delroy33

i have been thinking about makeing a new router table top and would like to get some input as to what type of material to use for the top, what size table top seems to work best.
what is a good plate to use to mount the router in the table and should the plate be fastened to the the top or removable like the router guys. i have the pc 892 series router and i can adjust it from under the table or from the top of the table. this router is only used in the table so it being mounted there would not be a problem.

__________________
roy
start square, finish square

Advertising

augiec

I made an Oak-Park table. I went to the local cabinet shop and got a piece of the counter-top material and used it. I edged it with a piece of home-grown cedar. I also use the Oak-Park router bases, I have both the large and small. I am satisfied with everything.

Happy Routing

__________________
augiec

Spacemanspiff

I made my top out of 25mm thick MDF and topped it off with some hardboard, edged it with some pine and waxed the top. Works very well indeed. I also made my own removable plate and inserts out of MDF.

Aaron

__________________
The speed of light travels faster than the speed of sound, that's why people appear intelligent until they open their mouth ...

AABRAMS

A GREAT ROUTER TABLE TOP CAN BE MADE FROM THREE LAVERS OF MDF (3/4") GLUED TOGETHER, WITH A TOP SURFACE OF HARDBOARD-SIMPLY FRAM THE TABLE WITH SOME 3/4" OAK- YOU WILL NOT GET ANY WARPING AT
ALL- I USED ONE LAYER OF 1/8"PLEXIGLAS (SANDED ROUGH BOTH SIDES FOR
ADHESION, JUST UNDER THE LAYER OF HARDBOARD TO GIVE ROUTER FACE-PLATE A HARD DURABLE SURFACE TO REST UPON IN UPSIDE-DOWN POSITION

Joe Mulherin

I liked your quote as most appropriate to todays society. Here is another one I found from the Shopsmith Forum on Yahoo:
I try to take it one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once....

Mike

Roy, you will find as many answers to your question as there are grains of sand on a beach. The interesting thing is none of them will be wrong. The right size table and its construction depends on what you will be doing with it, and in what position. A larger table will need better rigidity than a smaller table. Perhaps the best thing I can say is how I decided on my tables. I looked at many plans and decided on a ShopNotes design. My tables are built with 3/4" cabinet grade plywood topped with 1/2" thickness of hardboard, wrapped with a hardwood band and then sealed with a piece of Formica on both sides. The plywood gives you great strength, the hardboard is a depth that makes it easy to cut the clearance for your mounting plate. The hardwood edge band helps avoid flexing and makes a nice decorative touch. The Formica surfaces seal the table on both sides to reduce the chance of warping and give you a nice surface for your work to slide on. There is the added bonus that you can pencil marks on it and they wipe off easily. I use Rousseau mounting plates. They have corner snuggers; small adjustable clips that keep your plate securely located and yet easy to remove.Leveling holes with allen screws make it easy to flush the plate edges to your table. Rousseau has a template kit that includes a two piece guide bushing for making the through cut and creating the lip for the plate by removing a collar from the bushing. This is the plate Norm used on NYW for 10 years. Trend sells this plate in the UK with their name on it through a licensing agreement. The plate is not flat, it is slightly convex and this ensures the wood passing the cutterhead is always at the same height. This allows for slight irregularities in your wood. Any other plate should be perfectly flat. The Router Workshop vac-u-plate is a very good design. I would of went with this design if it had been available when I started. Since I have two routers mounted on Rousseau plates it doesnt make sense for me to change over. Last thing I will mention is table size. You want a work area big enough for it to support any work you will be doing on it. Off the top of my head I believe my tables are 20 x 30 in size. This allows you to set small pieces on the side while routing others. I also built the ShopNotes fence which clamps with two knobs, has sliding faces and is easy to set up and remove.

__________________
Mike
Please edit your profile with a name and location so we can better assist you.

reible

__________________
Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.

Hamlin

Personally, I like the way the Bob & Rick have theirs setup. But, it has to be what you are comfortable with. As Ed stated, you can wait til Oak Park offers a savings deal.

Just my $0.02 worth.
Ken

CliffR

Lots of folks use laminated MDF on the thesis that it is fairly stable under normal humidity conditions.

I have considered using Corian or some other synthethtic such as 1" thick UHMDPE or PVC. A slab of ground cast iron or aluminum plate would be ideal too.

