best homemade router tablesaw extension

[Kev Godwin]

Attachment 184275Mine is still a work in progress.Attachment 184274

Alan, it looks like your bit storage pulls out as trays. If I may ask, can you post some closer views of what you have there? It looks like your set-up there would work quite well as a hanging attachment to my set-up in my earlier post. Much appreciated if you can!
Kev

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I started with 1" MDF and a bit of oak. I built a frame from oak using pocket hole screws. My initial intent was to insert the top flush with the oak and pocket hole it into place. I practiced so that I had the correct tension.... but it was recommended to me that I rabbit an edge into the frame and also the 1" MDF. when I dropped the MDF into the frame, it was almost perfectly flush with the frame. Some of this is discussed here:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...ping&p=1617150

I then used a hand plane so that the fit was perfectly flush on the top.

My initial intent was to drill a hole and tap the mdf. I then intended to drop in some CA glue to toughen the threads in the MDF and then retap it. This sure seemed to produce a good joint, but, I drilled my holes too close to the edge so there was no way it would hold up. I ended up using wood pegs and glue on the pegs. I circled one of the pegs with red in the photos.

Next, I laminated the top and the bottom. If you live close, I have some laminate you can use :-)

I sealed my oak frame so that it would not expand much from moisture.

I used a template to route the hole for the plate.

I used a cobalt drill to drill holes into my cast iron saw table.

I intended to place my top in place and mark the holes and then drill them. This did not work because there was insufficient room to get the drill bit or much else from under the saw table out to my router top, so..... I took some 1/4" plywood. Cut it to width. Clamped the wood to my saw top so that the top was PERFECTLY flush with the top of my saw top. I then stuck a pencil through the hole for a small mark, drilled a small hole, placed the plywood back into place, then enlarged the holes with the wood in place using a round rasp and/or file.

I then turned my router table upside down, placed the 1/4" plywood next to it, and drilled the holes for the bolts.

While the ply was up, I marked the location of the rails so that I could use that to know where to drill holes to secure the table to the saw rails.

My holes went into the table, so I used a Forster bit to make room so that I could get a nut into place. I then used a chisel to make the hole the correct shape.

I still have work to do.

I will add a support frame that will be directly under the rabbited area where the router will sit. I already have two of the supports cut and drilled on my Kreg Jig. I sealed them and am waiting for them to dry. Might have been prudent to do this BEFORE I put it in place, but I was test fitting and I had help, so we just fastened it in. (note that my help was a five year old girl, but she was very helpful).

When I have this set and ready, I will then cut a dado in the top for a T-Track. I will run a router against my table saw fence, so I know that it will be parallel with my fence.

I will install my new Jessem Router lift when I am finished. I have already verified that it fits in the opening.

Although I have really enjoyed building this thing, my next one I will probably just purchase. One reason I opted not to is because I did not want to remove my table saw rails and shim them out. Seems that they are 1/16" narrower than a top I am likely to buy. Then again, I could also just use a router table as my saw outfeed table....

Oh, I may opt to add a support leg underneath, have not decided yet.

[Julian Tracy]

Well, this is bit of a stretch, but I've added to my router insert tools in my tablesaw wing. I just built one with an inverted 1/2 sheet Festool sander.

It all started when I was making xmas ornaments on the scrollsaw and holding them to my Porter Cable Speedbloc sander handheld to give them a bit of a finish sand. I thought maybe it'd be handy to have something like a SandFlea, but done with a Pad sander. So what the heck, after making it happen for my Porter Cable spindle sander, I figured I've give it a try for the 1/2 sheet sander.

Worked out pretty well. Vibration and noise are quite minimal. I'll build in a set screw height adjust to allow the pad to be at the perfect height in relation to the table.

I see this not getting used often, but yet a very handy addition for small work. It was fun to figure out and engineer.

Julian

[Alan Bienlein]

Alan, it looks like your bit storage pulls out as trays. If I may ask, can you post some closer views of what you have there? It looks like your set-up there would work quite well as a hanging attachment to my set-up in my earlier post. Much appreciated if you can!
Kev

Here you go Kev. I cut the side tracks from 1/2" baltic birch at 1" wide and cut a 1/4" x 1/4" dado down the center. I attached them with 1" pin nails. The pull outs for the bits are also 1/2" ply. I drilled the holes for the bits with a forstner bit set so the center tip almost went thru. 2-25-11 004.jpg2-25-11 006.JPG