T-Bolts

[The Woodpecker]

Just recently signed up as i have suddenly developed the urge to get into woodwork. Probably spending way too much time reading this forum (some excellent stuff on here) and watching woodworking videos instead of actually making things though....

My first project after having now completed the workshop (glorified shed) is to make a router table. I bought a cheap Ferm router table and proceeded to dismantle it and place it into my workbench and hopefully make a more substantial router table.

I have made the fence and installed some T-track for it to slide on and also put some track in the fence itself for fitting accessories at a later date.

The problem i'm having is that i am finding it really difficult to source some T-bolts to fit into the track and up through the fence in order to tighten the fence down to lock it in place. The slot dimensions for the bolt head are 23mm wide and 3mm deep and the fence is 100mm high so i need a bolt around 120mm long, alternatively a t-nut and some threaded rod would do the job!

Does anyone know a good source for these please?

 

[Reggie]

You don't need the t-bolts to go all the way up through the fence, the fence is usually an L shape and the bolts go through the horizontal part of the L, like this one http://www.provenwoodworking.com/images ... e-back.jpg as you can see you get the added bonus of having somewhere to attach dust extraction.

 

[The Woodpecker]

Doh! (hammer)

That's my first mistake sorted then I didn't make an L shaped fence, just a length of 100mm x 50mm thinking that would be very solid....i now see the flaws in my design!

Should be a lot easier to sort out now when i rebuild it!

Thanks for the help Reggie!

 

[Reggie]

You're welcome I haven't built a fence yet but I've looked at lots of pictures and read quite a bit, I'd go and have a look on the incra, woodpecker, kreg, woodrat and jessem sites if I were you, to get yourself some inspiration.

From what I've seen, There are really 2 standout products, the incra fences/ls positioner systems and the woodrat, the features that stand out on both are the precision systems for moving fences/workpieces. So apart from those things, everything else that you want for a fence or router is pretty standard stuff that people have been using for years, clamps, featherboards, push sticks etc. and they're mostly pretty simple to make, once you've seen a few things will jump out at you that you can do easily for yourself. I'm looking forward to building a fence and a sled myself

 

[rafezetter]

I'd +1 what Reggie said, as I've been planning my own router table for a while now as well, google "homemade router" and you'll get a huge number of sites, and if you get an "images of.." return, look at those too for ideas.

Most router fences have the same configuration more or less - the better ones have a split secondary fence to increase or decrease the opening according to bit size, thus giving as much support as possible to what's being routed. Some of those split fences can be offset too so the outfeed (after the router bit) fence can be moved towards you the same depth as the material removed, which greatly reduces the possibility of "snipe" as you put the item through at the end, as you can safely put pressure on the outfeed side to pull the wood through - not something normally possible without this feature as you'll end up pushing the wood further onto the bit than you wanted to go and taking an extra bite out of it.

Also having space for clamping featherboards, sacrificial wood and other doodads is pretty much a must.

Many many of the homemade fences are just as good or better than bought ones, so before you jump in and buy one (unless you have the spare funds ofc) have a look see, you might be able to make it yourself.

 

[Reggie]

I had a bit of a result today, not sure if it's a long loaner or a keeper, either way I have shopsmith Mark V router table at my disposal. It either fits on the bar/leg extensions for a shopsmith machine or it can be mounted standalone. It also comes with a router table fence, which is essentially 2 bits of angle ali and a bunch of knobs.

The only issue with it at all is the fact that it's got a shopsmith T/mitre slot which is slightly smaller than a standard T/mitre slot, so my slider bars don't actually fit Easily remedied if I can find a cheap bit of mitre slot somewhere.

 

[The Woodpecker]

Thanks Rafezetter

When i built my table i looked made the assumption that the purpose of the split fence was, as you say, to accommodate the size of the bit and also to extend the length of the fence when required.

