you take a look at some of the pictures of my shop I have posted, you'll see a router table and fence I made from a couple pieces of melamine, which is nice because workpieces slide on that surface very easily.  There are multiple pics, including ones that show pretty clearly how it was assembled. 

 

My table was based on THIS design, making a couple of rectangles with pocket joinery, fastening them together with hinges, bracing up the top rectangle, then fastening the melamine top using pocket holes in the frame piece below.  The whole thing sits on an old set of legs from a Craftsman mitre saw with some casters and a base I built from scrap.  I have since replaced that table and fence with one from Rockler, with nice T-tracks, fully adjustable fence and a badass insert.  But the Rockler top is still fastened onto the frame and legs I built.  Make a nice frame and base and you can always upgrade later with a new top, or insert, or fence, or t-tracks.  My shop-made table worked perfectly good for a while until I saved up some money for the Rockler table.  And given the trouble I got in when my wife saw the Rockler table and said "I thought you built your own," I should have just stuck with the one I had.  Steve Ramsey has a design also you can check out HERE.