Large router table WIP

[sunnybob]

Youre spending the weekend in the pub?
Good man!

 

[Farmer Giles]

I wish, take kids to Judo, go to Hull for Dinsdales joke emporium as we promised the kids, then other city of culture stuff, then my brother's farm near Whitby, then the pub at last

 

[Farmer Giles]

I had a day finishing off the design after laying up the plate and the router. The router is on an angle when the mounting holes line up and the rise/fall handle hole coincide. This makes the router cabinet bit deeper so I rejigged the drawer layout to cope with this.

This is the router with the router cutter about 400mm from the edge and lined up with the mounting holes, to give clearance to get around it the cabinet needs to be at least 550 deep so I'll make it 600.

Here's the new front elevation taking this into account

The left elevation has also changed as I am doing away with the two drawers, and instead I will have one shallow cupboard the full length of the cabinet in case I want to take the fence off, its expensive so this will keep it safe.

This means the right elevation also changes slightly as the pull out cabinet is not as high.

Final placements of the router cutter hence router plate and the t slots are shown on the plan taking into account comments received. I also place the mitre slot half way between the table edge the cutter

Now I can start ordering drawer hardware and start working out how to best cut sheets for the carcass. Removal of a drawer under the router gives me a bit more depth to play around with as Bob suggested for clean air to the router.

Cheers
Andy

EDIT - there is a mistake on the plans, the top is 1220 not 1200, its correct on the plan view but in correct of the front elevation, no big deal and I have corrected it in my version, but I thought I would get this in before some eagle eyed member spotted it

 

[sunnybob]

Andy, presuming this router is staying in the cabinet, why not take off the handles and give yourself some room?

I have a big makita in mine. I removed the handles, zip strapped the switch permanently on, and routed the power through an NVR switch on the front of the table. In a real panic, i can just lean my leg in and switch it off.

 

[Farmer Giles]

Hi Bob

I was looking at the handles to see if they remove easily, I will think about it when it comes to assembly time if they get in the way. Although it is intended for it to stay in the table, you never know when you may need it outside the table.

I already have the NVR switch, it's shown on the left elevation, the on/off bit, it's not an exact facsimile of the one I'm using but it serves the purpose. I was going to steal the one off my old Trend router table but I'm going to sell that as a complete unit so bought another.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Farmer Giles]

I intended to edge the drawer frame in oak but I'm running low on straight seasoned oak so I may not edge the surrounds for the cupboards etc, on the ends, so just the front. I'll have a another dig around and see if I have some old oak floor boarding left but think I have scraping the bottom of the barrel. I shall start cutting the sheets up later today or tomorrow. It looks like at around 3 sheets of 18mm BB grade birch ply so far.......

EDIT Correction, just looked in the general dumping ground for old boxes and stuff above the office and I've found a treasure trove of old oak off-cuts, more than enough for this job

 

[sunnybob]

18 mm seems a bit on the heavy side. Especially if youre going to make any framing for it.
Mine is made from 12 mm and is plenty stable enough. You certainly wouldnt need 18 mm for drawers and faces, they could be done in 9 mm. you could save a fair bit of money by reducing the thickness of everything.

 

[Farmer Giles]

Your right Bob, I should have ordered some 12mm. I have a couple of sheets of 9mm for the drawers but for the carcass 18mm is a bit OTT in retrospect. I'll have a think, I could get some 12mm BB ply but it will delay me just when I have some workshop time and that's at a premium at the moment.

I could buy some cheaper 12mm ply for the inner partitions and use the 18mm BB for the outer, that would be a compromise that I could make as I can get the local builders merchant to deliver that quickly.

 

[Farmer Giles]

The formica turned up late today so I stuck it on. I used tips from this forum to lay it and everything went smoothly, well except for one small thing.

I laid it on battens after making sure the glue was well and truly dry, however one of the battens must have had a small of dirt or a splinter, tiny it but shows up through the formica like a pea under a princesses mattress. Unfortunately it doesn't look like it will be in the path of one of the mitre, T tracks or router plate however I'll think of something, I will either drill a hole where it is and make a feature of it, or drill it carefully with a sharp forstner bit and make a patch. Something will spring to mind.

 

[Farmer Giles]

I have a solution and it's simple. I bought two identical bits of buffalo board and I also bought an 8 x 4 sheet of formica. The intention was to make a drill table which will be much smaller so I can hide the defect by using tonight's lamination for that one.

So tomorrow I will laminate the other board but instead of being lazy and using the oak I cut into 20mm strips fo edging, I'll dig out some softwood battens and make sure they are clean.
The oak strips had the odd bit of tearout from the PT and I think I must have dislodged a splinter when I pulled the batten out.

 

[Farmer Giles]

First half of today was a mixture of sticking the formica to the other buffalo board and dad's taxi. The top is now laminated without any foreign bodies or mother-in-laws underneath the formica.