I'm retiring an old table saw soon and have considered using the cast iron top and adapting the blade lift as a router lift. I just duno about that though as I think I want the old saw as a beaterbox for cutting steel alum and other nasty things I won't want to put on a snazzy european slider.

If cost is an issue try the MDF and laminate some Formica on top.

bennybbc

Originally Posted by aniceone2hold
>Roy, you will find as many answers to your question
>as there are grains of sand on a beach. The interesting thing is none of
>them will be wrong.



So, my recomendation is to use 1" x 12" pecky cedar fence boards.
Ok, maybe that suggestion would be wrong.




> My tables are built with 3/4" cabinet grade plywood topped with 1/2"
>thickness of hardboard,



My suggestion if using any sort of plywood would be to pay very
close attention to the flattness of the plywood. I've yet to see
any plywood that is dead-flat, or at least as flat as MDF can be.
But it is certainly flatter. If you're using plywood maybe use two
thicknesses of it and when you sandwich it together you should
place the opposite faces together to cancel out any possible
warp. In other words, if both pieces are slightly convex try putting
them together so that the centers touch first and the slight warp
of each piece will cancel the other out as they bend to reach each
other. I hope that's clearer than mud. I used MDF and I still had
to pay attention to use pieces that weren't slightly warped. I'm
pretty picky about my homemade tools though and I expect them
to be at least as good as I could buy. A table top that's more
than a few thousandths of an inch out of flat just won't do for me.
I hate being able to blame my tools for any errors in my work.
Keeps me honest!




> I use Rousseau mounting plates. They have corner snuggers; small
>adjustable clips that keep your plate securely located and yet easy to
>remove.Leveling holes with allen screws make it easy to flush the plate
>guide bushing for making the through cut and creating the lip for the plate
>by removing a collar from the bushing. This is the plate Norm used on NYW
>for 10 years. Trend sells this plate in the UK with their name on it through
>a licensing agreement. The plate is not flat, it is slightly convex and this
>ensures the wood passing the cutterhead is always at the same height.
>This allows for slight irregularities in your wood.




I've never used the Rousseau plate but there was a thread that
mentioned them on another forum recently and several people didn't
like them for the same reason that you do like them. I don't quite
see the point of going to a lot of trouble to make a table flat only
to add the most important part of the table that isn't flat. I see
your explanation and that would work for smaller pieces but if I
was running a larger or longer workpiece over the plate it would
have to change the angle that the cut surface contacts the cutter.
Cutting a longer dado or rabbet would mean that there will be a
variation in the depth of cut somewhere along the groove. To each
their own but I prefer to go with a flat plate and not have to worry
about it. I use the phenolic plate from Woodhaven and it works
great. I also use their plate levelers because they're so simple to
use. No rabbet to cut and adjustment is accomplished by just
turning the thumbscrews. But most importantly, it's dead-flat.
JMHO of course.






>You want a work area big enough for it to support any work you will be
>doing on it. Off the top of my head I believe my tables are 20 x 30 in size.
>This allows you to set small pieces on the side while routing others.




I agree completely with this. I prefer a larger table over the small
table that Bob and Rick use. While the smaller table works for the
majority of what I do it's so nice to have a larger table for when you
need the extra support of a larger workpiece or for stacking the
other workpieces out of the way. I have my table mounted into
the space between my extra long fence rails of my table saw. I
work positioned on the same side as I would if using the TS and
that way I can have all of the outfeed I need from the TS space.
If I have the TS fence set up and don't want to change it and it's
in the way of a longer piece to be routed I can easily rotate my
fence to feed from a different direction. I have aluminum T-slots
added to my table in a tic-tac-toe pattern and the fence has
nobs and bolts that get trapped in the slots to lock it down. It's
very versatile and looks pretty cool too.




>I also built the ShopNotes fence which clamps with two knobs, has sliding
>faces and is easy to set up and remove.


I'm not familiar with the ShopNotes fence but if you end up using
angle iron, (steel or aluminum) you should check it to make sure
that it's really square and straight. Most isn't. I worked for a steel
supply company for a while and I went back to buy some 3"x3" 1/4"
angle for my fence base. I didn't find any size steel or aluminum there
in their huge stock that had both faces square to the other. I paid
a guy to machine the piece I bought so that it was square, straight
and flat. If it's not you could add some thicknesses of tape between
the angle and the faces of the fence until it's square but it's easier to
start with something that's true. Good luck!

Bruce