Woodworker's Journal 2009-33-6, страница 41

Cut a pair of grooves into the bottom of the router's tilting table top using a dado blade in the table saw (top photo). These house the plywood compasses. To mount the top to the table's base, studded hand screws are installed through the curved slots and screwed into the threaded inserts you installed earlier.

It's easiest to use a plunge router to cut the two radiused slots in each compass. But by using a little finesse when starting and stopping slots, a regular router or laminate trimmer will work. For the smaller slots, set your router's circle jig so that there's 5" between the pivot point and the centerline of a 5/16" straight bit. Rout these slots on each of the two ends of the compass blank, starting and stopping the bit at the lines you marked. Now reset the circle jig to an 11" arc and rout the two larger-radius slots (photo, opposite page lower left). Band saw the compasses from the blank by cutting out their curved outside edges, and sand them smooth.

Cut the table's 14" x 22" tilt-top (piece 9) from 3/4" melamine or MDF stock, then bevel the lower edge of one of its long edges at a 45° angle (see the Drawings). The bevel allows the tilted top to clear the base. Now measure the exact width of the table's base you assembled earlier (it should measure about 13V->" wide). Using a l/2"-wide dado set in your table saw (fine-tuned to fit the exact thickness of the plywood compasses), plow two 3/8"-deep dadoes across the narrower dimension on the underside of the top (photo, above). Space the slots so that their inside-facing edges are as far apart as the width of the base. This will ensure that the inside faces of the compasses will fit snugly against the sides of the base.

Next, set your table saw's dado set to plow a miter-slot groove into the top surface of the top, located as shown in the Drawing. You can cut a 3/4"-wide, 3/8"-deep groove to fit the bar of a standard miter gauge. Alternatively, you'll get a more accurate and wear-resistant miter gauge fit by installing a length of aluminum miter slot track. This requires dadoing a larger slot, sized to fit the track you use.

Glue the two compasses into the dadoes in the table top, aligning each compass's square corner flush with the lower corner of the top's beveled edge. Set the top/compass assembly on the base, bringing the top's beveled edge flush to the router plate. Screw the studded hand screws into the threaded inserts (photo, above).

Putting the Router Table to Work

To use the router table, set the table to the desired degree of tilt and tighten the compass hand screws. Next, set the width of cut the bit will take using your router's depth of cut adjustment. Finally, set the actual depth of cut by loosening the hand knobs on the router plate and pivoting the plate up or down. Lock it in place.

Now you're ready to perform your basic run-of-the-mill routing jobs, plus a host of technically difficult angled cuts and modified profiles that your ordinary router

table just can't do. @

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Sandor Nagyszalanczy is a furniture designer/craftsman, photographer and regular contributor to the Journal.

Woodworker's Journal December 2009

43