New Table Design?

2520 Views 7 Replies 7 Participants Last post by Earl, Sep 9, 2005

Jim-Iowa

Discussion Starter · Sep 8, 2005 (Edited)

I seem to have no shortage if Ideas, but like most Idea Men some of mine get way out in left field. So I thought I would run a few by you all and a few questions.
First I am saving for a 2 1/4- 2 1/2 range router kit. Am Waffeling between the Bosch 1617 EVS kit and the Hitachi (sorry model # escapes me).
Since the table I have is a craftsman and inadequate I intend to build a minimaliist table. I like the Benchtop designs with a pedestal base.
Now I am thinking a simple box simular to the Bench Dog(but homemade).
First I am thinking about using no plate at all, just a hole in the top.
Which brings me to and idea, I like the idea of inserts sized to the bits.
And though I might just size the openinng to fit inserts?
Secondly no lift at all, What about mounting the top to a piano hinge and tilting the top for cutter changes?
Third with a 2 1/2 hp router, panel raiser bits might be a bit much.
Has anyone been using Verticle panel bits and how did they work?
Fourth the one thing I liked about my Craftsman Table is it has a clamp that runs along the fence and allows me to clamp rails vertically and cut tenons on the table. So I may get a bit extravagant and rig up a way to do that with the fence?

Any ideas suggestions or comments are welcome.

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GoonMan

· #2 · Sep 8, 2005

Hello Jim,

I have the Bosch 1617 EVS and like it very much. I just recently purchased a New table so I could mount it and use larger bits. I do believe that I am going to purchase the 1619 soon so it will be permenantly mounted in my table. But for now I believe the 1617 will handle what I throw at it.

I have a large Lock Miter bit that will soon be put to use so I will see how it does.

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Woodnut65

· #3 · Sep 8, 2005

Hi, Jim-Iowa: Mounting a router through the table top takes away from the depth that you have in the router to start with. If the top is 3/4" thick you loose 3/8" or more, in verticle movement. Oak-Park sells router plates and the bushings to go with them. It's easy to lift the plate out of the table to change bits, etc. I have thier bench and it works fine. The plates they sell are 1/4" thick and with the original base off the router you loose less than 1/4" . I built a unit with drawers and doors below my router station, the saw dust has a place to go and the rest of the space gives me router bit, bushing, and other handy storage.
Hope this helps your decisssion.. Woodnut 65

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rh111

· #4 · Sep 8, 2005

I started with the basic bench table and then got a Bosch 1617EVSPK. The Router bolted directly to the bottom of the table, so I was limited in my bit travel and was starting to get irritated to no end and furiously frustrated with anything that I did with the *^$%)#& router. I thought that the root of my troubles was the router. I WAS WRONG. The root of the trouble was in the table. The table thickness limited me on what I could do with the router in the table. Made the sacrifice and upgraded tables. Got one with an insert plate. Best move I have made in a while. The inserts are fairly thin and allow all ranges of movement for the router to move up and down. When I got my new table set up, I measured and gained right at about 3/8" of vertical movement. What a difference 3/8" can make.

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Glenmore

· #5 · Sep 8, 2005

Jim-Iowa go to www.oak-park.com they even have the router table tops, base plates so that you can build around it and they are resonable with the pricing. I bought a router table from Boricua beginng of this year. All I needed was the plate for my router. I had a grizzly model bench top table gave me a lot of headaches couldn't get the thing to set up right. This one that they have from oakpark you can get the fence and clamps like the ones Bob and Rick use on there program now I do a lot more routing because it's a hole lot simpler just take the base out and adjust the router. I found even that was difficult to do in my old table. They have 2 different size base plates with different openings just in case you want to use bigger or smaller bits. So just check out there site and you decide what you want to go with hope this helps you out.

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pmspirito

· #6 · Sep 9, 2005

I have been using the router plate from Oak Park and liked it for the vacuum feature. However I did not like the limited "hole" in the middle. I just purchased from Woodpecker, the Incra people, their phenolic router plate with the set of insert rings. The hole openings rangs from 5/8" up to 2 5/8" there is also a blank insert that can be drilled out to a custom size. This allows me to switch from a 1/4 bit to a panel raising bit with a twist of the wrist and inserting a larger ring. And removing the insert makes bit changes a breeze.

I know the Incra stuff appears to be expensive. But once you see it demonstrated, and use it yourself its amazing. Joints that fit almost air tight. Every time after time after time.