Woodworker's Journal 2009-33-3, страница 36

Our author's workbench router table breaks down in a hurry and features a clever homemade lift system of his own design.

A router lable doesn't have lo cost a fortune or weigh a ton to deliver professional results. My version's 1 "-thick top doesn't even require a cabinet base or legset — it simply clamps to my workbench. The project features an adjustable split fence with dust collection, plus a router lift made from ordinary home-center hardware. By removing three pairs of carriage bolts and wingnuts. I can remove the lift, router and fence easily for convenient storage.

I designed my router lift to suit my Festool OF 1400 plunge router, because il plunges without the need to engage a release lever. The lift may work with oilier routers, too, but study the Drawings on page 36 carefully to verily the compatibility with your machine.

Installing the Router in the Table

Get started on the project by ripping and crossculting the tabletop and two mounting blocks (pieces 1 and 2) to size. Notice in the Drawings and the photos at right that, instead of hanging the router from a removable plate, I make use of the two metal edge guide rods that come standard with the tool. My router sits in a 3/4"-deep recess milled into the table's bottom face. The mounting blocks clamp the guide rods in grooves on the table, and that's what holds the machine in place instead of screws.

If your router does not have guide rods, then you will need to modify the tabletop to accept a router table plate or simply mount the base to the lable with screws.

For those routers with guide rails, mount them by first centering and locking the guide rods on the router's base. Position the router on the lable blank (see the Drawings), and trace the base and rod shapes onto il. Rout the router base recess freehand with a straight bit in a series of deepening passes. Now, switch to a core box or a straight bit with a cutting diameter that matches the guide rod diameter. Run your router against a clamped straightedge to rout a pair of shallow grooves for the guide rods into the table. Make their depth match the radius of the rods. Mill pairs of matching rod slots across the mounting blocks. Space these to line up perfectly with those on the table. Finally, set the router into place, fit the mounting blocks over the rods and drill a single, centered 3/8"-diameter bolt hole through both blocks and the lable.

Once you've marked the router and guide rod positions on the table blank, rout a 3/4"-deep recess into the table for the router base (top photo). Switch to a core box bit to mill shallow grooves for the guide rods. Make the groove depths half the rod diameter (center photo). Rout matching slots into both mounting blocks that fix the rods against the table. Fasten the blocks to the table with carriage bolts, washers and wingnuts to complete the router installation (bottom photo).

Woodworker's Journal June 2009

35