[joea]

Decided to try my hand at making a router table top. I bought the Bosch plate, for the RA1181 table and a piece of melamine coated "shelving" from "L".

Outlined the opening and cut it, leaving a lip, then routed the lip to drop in the plate. Used a clamped straight edge to help stay straight. Well, it came out a bit oversize, so the plate can move a wee bit. Height is fine though.

I had been planning to just drop it in and let the weight of the router hold it. But, it will probably shift a bit as I work.

Wondering if it is best to just "hard mount" with some screws or attempt to use filler and some kind of release agent on the plate edges, to make a tighter fit? Short of that, I could fab up and glue in some "spacers" to tighten it up. Come to think, that might be a saner idea, as the filler, all else aside, is likely to loosen up over time and fall out.

 

[DaninVan]

Joe; you could also enlarge the upper cutout portion (maybe up to an 1" bigger) and glue in 1 1/4' to 1 1/2' filler pieces, then re-rout the hole accurately. Leave the lower shoulder portion alone.

Rather than make the two side pieces exactly the right length, just make all the pieces maybe 4" -6" too long and just run them consecutively around the perimeter with only one end butted up squarely to the previous one...sort of pinwheel style. (Sorry if that doesn't make sense, Tom (DRT) has an illustration he posts occasionally. Stick does as well.)

 

[DaninVan]

...don't know why it didn't come up in the previous comment(?).

 

[JOAT]

One of the nice things about making your own router table is, you can make whatever changes you want. Or, just make another. I'd go with the glued in spacers. Should work, and if not I'd make another table. My plate is homemade, 1/2" plywood, and the weight holds it in place, no problem.

 

[DaninVan]

Anyone know why the YouTube links don't copy/paste properly?

...OK; if you put your pointer on where it says 'YouTube' in the banner, and click on it, it opens up! Weird.


A glitch apparently...everything is back to normal. Sorry for the doubled up link.

 

[RainMan 2.0]

I’ve wondered about this myself . Thought about bondo , that plastic stuff for repairing dents in cars , but not really sure how it would work ?
I’m kind of ocd , so I’d most likely abandon it and start over like the two times


If you do it again , make a template and test it for accuracy on a scrap before doing the main cut

 

[Nickp]

joe; you could also enlarge the upper cutout portion (maybe up to an 1" bigger) and glue in 1 1/4' to 1 1/2' filler pieces, then re-rout the hole accurately. Leave the lower shoulder portion alone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wxxxbg8oao
rather than make the two side pieces exactly the right length, just make all the pieces maybe 4" -6" too long and just run them consecutively around the perimeter with only one end butted up squarely to the previous one...sort of pinwheel style. (sorry if that doesn't make sense, tom (drt) has an illustration he posts occasionally. Stick does as well.)

+1...

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

Glue some shims in. Keep it simple.

 

[sreilly]

Decided to try my hand at making a router table top. I bought the Bosch plate, for the RA1181 table and a piece of melamine coated "shelving" from "L".

Outlined the opening and cut it, leaving a lip, then routed the lip to drop in the plate. Used a clamped straight edge to help stay straight. Well, it came out a bit oversize, so the plate can move a wee bit. Height is fine though.

I had been planning to just drop it in and let the weight of the router hold it. But, it will probably shift a bit as I work.

Wondering if it is best to just "hard mount" with some screws or attempt to use filler and some kind of release agent on the plate edges, to make a tighter fit? Short of that, I could fab up and glue in some "spacers" to tighten it up. Come to think, that might be a saner idea, as the filler, all else aside, is likely to loosen up over time and fall out.

Using the melamine for the top leaves me to wonder with that being a particle board material should you use something to harden or support the lip where the router plate sits? Or does your table design already do that? If not I'd consider some hardwood frame underneath for additional support.

 

[sreilly]

I had the side to side concern when I built my table. I bought a phenolic top to use with my system and had a slight movement if I tried to move it. Concerned so much that I called Jess EM as the holes in the corner of the plate didn't line up with the holes in the top. I was advised that the weight of the motor would be more than enough to keep it stable and after trying a few cuts realized they were right. Guess I wasn't the 1st to ask the question. I guess it depends on how wide the gap is. If too large you could cut a few wood circles and screw to the bottom of the plate using off centered holes to work like a cam and mount a grooved block as a stop to wedge it lightly. But honestly, before doing anything I'd try a few scrap runs and see if it really matters.

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

Using the melamine for the top leaves me to wonder with that being a particle board material should you use something to harden or support the lip where the router plate sits? Or does your table design already do that? If not I'd consider some hardwood frame underneath for additional support.

I built one with a piece of 5/8" melamine I had lying around. I think it was roughly 24 x 40. I used some leftover 1 x 6 spruce fence board and a couple of strips of some leftover ply for a frame underneath. I put some left over door brick mold as close under the router opening as I could put them but that was to prevent table sag from the router weight. (This was built as a throw away table to be left behind when I moved home from Alberta so the opposite of the phrase "no expense was spared" was the prime focus.) I even routed some grooves for t track in it which only left 1/4" of material under them but I put the grooves over the cross members. That table stayed flat and had no issues for the 6 years it was needed and it sat in a shed all year going from more than +40C to colder than -40C.

I never had a problem with the only 5/16 to 1/4" thick lip on the rabbet but the cross members under it are a good idea for insurance but you need them anyway to keep the table flat because melamine will sag under weight if there is too much distance between supports. I would keep it to a maximum of 16" between supports.