Have router will travel

Cherryville Chuck said:

Welcome Ranman. What table design is right for you depends on what you want to do with it. I use mine for lots of different things so I wanted versatility. I put my opening to one side so that I can stand on one side and do small parts close to the edge or stand on the other side and have a wide table to work on for working on panels. I like being able to take my router out of the table to change bits so my router and plate just sit in the rabbet in the table. I can adjust my router from above the table so no lift was needed which would prevent me from doing that.

One member just has a table top which he sits on a Workmate. When the Workmate is opened all the way it squeezes against cleats under the table that keep the top from sliding around. When he's not using it he leans the top against the wall and folds up the Workmate. There are lots of possibilities when building a table.

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Thanks, Chuck. One thing I'd like to do is use two fences. One of a "standard" design. I'd like to have plenty of room on the left side of the table for a different fence that runs like that of a table saw fence. A project coming up in a few months requires me to make a very close tolerance fit in a laminate floor. I need to cut up some strips from two leftover pieces of leftover stair tread material and make them exactly the same width as the homeowners laminate flooring. There wer no leftover pieces of original Wilsonart laminate flooring except for the matching one piece stair treads. I'll need to cut those 12" by 48" treads so I can patch a 12" by 26" void in the center of their living room. I'll need to square up that void, then make a groove on one side and rabbit the other three sides. Scary just thinking about it. :surprise:

That second fence I mentioned........ I'd like it to act like a super accurate table saw once I have my laminate trimmed to slightly oversized using my table saw. I can use the router to sneak up on the final dimension of the plank width.

RainMan 2.0 said:

Welcome to the forum Ranman

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I like your name......... it reminds me of someone. :grin:
Thanks, I hope to learn some new tricks here.

JOAT said:

Fence? Fence? Don' need no steenkin' fence. But if I did a chunk of 2X4 and a couple of clamps would do the job nicely for me. Wait until you see the pictures of my router table. :grin:

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But I want a steenkin' fence. :grin: I'm lookin' for accuracy of 2 or 3 thousandths.
of an inch, not of a feet. :wink:
I think I saw your table during my searches of this site. Depending on what it's being used for I bet even a less fancy setup does as well as most of the expensive stuff.
I need some real accuracy for an upcoming job, so I'm letting my OCD guide me through this table and lift project.
Here's a photo of the lift I'm working on. It started as sheets of 1/4" aluminum that I ran it through my 1989 Makita table saw. Add some 4" and 3" aluminum channel metal, some 3/8" aluminum bar, some stainless screws, threaded rods, bushings etc............. and it ends up looking different than when it was laying in piles on my deck. When I getter' done, I'll get some more photos.
Currently the router and lift screw is installed and it's actually usable. I just haven't designed or stated building the actual table top I want.
The two pieces in the center are attached together and spaced apart by two pieces of aluminum channel that are drilled and tapped together. This forms the lift that the router goes into. The top now has a hole in it, the router has hold down clamps that keeps the router tight in the lift section, and I have the screw in place that raises the router up and down.
In this photo, only 4 bronze bushings were available at the hardware store. The whole unit looks a lot different now. I didn't want it to look like Larry, Darol and his other brother Darol built it.

Welcome aboard.

Personally, I think a regular router table top with the router attached to an insert plate would work well for you flooring job...and just about anything else you want to do.

Good luck with the lift.

As for a portable top, check out Steve Ramsey on Youtube. He built a router table and has video of his top and fence that was built for the cabinet.

I sorta followed his design. I have since moved on to a more robust table, but it is not portable.
Here are pictures of my portable router table that I had attached to the end of my miter saw station, and once I had it clamped to my work bench. You could do the same with a pair of saw horses. Make the top as long as you feel necessary. However, it will get heavy if you double up the material such as two pieces of 3/4 inch mdf, as I did.

Good luck and welcome aboard. Stick around. Sometimes we have a little fun here to break the monotony. :surprise::grin:
Mike

Thanks for the pics Mike. More ideas are better for me.
Naw, it's way way way to late to tell me a regular table is good enough. I get a bit off track turning small details into finer details. The lift is pretty much complete. The photo I showed is when the design was pretty much set in stone. From there, I worked on the details of making it work. The lift screw is 16 tpi..... one turn/ 1/16th an inch. 1/4 turn, 1/64" good for fine tuning, or any fraction or thousandths I want. That said, it will end up trial and error sneaking up on any adjustments I need.
The table top I want needs to be portable, but that does not mean overly compact lightweight. The lift with the router in it weighs 20 lbs. The top plate is 1/4" thick by 11.5 X 9 inches and the height of the unit minus the lift screw is 11.5 inches.
The table will not need legs, so just a top. If that top weighs 20 lbs or more, it's no big deal since the router and lift will drop into the table top...... not affixed as one heavy unit. I'm thinking a combination of square tubular grate or base as a structural init topped with resin coated plywood or melamine surface would make a stable table...... pun intended.
The miter gauge and the fence or fences are separate also, so portability means pieces, not one single heavy unit. I won't use the "portability" part very often.............. rarely actually. So I want a strong stable top, that has plenty of surface for .....whatever I do down the road.
It's gonna be a while, but I'll get some pictures down the road as funds come in and this gets more complete.
Thanks again for the images.

ranman said:

Mike, who makes the miter gauge and track that you used?

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UGH! You just had to ask, didn't ya? :smile:

It's made by either Rockler or Kreg. I am thinking Rockler. Note the "T" track only accommodates 1/4 inch bolts.

Sorry about the out of focus picture. The camera grabbed the CNC instead of the track.
Hope this helps.