Metal routers vs. shop made wooden routers

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Another thing to add - the old stanley routers can often be had pretty cheaply used.

And as others have said, using the Veritas blades is a good option (for the Stanleys as well) and then if you get a metal router plane, you've got two planes that can use the same blades, so even if you ditch the original router, you've got blades of use to you.

[Richard Line]

If your next project is Chris' saw bench, then I would suggest a slightly different approach to building them, or at least dressing up the leg/top joints. Chris does use a router plane, but a shoulder plane will work pretty well also. However, here is a suggestion that builds on Chris' approach. He gangs the legs together and the tops, so he can dress all legs (or tops) at one time. This is a great approach. For you, I would suggest using a block plane (low angle is my pick) or a bench plane to do most of the final dressing, and then Joshua's recommendation of a chisel to do the final dressing, and the corners that the plane couldn't work.

Ganging or clamping 4 legs at a time or the 2 tops together will give you a much larger surface to register on and dress. That should help a lot in getting well aligned and dressed joint surfaces.

[Jim Koepke]

The first project I need it for is a saw bench (was going to use the $5.87 saw bench plans Chris Schwarz published).

There are many ways to build a saw bench. My recollection is the Chris Schwarz saw benches have perpendicular legs as opposed to splayed legs like a typical saw horse. My preference is for a little splaying on the legs for stability. Mine tend to get used for more than just sawing.

Here is a post on my making a saw table:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...-Table-Project

It is easy to vary its construction by just changing the angles from 15º to 0º.

A few have been built since the linked post. My joinery has improved with each one made. Each one's construction has given me new insights. With "cull" lumber from the orange borg, my material cost on many of them has been less than $2.

jtk