Router Table for Grandpa Jake

Interior Layout

All joints in the carcase for this router table are either dadoed or rabbeted. Note also that the back is recessed from the rear for added rigidity and ease in mounting both the top and the entire router table to a base or work surface.

Glueup

The drawer slides (made of 1/2 x 1/2 inch oak strips) were glued to the sides before the glue-up was done. Here is a photo of the glue-up. The downside of the interlocking dado's and rabbets are that the entire assembly must be glued up at the same time, but on the plus side they help ensure the carcase is square.

Top mounted

Here is a photo of the top mounted with router installed. The top was made of melamine covered particle board with a 1/2 inch piece of plywood epoxied to its underside and a 3/4 inch x 2 inch oak trim mitered around the edges. The cutout and recess for router plate was done as follows: I clamped scrap blocks around all four sides of the router plate itself to ensure an exact fit, then removed the plate, and used double-face tape to secure additional 1/2 inch spacer blocks in its place. This allowed plunge routing cuts to remove the center waste and leave a 1/2 inch perimeter. After removing the spacer blocks and outside scrap blocks, this perimeter was used with router guide bushings to rout the recess that holds the router plate. The 7 inch tall router fence with T-slots and a wide router push block are also shown.

Finished

The finished project with the drawers installed, hold-down fence installed and oak facing on Plywood carcase. The drawers have cherry wood pulls. A re-movable 3/4 inch thick plywood insert in the drawers has 1/2 holes drilled for holding router bits. The router handles were removed to allow the underside router body bit height clamp and spindle lock button to be positioned to the front of the table for easy access. This also allowed the bit height adjustment crank hole to be positioned so that it would be in front of the fence as well. Only after optimization of the router controls was determined were the holes in the router plate drilled to accept the router base.

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