I resisted the urge to route the plate hole in the top etc. and carried on with the carcass. First the base. I wanted to put these leveling casters on the base, the concrete in the workshop isn't too bad but you can still get a bit of a rock. I haven't tried this type before. They come with 30mm long M10 grubs screws and nuts, these weren't long enough as I wanted to reinforce the base with an extra layer of ply where the casters mount so I used so countesunk A2 SS M10 bolts I had from a previous job. These needed about 20mm cut-off with the slitting saw and a quick dab with the flap disk to clear the threads.

I then glued and nailed some reinforcement to the bottom, I also dominoed a strip of oak to the front edge. As I was hoping not to see the underneath of the base for a good while, I gave it a quick sand and a coat of Bona Mega that I had left over from a flooring job in the house, I think its similar to Dulux Diamond?, basically a water based floor sealer.

I countersunk the large heads with a cobalt zero flute countersink that I usually use for steel, I could have done with a drill press for both the hole and the countersink but managed to do it OK, my freehand drilling is not too straight. I do have a milling/press but its covered in oil. I also have a couple of radial arm drills in various stages of repair or assembly but neither could help me today.

Then bolted the feet on, they have an unfeasibly large skinny nut under the wheel, even my collection of old spanners wouldn't touch it, closest I got was a flat 1" whitworth but that wasn't big enough. Fortunately only one wheel spun while tightening them up and I held the nut by wedging a screwdriver against it.

I then cut a few more panels, I was hoping to cut them all then assemble but I have made the design quite complex so will cut a few, dry fit, cut a few more. I'm really impressed with the Maffel Jigsaw, it works lovelly with the Bosch rail system, no wander or bent blades and leaves such a nice finish that I no longer add a millimetre for fettling, just take it to the measurement and go. My Bosch and Metabo jigsaws are heading for pastures new.

Next window of opportunity seems to be Saturday, I hope to at least get some of it assembled.

Cheers
Andy

 

[sunnybob]

I'm not familiar with the fence youre going to use, does it need that much space behind the router?

Your comments on the jigsaw and rail have got me interested. I have a makita jigsaw and I hate having to use it. it will NOT cut a straight line and even a brand new blade will bend and wander within two foot of cutting.
I've got a circular saw and rail system at the top of my wish list, hadnt thought of using the jig saw with the rail.
More details on that please.

 

[Farmer Giles]

I'm not familiar with the fence youre going to use, does it need that much space behind the router?

It does have a micro adjuster behind it however it doesn't need quite as much space as this, the table size was governed by the size of the buffalo boards I acquired, the need for more storage for woodworking tools, the ability to store the fence underneath when not in use and I am going to mount my axminster radial arm drill on the far end temporarily until I have rejuvenated my Meddings A10 monster.

Your comments on the jigsaw and rail have got me interested. I have a makita jigsaw and I hate having to use it. it will NOT cut a straight line and even a brand new blade will bend and wander within two foot of cutting.
I've got a circular saw and rail system at the top of my wish list, hadn't thought of using the jig saw with the rail.
More details on that please.

I my experience, all conventional jigsaws suffer from the same design flaws so no matter if you have Bosch, Metabo, Makita, DeWalt and probably even Festool, they will not cut a straight line, work on a rail system or cut perpendicular on a curve. I have tried two of them on a set of tram lines with a vast selection of new and different blades and unless you are cutting 1mm per hour they just wander and bend.

I do have a table saw and a hand circular saw but as I don't cut that many sheets, the advantage of the Mafell P1CC is that it will cut sheets accurately, cut up to a shoulder/corner, cut curves perpendicular and leaves a lovely finish. It's dear but my swear word vocabulary has contracted since buying it.

I can't explain it better than this guy's demo, a slightly annoying voice for some reason but the demo is spot on, it does exactly what it says on the tin, worth every penny, I got it from D&M tools in a package deal with all the fences/bases plus a small section of Mafell track. This is identical to Bosch track and I bought a package of 2 x 1.6m rails and joining piece from here very cheaply considering the usual price and they are still on offer

 

[Farmer Giles]

Slow but steady progress, I've cut about two thirds of the panels and started assembling some. I've used mainly dominoes with the occasional screw where I can't clamp it, or I can't insert a domino or if I think it needs a bit more strength. I'm a domino novice so I have made the usual schoolboy errors like the accidental "through mortise" when you change bit sizes and suddenly you go through the board. I'm still learning some of the quirks, using 20mm sheets would have saved me a few mistakes

The left hand side shows part of the full length compartment under the router cupboard for the fence when not in use. Above is the router cupboard, in front of this will be 450mm deep drawers. The edge of the router plate just fouls the top of the board that forms the back of the drawer space, but only by the thickness of the board so I can get around it OK with a small cut-out.

