looking for advice on a router table.

[Reggie]

Hi Guys, I've finally almost finished my bench, so now I'm looking at the router table to do next, the router table that I have was donated to me by my Father and was part of a shopsmith 5 setup, a nice thick lump of something laminated top/sides with a mitre slot cut along it's width.

The router table top as it stands only has the single mitre slot as mentioned, I'm wondering if this is enough, or whether I should look at trying to add a pair of slots to give me some front to back action? I was thinking of building the carcass for the router table a couple of inches bigger either side of the table top, which would allow me to leave the shopsmith router table top intact, then just add some side pieces the same height as the table with slots cut into it to accept aluminium mitre slot. Does this sound like a reasonable idea.

I thought slots down the side would give me a reasonable method of attaching a fence without any restrictions, if accurately placed it can also be used as an accurate method for lining up cut marks etc. and would also allow me to use sleds/jigs.

I'm not really interested in building my own table top from scratch at the moment, the shopsmith is a nice solid thick 460mm x 600mm top which looks way better than the flimsy looking things I've seen on rutlands/axminster going for < £100 , I've got plenty of mitre T-slot to play with (a cheap deal from rutlands).

Regards,
Reggie.

 

[Myfordman]

I find the versatility of fixing the fence to the table with F clamps very versatile. To this end the table top overhangs the support frame by 50mm or so at each end. IMHO about the only use for a tee track is securing a feather board. All work is referenced of the fence either directly of with sleds/jigs.

 

[Reggie]

It's a mitre T-slot, so it's sunk into the table, and usually used for mitre guides like a normal mitre slot but has the added bonus of the added 't' where I can add locking stops etc. I've seen plenty of setups and jigs using the mitre slot, the idea being that I can use the normal left to right mitre t-slot with a mitre guide/jigs, the front to back mitre slots could be used for clamping the fence without the need for much in the way of clamping and the can also be used with a sled setup that moves front to back.

This is the slot that I am talking about:
http://www.rutlands.co.uk/sp+48-t-track ... e+M_DK2051 absolute bargain if you buy it in packs of 4!!

I know what you mean by normal T-slot being used for feather boards, usually embedded into the front face of a fence, I have some of that too but that will be saved for the fence