# Table Saw/Router Table Station



## OPJ (23 Nov 2011)

This is something I was working on a few weeks ago and, even though there are still parts I need to finish off, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post it on the forum. The main cabinet is made from 18mm WBP exterior-grade ply and, in order to fit a home-made router table to the right-hand extension of my Elektra Beckum PK200 table saw, I first had to purchase a pair of aluminium base rails from Metabo via. D&M Tools... At no less than *£120!!!* :shock: A few months ago, they were only £80 or so. :roll:







You can see from the SketchUp drawing above that I wanted to be fairly economical with my usage of the plywood. I didn't want to end up buying a second sheet so, I decided to construct the top, back and shelf from a frame construction of narrow rail and stile rips. This also saved me the hassle of having to make large cut-outs from larger sheets. All joints were reinforced with no.20 biscuits but, I only wish I had a pocket hole jig, as that would've saved me having to get the sash cramps out:






Most of the plywood was initially cut outside on a pair of saw horses with a hand-held circular saw; using a knock-down support frame to keep the sheet balanced and also to prevent me from transforming my trestles in to kindling. All the narrow cuts though, were done later, on the table saw itself:






Without room for a zero-clearance insert on this model, I was left with some severe tearout on the cross-grain cuts, using a 40t blade (not that it matters on this job... Which is why I was ripping 'across' the grain, anyway. ;-)):






That shelf is fitted in to stopped grooves cut with my router:






With rebates used to locate and align the outer edges of the carcase. A Wealden tenon cutter fitted in my router left a beautifully clean cut, even across the fibres of the face veneers:






Once the main frames were assembled and rebated, I started the main assembly by fixing the central divider to the top side of the shelf:






Then, I attached each of the two ends to the shelf:






Followed by the top:






Then the base, before adding the back (not pictured):






It's all screwed together with drywall screws (damn you, Norm!! ). No glue, just in case I later decide to modify and/or recycle any of the components here.

I decided to make a new 'surround' for the lower half of my new router table, rather than attempting to cut-down the old benchtop one I made (which was also too narrow inside, for comfort). This was made from recycled 18mm MDF (most of which came from my previous table saw stand) and, using one of my temporary 'shop-made MDF width extensions, I was able to make some wide cuts on the table saw, with the fence G-cramped in place:






This is how it was looking with most of the work done. I had to add some strips of 16mm thick pine below the router table top to get it level and it still needs to be fixed in place:






Underneath, I decided to incorporate some form of 'dust hopper' to collect all [or, in my table saw's case - "_most of_"] the dust that does't reach either of my extractors. 100mm between the top and shelf didn't leave me with nearly as much space to make a truly effective system but, after a few minutes in SketchUp and a few hours drawing on scraps of 12mm MDF, I was able to produce something that does 'encourage' dust down to the 40mm extraction port:











All of the joints were hand-planed to the correct angle, once most of the waste had been removed on the bandsaw. Most of the angles were beyond the capacities of my table saw (at least, without spending time making some kind of jig to hold the MDF at a more 'near-vertical' angle). My old Tacwise 191EL electric nailer actually came in handy, here (if you ignore the fact that it barely even punches the pins in, let alone the heads). Possibly the third time I've used it in six-years! :-D Just a shame it had to die on me (!!!) part-way through assembling the second hopper for my table saw. Doubt I would replace it with the same again. 











There's no plenty of space surrounding the router for me to be able to change cutters and alter the height without anything obstructing the movement of the spanner:






But, where I had previously decided to raise the working height of my table saw by 48mm or so (18 + 12 + 18mm MDF) to allow for clearance below the router, I realised that I'd overcompensated and that I could actually save myself 30mm in height, which would bring the working height of both machines down to a more comfortable 1m from the floor.

All this work so far and yet, I'm not convinced I've saved myself any floor space at all...








Thanks for reading.


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## SurreyHills (24 Nov 2011)

I did something similar for my EB saw, however rather than just the rails I had a sliding table and needed to incorporate this into my design. I used 18mm ply but it was recycled so gave me a few problems with some of the boards having warped. Mine was based on an article I saw in one of the US woodworking mags. Whilst it hasn't saved space it has given me some much needed storage space.