The right hand side isn't shown much here but there's a pull out cupboard to the rear/side and 450mm deep drawers to the front.

With a bit of luck I should have the main carcass finished by next weekend.

Cheers
Andy

 

[sunnybob]

You have more patience than me, my base is a complete lash up without a single "proper" joint in it. I Disassembled a super king bed base, and used the two large drawers from it and built the cabinet around them. Works fine, looks 'orrible.
I spent all my time on the top.

That mafell is something else. i would not have believed the advert if you hadnt backed it up. But sadlly thats well above my tool allowance for the year. maybe next year.

I could have done with it though as I'm just about to start an ambitious free standing pergola with lots of cuts on timber too big to get onto my bandsaw.

 

[Farmer Giles]

I was tempted to lash something up quickly for the base too, especially once all the shiny bits arrived but as my excuse for doing this before the kitchen was that I was practicing new techniques and tools to use on the kitchen I thought I had better keep to the script. As it happens it has been extremely useful, I have made a few mistakes and now know what not to do next time.

I was a bit ambitious with the first glue up and once the clamps came off, there must have been a bit of tension in it and the top is a couple of millimetres off square from the base, or was, I have had to correct it with each addition of panels by judicious clamping and screwing. I tried to do too much with the dominoes in one go so will take it easier next time.

Here's progress so far, this evening I got the far end panel on complete with oak edging, plus the panel at the near end that forms the pull out larder style cupboard, I also fitted the runners top and bottom for this. It is also down on the ground now rather than being on the workmate, I don't think that helped with the clamping as it was overhanging quite a lot plus the next job after the remaining end panel is the top. The top will be 18mm ply, and then the buffalo board router table will sit on that so getting it nice and flat is important.

It's by no means perfect but I think it will work OK, the kreg plate levelers should arrive soon, I wish I hadn't bought them now as I had a brain wave the other night and could make my own for a few pence with some long M6 bolts, a few nyloc nuts, a few penny washers and a couple of bits of plate in about and hour.

Cheers
Andy

 

[sunnybob]

The levellers are ok to use, and they have 2 allen key micro adjusters on every side of the plate, which you adjust for absolute alignment before tightening down with the big screws. Dont lose any of the screws, they are all imperial thread.
A word of advice there, the act of tightening the big screws lowers the plate a tiny amount, so make sure you re check level after tightening.

I also laid the table onto a thick layer of sanitary ware silicone for two reasons.
1 The table sank into the silicone to make sure there was no uneven forces pushing the table out of true. I have NO screws holding the top to the bottom. I use the table a lot and have never felt any movement.
2 to make a sound deadening barrier. With a solid construction, vibration and noise echoes inside the hollow wooden box.

 

[Farmer Giles]

Thanks Bob, I'll take that into account when I fix the top, rather than fiddle about under the table I was going to fit the plate adjusters and plate before placing the routing table onto the cabinet.

No more tinkering time now until Friday evening however I did count up my available tool money last night and was deciding on a mitre fence when the dog jumped on the sofa and nudged me and I accidentally bought an Incra mitre fence, honest That will be my last purchase apart from wood, finish and glue for quite a while.

While away from the workshop, I'm thinking of NVR switch placement. The one I have bought has a socket and plug pre-wired. Previously on tool refurbishments like my mechanical hacksaw and milling machine I have just bought the NVR switch and hard wired it but I was hoping to be able to remove the router if necessary. I still want to do this but I am having second thoughts about the NVR with the socket on the side so will buy another NVR switch that I will wire to a socket on the inside of the router cabinet and the inlet will be hard wired to the opposite corner which is the optimal placement. I also bought some 75mm heat shrink tubing for the dust extraction, I will be using a collection of plumbing fittings and flexible hose. Damn, I have just broken my no more purchases pledge - last time, honest!

 

[sunnybob]

i have no intention of removing the router from my base, so happily removed the handles and cut into the wiring to fit an NVR on the outside front of the cabinet. Its placed just below the table overhang on the right hand side, but if I really needed to turn it off fast i can nudge it with my knee.

My one concession to reversing the process was I kept the spring switch that was in the router handle. I just plastic zip strapped it closed and taped it over the side of the router.

I couldnt be fussed with taking the router in and out, and I'm a firm believer in the saying "you can never have enough routers".

I have 5 now, ranging from the big maklita in the table to couple of makita edge trimmers that I got in a second hand tool grab when a friend gave up woodworking, with a powerplus and a small bosch in between.

For future reference, dont buy a powerplus. Very unhappy with the build quality on that one. The 20 year old makitas outperform it from new.

 

[AES]

Excellent build, design, and WIP Farmer Giles. Thanks for posting

"One of these fine wet days" he sighs to himself!

AES