Router Table: Part 5

Part five already? Wow.

Well, here's the table with most of the screws in place. I left one unscrewed for some reason. After this there were a few more screws added for stability. I don't want the top to move up and down for any reason.

Here is the top after I chamfered the edges. For those of you who are not woodworkers, "chamfer means to put a 45º bevel on the edge. I do this with a router bit, but it could also be done on a table saw or with a hand plane. I chamfered three edges of the table, leaving the edge that will butt up against the table saw square.

Here's the collection of various pieces of cardboard that serve to raise the top level with the red oak edging, exactly where it should be.

Here you can see the chamfered edge better. Also, there is a coat of tung oil applied to the red oak.

And here is the top. Finished with two coats of tung oil and two coats of satin polyurethane. I sanded in between the second coat of tung oil and the first coat of poly with 220 grit sandpaper. Before applying the last coat of poly I sanded with 320 grit.

This isn't fine furniture, but it deserves to be protected. It will take some wear and tear in my shop.

Next Time: I will begin building the cabinet which will house the router to control both noise and dust collection. And I'll have a little storage in it, too.

Router Table: Part 2

Things are shaping up nicely! I have the top nearly finished as of this writing. I'll begin taking you through the steps up to this point. I'm going to do this in small, digestible chunks for those of you who are not woodworkers. For the sawdust lovers who are reading this, please be patient... I'll get to the details you want soon enough.

Here is the material I'm using for my top. It's 1/8" melamine coated hardboard laminated to regular 1/8" hardboard. The opening for the router plate has been rough cut (VERY rough cut... I hate my jigsaw), and two points have been located and drilled out so that it can be mounted to the jig I used to rout out the opening to it's finished dimensions. The same points will be used to mount it to the substrate of the router table itself when the time comes.

Here you can see the finished jig. The two points I have circled with pencil line up with the two drilled points on the melamine top. When screwed down the top lines up perfectly with the jig so that the opening I cut matches the opening I have already drawn onto the top. The melamine surface mounted in the center of the jig serves only to to keep the router base level so the sides of the opening will be at right angles to the top. It also makes the job a lot easier because there is no chance of the router suddenly tipping to the side during a lapse of concentration on my part.

Here is the top screwed onto the jig, ready for routing. You can see the size of the whole thing as compared to my small level, which is one foot long.

And here is the router with a bearing guided bit chucked in it. The bearing rides on the inside edge of the jig I built while the cutters slice off the melamine. The bearing and the jig keep the cutters from removing too much material and the result is an opening that is perfectly sized to fit my router plate.

Next time: I'll actually turn on the router and get to the fun part!

Router Table: Part 1

This is the substrate for my new router table. It consists of a layer of 3/4 Birch Plywood on bottom and 3/4 Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF) on top. It is stiff and flat, two things one really needs in a router table. The whole thing will be topped off with the big white sheet you see in the upper portion of this photo, and I'll explain that in a minute.

You can see the outline of my router plate traced onto the surface with a hole cut into the center to accept the router itself. I cut the hole with my jig saw. I own the worst jig saw in the long and storied history of power tools, by the way. I think I shall recycle it as a paper weight at the first available opportunity.

The actual surface of my router table will be made of 1/8" Melamine hardboard, which you can see in the first photo. I have laminated a sheet of 1/8" hardboard and a sheet of 1/8" melamine hardboard together because the glue line binding the two creates a stiffer product than 1/4" melamine hardboard alone. However, I still have to add a very thin layer of... something I have yet to identify, in order to raise the melamine to dead-level with the surface of the router plate. Or I can cut down the surface of the MDF under the plate so the plate will drop down to be level with the Melamine. I'll do with this what I do with most of my projects: I'll figure it out as I go along.

This is the jig I built to guide my router when I cut the hole in the melamine for the router plate. The glue is still drying in this photo, which accounts for all the clamps. The melamine will be mounted on top with the hole already rough-cut into it, then the router, fitted with a straight bit with a bearing on the bottom will be guided by the jig from underneath.