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## woodbloke (24 Nov 2011)

Something I intend to do with the new Charnwood W650 as well Olly...anything to save a bit of space! - Rob


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## Tierney (24 Nov 2011)

ah the curse of the single garage. I think I spend more time re-arranging, building shelves moving stuff into the loft etc. than actually building anything.

Like the hopper idea by the way!

DT


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## OPJ (25 Nov 2011)

Thanks, guys.

Still need to get myself a length of aluminium channel so that and fix that to the edge of my router table top before I can go any further with this at the minute. That will then allow me to use the rip fence all the way across, with a ripping capacity that exceeds 600mm (more than enough for me!).

This afternoon though, I did have a go at 'flattening' the aluminium top of my table saw, using a belt sander:






There's an awkward 'lump' just to the right of the saw blade that makes precise setting and cutting to be quite awkward (although, that could now be less of an issue after purchasing a Wixey Bevel Box recently! ;-)). It is also directly over the motor, underneath. Before I started sanding (120g, on a slow speed), it looked as though the previous owner may have attempted something similar... Or, that could have just been general signs of wear from use. Either way; once you've started, it's clear to see where you have been and where you haven't:






All is not perfect but, it should be good enough and the top is certainly much more 'level' across its width than what it was before:






That great chasm surrounding the blade aperture was already there before I started sanding (I promise!!). It would take a lot of time and I'd lose a lot of aluminium before I got down to that level so, I'm going to leave it. Not that it'll help me in my quest for splinter-free cuts, though. One thought I'm still holding on to is the possibility of replacing the removable portion of the table to the left of the blade and replacing that with a nice, flat scrap of birch ply from work. That might also allow me to fit a zero-clearance insert... I got the idea from a for sale thread from last year:






Otherwise, I'll just fit a sacrificial board on to the saw first, if ever I do need cuts to be _that_ clean. It would be nice if I could prevent offcuts from slipping away down in to the saw's housing.


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## OPJ (16 Mar 2012)

An update on this one is too long overdue. As I finally made it back in to the workshop over the weekend then, here we go...

So, what I wanted to do next was to extend the mounting track for the fence, so that it could be used across the width of the router table as well. For this, I purchased a length of aluminium channel off eBay (only because I don't know of a local supplier):






I bought this up in another thread recently as I wanted to trim the 'height' on one of the 'side', so that the fence could slide over it and sit level on the surface of the router table.






This was achieved quite easily using an ordinary twin-flute straight cutter my router table, with the router set on its slowest speed and no more than a fraction of a millimetre removed with each pass.

It needed a bit of levelling with some countersunk screws...






And also, some rebating, so that the fence mounting could slide along without fouling:






If fits and, it works quite well:






Only minor downside is that the new channel I've fitted is only 3mm thick so, it's slightly thinner than what's already there next to it. Should I bother to try and pack it out?

Now, should I want to, I can complete rip cuts more than 2ft in width:






Yes, that effectively means ripping (not crosscutting) a full 8x4ft sheet in half. I can even squeeze another inch out if I move it further to the right. 

So, that is pretty much it...






It's not perfect and I haven't yet tested the sub-surface dust extraction to see how effective it actually is (I drilled the hole for the table saw's chute in the wrong place! ).

Believe it or not, I'm now thinking about selling the complete kit!! :roll:

I ran out of room almost immediately after starting this and, my mindset has once again changed; I'm going back to the idea of getting by with a bandsaw. I don't see why I really need a table saw, given the limited space I have. I'll be looking to build a stand-alone router table instead, next (I'm not selling the Freud router) and, erm, I've just bought another machine for a bargain price on eBay....  So, it'll just be the saw with blades, the router table without a router and the plywood cabinet/base.

Thanks for reading.


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## Hutzul (13 Oct 2012)

Hi OPJ, I'm undecided also as to whether make a combined router/table saw, or a stand alone router table, i'm gonna put it on t'back burner a bit. This is a neat router table I really like, and am liking more each time I see it. Hope it helps you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUZF3GdSSa4&feature=plcp


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