Woodworking project 2

I have to say it's a lot of fun playing with wood, and having fun is a good thing, especially on sabbatical. So, project #2 was to build a table for my router. I bought my router a good few years ago and did a short two day course on the basics, but I know there is so much more one can do with this little tool. I could have gone out and bought a simple table to mount my hand-held machine in, but I wanted to practice a few skills and build my own. 

I started with a simple idea of a strong frame and simple top. The frame is 45mm square timber, available in most DIY outlets, and the top is 12mm mdf, available in the same store. In fact I've only used materials that you don't have to go to a specialist outlet to get. Here's the frame partially assembled.

The mortices were cut with the router, the tenons by hand.

I have to confess that I didn't make a great job of these joints,  but it was the first try and last time I made M & T joints I was 15 years old and cutting them by hand from start to finish. I think I should have invested some time making sure all the timber was square, I made the mistake of assuming when you bought square finished timber it was reasonable to assume it was what it purported to be!

Once the frame was done, I made the top. The mdf is about 500mm square and screwed to a wooded sub-frame to give it a little more rigidity. A whole is cut in the centre for the router bit to come through and then four mounting holes have been drilled through ready for the router. This does mean that I'll lose 12mm of the depth of cut, but I don't think that will be a serious problem for what I want to do. The mark 2 may be modified to bring the router nearer the surface. Here's the top on the frame.

After the top, I turned my attention to the fence. You can see it on the picture. It's made from two pieces of strip wood with small triangular supports to hold the right angle. 

Once this was made, I added a piece of 12mm mdf to the front to make the fence taller and stronger. In the next picture you can see the whole for the router and you can just about see the rebate in the fence to allow the cutter to sit inside the line of the fence. On the tabletop are two angled guides that can be clamped, on to the fence and one to the top to help guide timber across the cutter (at least that's the theory)

The final picture is a simple roller that can be used to support longer lengths of timber beyond the table. It's made from scrap pieces I had lying around. A piece of curtain pole, some old plywood and a couple of lengths of timber.

I just to get some countersunk bolts to mount the router, and I'm ready for action. I guess if I want to be really safe I should add a NVR switch which I know I can get online somewhere.

I'll let you know how well it works.