[OPG3]

Hello, A few years ago several of you may remember that I was in an accident and tore-off my right arm. That accident caused me great pain and a bleak outlook for many things in my future. The arm came-off in one piece and was reattached by a surgeon that has done a lot of orthopedic work on me in years passed. I had a mediocre router table in my home wood shop and I was pretty sure my routing days were over... That accident was March 21, 2015 and my dog Jericho was providing the "thrust" that lead my flying 205 pound "me" over a huge brush pile that was bordered by a stump about 6" in diameter and 24" tall. Said stump caught my right armpit and my dog, retractable leash and arm left my body behind. Temporarily, I was unconscious and gasping for air. Jericho is highly trained and he returned to me immediately and began to cry as he realized what had occurred. I was unable to reach my cell phone - so I walked the half mile or so carrying my severed arm. Joy got me to emergency medical care, where a team went to work. They were able to get my preferred surgeon to me. I had severed blood vessels, nerves, ligaments, tendons, muscles, you name it. Bones were broken and they quickly gave me strong medication during most of my treatment. What you have just read is "The Reader's Digest Version" as it's really a long and terrible story. It took 8 - surgeries to get everything working properly and now I am blessed beyond imagination in that I have full use of all 5 - digits!
I'm still inventing things as many of you are well aware. Many of my products are construction products - used in the concrete forming process. There are over 7,000 shapes and sizes of my POCKET FORM ISOLATOR product line and they are being sold worldwide in the non-communist countries.

The reason for my writing this is that I've purchased two "Kreg Precision Router Tables" and one Triton TRA-001 Router to be mounted in the Router Table. I've been atrociously busy with a number of projects (we are thankful for this), so my time availability is in bits and pieces, but I am currently doing assembly of the table "fence" - which seems straightforward.
Interestingly, I shopped online (after deciding on the Kreg / Triton setup) and discovered that the lowest price for the Table was from Rockler, or for one nickle more; I could get it from my local Ace Hardware Store (7 minutes away). Atlanta traffic is horrendous and on a good day it takes an hour for me to get to Rockler, so I opted to spend the extra $0.05 and save the driving! I ordered the Triton TRA-001 from Highland Woodworking and they had a great price on it and it was here in less than 48 hours.
The Ace Hardware called and said the Router Table (3 - boxes) were ready for my pickup, so I went fairly soon. The large flat box (the table surface) was quite damaged. The store owner said, "Take it home, all three boxes and we will get you a new one." That what I did. When the new one arrived, I got a call and I was told to come and get it. I asked if I should bring everything or just the tabletop? He said they got all 3 - new boxes. I took my 3 - boxes from home back up there and I told them all I needed to trade-out was the table top. I had inspected the damaged tabletop while it was at my home and the only thing damaged was the 24x32 top - nothing else was damaged! I said that I would love to buy the contents minus the damaged top and they said, "It's free to you because Ace Warehouse damaged it!" I inquired about the other stand (neither was damaged) and he sold me the other one for $159.00 They ordered me the casters that are recommended for that stand (4 - per stand) for $59.00 per set and now I have two!

My plan is to build a VERY STURDY rolling (but lockable) T-Track Table to be built into one of the stands (for routing with any one of my hand-held routers) and use the other as intended with the Triton TRA-001.

My questions are:
1. Does anyone have photos to share of T-Track table(s) similar to what I've described?
2. Do users of the TRA-001 require table-mounted router ON/OFF switches for safety?

Thanks SO MUCH!

Otis Polk Guillebeau III
Auburn, Georgia USA

 

[OPG3]

Thanks so much guys for the good wishes and encouragement! Sincerely I was of the belief that my "routering days" were over. And TRUE TO THE MAX - GOD has blessed me mightily. Even my surgeon has commented that he doubted that I would ever be able to "shake his hand again"! I've had quite a few mishaps and surgeries (3 - melanomas) and this is the same surgeon that repaired both of Joy's knees with compartmental replacements several years ago. On the 21st of June (this month) we have a small surgery planned to removed a "bursa" from my elbow. I don't normally worry too much about GQ appearance (cause it would be false hopes), but the large lump on my left elbow got so large that I felt need to wear long-sleeved shirts! Short-sleeved shirts had lots of people asking what happened to the elbow.
There was no pain whatsoever, but I have gotten tired of strangers asking about it.

 

[OPG3]

Doug, thanks for the link about T-Track! I studied it carefully. I actually made a T-Track surface that's 34" x 27" with a center cross of tracks using "store-bought" intersection and in two of the "quadrants" I've added diagonal tracks. I still have two Porter-Cable 690 Routers. When I gave-away my Inexpensive Router Table (that I purchased used) I gave the guy one of my 690's (fixed base) and numerous templates - so he could go into immediate production of the Garden Flag Holders that Joy had designed. Book Stores were buying them as fast as I could make them - but I just enjoyed making the templates and the end product, but if Jericho had thumbs and could use a router...He and his wife wanted a small business with a woodworking opportunity, so we set him up in business!