Large router table WIP

[Farmer Giles]

Thanks Bob

Now completed, I used an aerosol can top to seal off the unwanted tee, just need to tidy up the cable without making into a coil there are some bolts hanging down from the top so will cable tie them to that.

Next onto the drawers and cupboards.

Cheers
Andy

 

[cammy9r]

Hi, I did the same with my router with regards to the separate air flow. I don't have the same router as you but I cut out a small section to access the speed control and sealed the pipe with tape. On the outside I fitted a bathroom extractor exit vent with fine mesh sandwiched in to stop larger dust chunks getting drawn in to the router. It works well enough but does seem to pressurise the box part slightly, maybe my router design, causing air to be forced out of the router bit area. With dust extraction at the fence it does not seem to be a problem so far.

 

[Farmer Giles]

Hi, I did the same with my router with regards to the separate air flow. I don't have the same router as you but I cut out a small section to access the speed control and sealed the pipe with tape. On the outside I fitted a bathroom extractor exit vent with fine mesh sandwiched in to stop larger dust chunks getting drawn in to the router. It works well enough but does seem to pressurise the box part slightly, maybe my router design, causing air to be forced out of the router bit area. With dust extraction at the fence it does not seem to be a problem so far.

Thanks Cammy, I haven't got a door on it yet so I don't know if it will pressurise the box or not yet, as you say, with extraction I'm not sure it matters. I shall find a suitable vent cover on the shelves soon, I think I have one from the Toylander I made a couple of years ago as I had to put vents in to the electric motors.

I'm just making the drawers. Not sure whether to make the draw boxes then add fronts to the box or make the fronts integral. Separate makes it easier to line up so that may be the way to go. Cup of tea and head scratch time, I'm a drawer novice.

 

[John. B]

Hello Farmer Giles,
I hope you do not mind me joining your post at this late stage in router table build. I made myself a Router table/cabinet 3 or 4 years ago so I thought as you had yet to do your drawers I thought I'd show how I did mine.
They are Baltic ply screwed and glued to 1/4" MDF sheet that fit in a groove made by attaching MDF sheet to side walls of the drawer case either side of the router.

If you put a couple coats of sanding sealer on the MDF (It makes it much smoother) the drawers slide in and out without any problem.
John. B

BTW My normal thing is turning so I rarely look at other sections than the 'Lathe' section

 

[Farmer Giles]

Hi John, the more the merrier

I like that a lot, I've already screwed sliders onto all the sides where I'm having drawers but it's made me think that I may not need to make drawer boxes where stuff is located in holes like router bits. So I could do something similar for some of them, just screw the sliders to a ply board not a box.

I had a go at my first drawer box yesterday, using dominos and dadoes, worked OK, but I'm calling it a prototype as I got the dimensions wrong, it was exactly 100mm too shallow That's what happens when you rush, get interrupted and don't measure twice.

Ideally I should be using 12mm ply so I will get some. Plus I have nearly run out of 6mm ply.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Farmer Giles]

I'm still working on it, pretty boring stuff as I had 13 draw boxes to make. All dominoed ply with dadoes for the base. The last ones are clamped up now so I can start on the drawer fronts. I bought some iron on veneer so will start on them soon.

 

[Farmer Giles]

I ended up making all 13 drawboxes, however one or two were a bit tight, I cut all the ply with stops on so they were identical in dimension, it was just that the divider on the narrow drawers was 1mm off centre. Next time I will leave more tolerance on the draw boxes. This meant that I had to shave a bit off the drawers. Just over 1mm was needed so I took just over half a mill of each side with the rabett plane I was given a few weeks ago.

Nice shavings

I then spotted two issues, first I put the small drawers in slightly out of square. I used spacers to do it so at first I was scratching my head until I looked at the spacers. They were supposed to be the same but for some reason one as been sanded down. I use the plastic spacers you can buy from screwfix in 1, 3, 5, 8 and 10mm etc. I will sort this tomorrow, should only take a few moments. It didn't explain the reason the drawers were tight as they were tried before using the spacers. I seem to be making a bit of a meal of this!

The next issue was that the drawer spacing on each side would have been different as there is a horizontal divider on the right, but not the left as on the right there are different drawer widths and the vertical divider has to rest on something.

So I decided to put in a divider on the left to even it up. As the cabinet was built I couldn't use dominoes, biscuits etc. so blew the dust off a cheap pocket hole jig I bought many years ago but have never used. It was a bit wobbly using the built in clamp alone so I added a couple of additional clamps. The machining of the jig was a bit wonky and as long as sawdust there was a fair bit of alloy to begin with but did the job.

So now installed so the height of the drawer fronts on either side can be the same.

I'm now cutting the veneer and ply for the drawer fronts.

Cheers
Andy

 

[sunnybob]

You passed my attention to detail level about 1 hour into this build. Well done for seeing the job done properly regardless of cost or time.

I think youre going to have to put this cabinet on your house contents insurance as a "valuable item" , and decide who youre going to leave it to in your will. (VBG)

 

[Farmer Giles]

You passed my attention to detail level about 1 hour into this build. Well done for seeing the job done properly regardless of cost or time.

