Router tables

[Anonymous]

Can anyone please recommend a good router table, I have a budget of £400 so I would hope to be able to find a good quality model. The only ones that I have seen in the flesh are from the Trend range and they appear rather plasticy to me, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Richard

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Richard,

Have you thought about making your own, I did and saved myself a packet and its works a treat, overall cost about £75. This is a proper floor standing model and all you need is some 3/4" ply and a off cut of kitchen worktop. It has dust extraction the works, mine has done all I have asked of it, so what more could anyone ask.
Think about all the other lovely stuff you can buy from the money left over. I still have the plans if you want to have a go, you will be pleased with the results.
Give me an email on [email protected] if you want to use the plans.

Well that's my 2p worth, as you say they do tend to look very plastic, this one is all singing all dancing, if you fancy making one, it won't take long and it will last a life time.
Hope this helps.

 

[Anonymous]

i agree
derfinately make your own.

mines 3' square of 40mm worktop with a trend insert plate and this fence

www.patwarner.com/routerfence.html

cost about £30 for the fittings and i made it from offcuts.

its better than any shop bought fence


aleks

ps with the £300 you save you can go and buy some more toooooolllllsssss!!!!!!!

 

[sawdustalley]

Hi

Keep your eyes peeled to sawdustalley over the next month, I will be guiding you through the complete construction. I'll also be putting plans of the finished article up.

I agree making you own is the way to go, I'm planning to make it out of MDF, and i'll also be showing you the best way to make the top.

I'll be fitting it hopefully with a Trend plate, and NVR (safety) switch, a must for a router table! :shock:

 

[The Wizard]

Richard,

I have just read that you think the Trend gear is a little plasticy ( I wonder if that is a real word as well :? ) It is withought doubt that it is made of plastic but it is like a very resilient form of moulded nylon. The table appears to be true and I have achieved some good results. The hardest thing is setting the cutter height accurately and more choice of inserts would be useful. However, if you are using a router table for the first time as I was, I don't think you can go far wrong as long as you spend the time setting it up.

Regards

Wiz

 

[Mike.C]

Richard, If you do decide to build your own table may i suggest that with the money you save you spend some of it on a Rout R Lift insert from Rutlands (www.rutlands.co.uk).

At £159.95 it is not cheap, but you will never have the same problem that The Wizard has with setting your cutter height. It is so precise it take routing to a new level.

Good Luck

Mike

 

[Anonymous]

This is my first reply ever.

Around here the New Yankee Router Table is considered to be the king of the hill. I've built it myself ( link ) and I'm really happy with its performance.

I went all out and bought the Jess 'em Mast R Lift but a less expensive plate would work fine too. If you buy the Jess 'em plate you can simply drop in the lift at a later time because they use the same size hole.

I hope that my first post was a good one and not too American centric. I'm not sure how much overlap there is between the products that we buy.

 

[Mike.C]

Hi Vanguard,

Yes your first post was a good one, as is your copy of Norm's router table, it really does look fantastic. Where can i get the plan for this table? I would really appricate it if you could point me in the right direction.

I enjoyed looking around your website too. Except for reading about your accident. It really does hit home at how dangerous our hobby can be. All it takes is a split second and any of us could lose a finger or worse. When i think of the times i have not been concentrating and my hand has ended up much to close to the blade on my table saw. It is only through luck that i too have not damaged my fingers.
The moral of the story is to ALWAYS use a push stick no matter what, concentrate on what you are doing, and not to chat to family or friends whilst using machines such as these.

How is your hand now?

By the way, i noticed that you have an Air Filter hanging from your roof. I was thinking about getting one similar to this. What are they like? Do they really clear the air as much as they say they do? Do you still need to wear a face mask with one of these running?

Best of luck with your hand.

Mike.C

 

[Anonymous]

Actually, I didn't hurt my hand. There was a guy on another forum who posted that story as a word of warning for others. He didn't have a website and he wanted to post pictures so I offered to build a page for him. If you read it really carefully you'll notice that it was written by a guy named Stuart. However, several people have written me to ask me how "my" hand was doing.

Stuart had surgery and he's currently in physical therapy. They expect it to heal "almost" as good as new. He might have a permanent loss in his range of movement and it might feel "tight" in certain weather conditions.

Regarding the router table plans, you can buy them from the new yankee workshop. The New Yankee Workshop is a TV show about woodworking that I really enjoy. http://www.newyankee.com/getproduct3.cgi?0301 I would buy the video too. However, if you're really experienced you might be able to make do without it.

Finally, I have an review of the air filter on the web site: http://www.employees.org/~vanguard/wood ... air_filter

 

[Anonymous]

One final note: If you go back to my router table page, http://www.employees.org/~vanguard/wood ... uter_table you'll see a link at the top filled with tips and lessons learned. You might be interested in that too.