I opted to build a solid fence because i thought it would be easier, stronger and more accurate. I figured the hole in the fence would just end up whatever size it needed to be and that i wasn't likely to be cutting anything small enough to worry about the size of the hole. I also made the fence 38" long so wouldn't need to extend it.

However, i hadn't considered the option to offset the out feed section of a split fence, which seems like a good idea and i will most likely opt for that in my version 2 fence

 

[The Woodpecker]

Nice work managing to wangle yourself a free table Reggie

What size is "standard" t-track?
This is what i bought from tilgear and i'm still struggling to find suitable bolts for it. Shorter bolts will now suffice ;-)

I looked at both the incra LS and the woodrat systems and they look amazing! The incra system makes it all look so easy and is the much cheaper of the two at $310 (£205) assuming they can be bought in the UK for that?

The rat is a bit of a curve ball... i like it but i'm undecided,and it's over twice the price and doesn't seem quite as user friendly!

 

[Reggie]

it was mainly to give you ideas about how you can move a router or a jig about on a flat surface and some of the weird and wonderful ways you can arrange fences, clamps, featherboards etc.

I like both the incra and the woodrat systems, they've both really thought about what they're doing and offered everything you could really want from either system, the incra does everything with precision and allows you to be repetitive, the woodrat is almost every kind of routing 'right way up' jig rolled into one, morticing, finger jointing, dovetails.

And yes, the standard mitre slot or T mitre slot is usually a standard 3/4" wide by 3/8" deep, the groove you cut in your table will of course have to be wider and deeper to accommodate the aluminium itself.

 

[Reggie]

looking at the actual item on the tilgear website, it actually looks like it's a 'T' mitre slot which is better (generally) than a plain mitre slot, the 'T' part of the mitre makes it really simple to bolt accessories to the mitre slot locking them in completely, so if you only wanted to cut to a certain distance with a sled you could bolt a 'stop' into the mitre slot which would restrict the movement of the sled

 

[The Woodpecker]

looking at the actual item on the tilgear website, it actually looks like it's a 'T' mitre slot which is better (generally) than a plain mitre slot, the 'T' part of the mitre makes it really simple to bolt accessories to the mitre slot locking them in completely, so if you only wanted to cut to a certain distance with a sled you could bolt a 'stop' into the mitre slot which would restrict the movement of the sled

The problem is that i can't find anything to fit the slot because the depth of the slot is only 3mm deep but 23mm wide

I had to cut up some hinges , attach some ply and fix to underside of fence to slot into the track and then run some threaded rod through the fence to tighten onto the bench in order to lock into place (this was before i added the vertical section to the back of the fence), it's functional but far from ideal!

 

[Reggie]

I would say that your fence maybe too thick. most are generally around an inch thick, it's a neat space saving idea putting the bits in the top like that but personally I would be a little worried about having them anywhere near a spinning bit that they could fall onto, or where I could bend the shafts or hit them when turning a workpiece.

As for your t-slot, the 19mm gap is correct (that's the 3/4" part) and the T part of the slot is just a standard, if you phone someone like rutlands, axminster etc. and describe the slot, they will be able to tell you exactly which bolts to buy

http://www.rutlands.co.uk/sp+woodworkin ... a+m_dk1057

Those look like the right ones but check with them first before you purchase

 

[Dee J]

Looks like you need to move into metalwork... cut some squares of 3mm steel plate to fit the slot and weld a nut or the head of a bolt onto the centre of the plate. Easy enough to make t-nuts or bolts. I'm sure you could find someone local to do a little welding!

Dee

 

[nanscombe]

At a pinch, would an M10 coach bolt, with the head ground down a bit, work?

If I'm reading the linked diagram correctly ...

M10 coach bolt:
Head Diameter: 24.65mm
Head height: 5.38mm

Target:
Slot width: 23mm
Slot height: 3mm

 

[The Woodpecker]

Thanks for all the tips and advice, much appreciated!

Decided to go for the easiest and cheapest option and grind down some M10 coach bolts. Should finally be able to start using (play with) the table properly tomorrow