I think youre going to have to put this cabinet on your house contents insurance as a "valuable item" , and decide who youre going to leave it to in your will. (VBG)

Thanks Bob I haven't done any woodwork for a while so I thought it would be good practice to do a workshop job before I attacked the kitchen that SWMBO is desperate for me to start. I have learned a lot, not only about making cabinets with dominoes and with sliders etc. but where my weaknesses are and where I make most cock-ups so its been very useful, but probably overkill.

I have a cunning plan for the kitchen unit bases, lets just say I hate plastic kitchen cabinet feet with a vengeance but appreciate the height adjustment they allow. I have an alternative, it won't suit some but for me it is perfect. That will be in a different WIP, I have to complete the bedroom extension first which we will start as soon as the wagtails have finished nesting in the stone I intend to use for the walls

 

[sunnybob]

Dont talk to me about birds. we are plagued with sparrows, hundreds of them flying around the trees and nesting any where they can.
I had to chop down a 16 ft yucca tree with three full height branches a couple months ago. When I got the high branches down there was a 10 storey block of nests in there, and because of the climate they breed twice a year.
And we get the swallow type birds as well (dont know enough to be more technical) and I have to fight them off daily when it comes to nesting because I work with my garage door open and they fly in trying to nest in the corners. I have stood in the doorway flapping my arms and they just fly around me (and I'm just over 6 ft tall, in a 6 ft 6" doorway!). i often have to just close the door and walk away untill they can find another spot.

 

[Farmer Giles]

I get house martins trying to nest in the barn if I'm working in spring with the door open, very annoying!

First two drawer fronts veneered. You can just see the washers I'm using as spacers at the bottom, they are about 2.5mm thick, I though a decent bit of clearance is needed as the cabinet is mobile and the workshop floor isn't completely even so there could be a little bit of twist going on until I adjust the feet after moving it. i shall do the same at the sides and the drawer above. I haven't decided how to finish the veneer yet. I may veneer a couple of small bits of ply and experiment.

Cheers
Andy

 

[TFrench]

spacing and fitting the drawers was the most frustrating part of my table build. I cheated and fitted a face to the front of the drawer though to hide all my cock ups! :lol:

 

[Farmer Giles]

Same here! they can hide a multitude of sins. With complex cabinet shapes like this, keeping everything square is difficult, especially if your over ambitious with the scale of the glue-up. After this kitchen cabinets will be a doddle

As the missus was out I took all the drawer fronts into the house and veneered them using the iron this evening and for once the kids stayed asleep. I took care to put paper over the veneer before using the Tefal, we are going to a wedding soon and if there was a trace of glue on the iron that then transferred to the wife's or kids outfits then I would forfeit any brownie points I may have accumulated in the past or for the foreseeable future.

I used a swann morton 10A scalpel blade to cut the veneer, much sharper than a stanley type blade in my opinion. First time I have use a scalpel, not as sturdy as a stanley blade buts so sharp and very cheap.

The veneer is dark american walnut, I'm going to test the water based polyurethane and polyxy oil as finishes as I haven't time to make and test my own yet. But I have some spare veneer so will test other finishes at some point.

 

[n0legs]

This is going great FG =D>
Watching with interest, mine needs a serious update and improvement. I'll be borrowing some ideas :wink:

 

[sunnybob]

As long as you dont hide this one in a cupboard when its finished!

 

[AES]

Looks really VERY good FG, well done.

IMO, your work definitely qualifies as inspirational, along with a few other members on here - you all inspire me anyway.

=D>

BTW, +1 for the Swann Morton scalpel + the various different blade shapes. Packets of 5 blades are quite cheap, but if you didn't know, they respond very well to a VERY light touch on a fine oil stone (I use paraffin). I've used them a lot for aeromodelling - excellent on balsa, which generally, being soft and light, is very difficult to get a clean cut on unless the blade is VERY sharp. But as you say, NOT for heavy cutting.

AES

 

[Farmer Giles]

Cheers guys! thanks for kind comments. I copied a lot from "Stuff I Made" who is a member on here, he has a good youtube channel so can't take all the credit for the ideas. I do like how people take ideas from others and develop them.

I've just got back from my nephew's wedding and fortunately no glue from veneering transferred from the iron to SWBOs wedding outfit but I'm still in the dog house a bit after two nights on the lash. ccasion5:

I veneered all the drawer fronts, just need to get them all attached, handles on and finish applied. I'm not sure I will do much today, I'm still hung over :mrgreen:

 

[Farmer Giles]

Cheers guys! thanks for kind comments. I copied a lot from "Stuff I Made" who is a member on here, he has a good youtube channel so can't take all the credit for the ideas. I do like how people take ideas from others and develop them.

I've just got back from my nephew's wedding and fortunately no glue from veneering transferred from the iron to SWBOs wedding outfit but I'm still in the dog house a bit after two nights on the lash. ccasion5:

I veneered all the drawer fronts, just need to get them all attached, handles on and finish applied. I'm not sure I will do much today, I'm still hung over :mrgreen:

 

[sunnybob]

If the dog house was built to the same standards as the router table, I expect theres a beer fridge and water bed in there somewhere.

 

[Farmer Giles]

I do have a home made micro-brewery in the barn if that counts