Router Table - Build or Buy???

[Dennis Collins]

Dennis, What router are you going to use in it? If you are going to use the Milwaukee 5625 build your own. Piece of cake. If so I will try to post some pictures tomorrow and if not I will defer. Allen

I have the PC 3.5HP plunge base router.

[CPeter James]

Here is a link to a table built in Canada. I have seen them and the quality is quite good for the price. He is very good to deal with.

http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/abarb/

CPeter

[Frank Pellow]

I
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The funny thing is as ugly as it is, it is ten times better than what my ex-teacher used to do. He would just sit his router upside down on top of a table and tie it down with with this cheap rope that broke real easily under pressure. That set up scared the crap out of me everytime I used it, because the router would slide around on the table during the whole process. I got a luxory set up compared to that guy.

That is the srariest use of a tool that I have eaver read about.

You say that the guy is your ex-teacher. I would think that, with tool use like that, his chances of also being also ex-this-world are quite high. As long as it's him that goes and not one of his students, we could regard this as natural selection in action.

[Frank Pellow]

Thanks for starting this thread Dennis. I am still not sure whether or not I even want a router table (remember the recent accidents that were reported here). But, if I do get one, John Harden's approach is probably the one that I will take,

You can do both if you want. I built a variation of the first Norm version and it's worked well for about 3 or 4 years. Recently, I purchased the JessEm phenolic router table top with built in lift. I particularly like the dust collection feature built into the lift that gobbles up the dust before it get's down to the router or inside the cabinet.

So, on this go around, I'll use a pre-made top and lift, then custom build the cabinet. This is a good solution for this lift and top as stock bases do not have storage built in. They're also a bit small. By building my own, I can make it higher as I prefer it up about 3" or so above the optional stand they offer or the Rockler stand. I also can build around the lift and belts and pulleys that go from the lift to the micro adjust dial built into the top.

Lessons learned from my other one will go into this new one.

That's my .02 anyway.

Regards,

John

Thanks for puting that idera into my head John.

[Allen Grimes]

That is the scariest use of a tool that I have eaver read about.

You say that the guy is your ex-teacher. I would think that, with tool use like that, his chaces of also being also ex-this-world are quite high. As long as its him that goes and not one of his studenets we could regard this as natural sel;ection in action.

I use the term teacher lightly. I learned practicly nothing useful from the guy at all. Everything I've learned has either been from books or the internet.

Anyway, one of his students recently had an accident, he somehow managed to cut his forearm open with a chisel. It was the teacher who actually told me about it when I saw him on the street and he was laughing about it saying that the guy was too dumb to be in his class.

I tried to tell him on many occasions that his practices were dangerous, but me being the student, he just ignored me or laughed it off. Needless to say I left that class, but it still gives me chills to know that some of the things Ive done in that class could have caused me to lose a finger, or even an arm.

By the way, I did talk to his superiors and they dont seem to care either. The laws here are basicly non-existant when it comes to stuff like that so there is no worry of him ever getting sued. All I can really do is recommend that people find another teacher.

The strange thing is, he says hes been WWing for 10 years, and he does still have all his fingers.

[John Dingman]

I vote for build as well.....

I built this one using a rockler top, extended the top with melamine (sp) and used an old kitchen cabinet for the base. The fence is a Freud with zero clearance inserts. I wanted to build Norm's table or a variation of it but I couldn't see throwing this cabinet out.


hth,
John

[Greg Narozniak]

Looks like great minds think alike

[Marcus Ward]

I was torn between buying something and building something, thinking I could save money if I bought something nicer off ebay but in the end a big discount at amazon (fence and insert) got me to do it myself. I bought the freud fence and rousseau insert. And then I bought a PC router (690rlvs) because the router I had didn't have a removable baseplate! (skil). One thing, those bits are sharp even when they're not moving. I whipped my hand across the insert to see how flush it was and forgot there was a bit sticking up. Ouch. Seems to work great and the freud fence hooks to my shop vac and almost completely eliminates dust, even on mdf, and the adjustment on the fence is very fine.