Router Table - Part 3

In Part 1 and Part 2 I built most the cabinet and most of the top. I have now completed the top, attached it, and built the fence.

First up was test fitting the top.  It had to fit over the base cabinet with no real rubbing and be tight enough of a tolerance to handle the piano hinge used to attach it.

From Router Table

Once I knew the top would work, I did the layout for two slots that the fence bolts would ride in.  Here is the layout lines.

From Router Table

I used the plunge action of my router to gouge out the two slots. It took a couple of passes, but I ended up with two working guide slots.

From Router Table

Just to make sure, I test fit the star knobs and bolts I am going to use to attach the fence.

From Router Table

Now that I had the guide slots in place, I was able to put in the extra top pieces that will make sure the top fits and that the fence will work. Here are two additional braces along with the guide blocks that the fence will use to make sure it is in the guide slots.

From Router Table

I used a piano hinge to attach the top to the cabinet.

From Router Table

From Router Table

Next up is the fence. First step was to glue up two 1/2" plywood sections together.

From Router Table

Once dry, I started to notch out where the clearance for the router bits.

From Router Table

Then I glued a base plate and a couple of gussets to make a complete fence. Once it was dry, I made sure it worked on the cabinet.

From Router Table

Outside of mounting a fixed based router - that pretty much completes the project. Here are the final pictures of the cabinet ready for that router.

From Router Table

From Router Table

There are a couple of things I may add. Once is some sort of vacuum attachment to the fence to keep the sawdust from binding up things. The other is a single power switch that can control both the router and the vacuum. I have one from a cheap metal router table I have that I will probably figure out a mounting solution for.

Final Parts List:

Item	Source	Cost
Birch Plywood	Fine Lumber and Plywood	$35
Panel Nails	Home Depot	$3 for a 6oz box
Gorilla Wood Glue	Home Depot	$4 for a 8oz bottle
5 Star Thru Hole Knobs (x2)	Woodcraft	$3 for two
1/4" x 2" Carriage Bolt	Home Depot	$0.17
1/4" Cut Washers (x2)	Home Depot	$0.22 for two
1/4" Lock Nut	Home Depot	$0.10
5/16" Carriage Bolts (x2)	Home Depot	$0.48 for two
5/16" Cut Washers (x4)	Home Depot	$0.48 for four
24" Stainless Steel Piano Hinge	Amazon.com	$14.35

Final Total Cost: $60.80

Router Table - Part 2

In Part 1, I built most of the cabinet. Here I complete the cabinet and build the actual table top.

The first thing I needed to do was fit the front panels that face the very front of the cabinet. In order to do that I needed to do a bit of trimming of the shelves then affix the two vertical pieces. Here is a picture of the completed face frame. While I was at it, I cut a hole in the face of the drawer to use as a pull.

From Router Table

In the plans, there is a side brace that is used to hold the top in place when tilted up to make it easier to work on the router. It uses a simple carriage bolt and lock nut to hold it in place.

From Router Table

I could then put away the cabinet base and focus on the top. The first stop was attaching the outer frame. I glued the front and back of the outer frame in place and clamped it up. Because I am using 1/2" plywood, my 1" panel nails would poke through, so I am relying just on the glue.

From Router Table

I still have to do the sides of the outer frame and then the inner frame along with the center router hole and some guides for the fence, but the top is getting there.
Parts List So Far:

Item	Source	Cost
Birch Plywood	Fine Lumber and Plywood	$35
Panel Nails	Home Depot	$3 for a 6oz box
Gorilla Wood Glue	Home Depot	$4 for a 8oz bottle
5 Star Thru Hole Knobs (x2)	Woodcraft	$3 for two
1/4" x 2" Carriage Bolt	Home Depot	$0.17
1/4" Cut Washers (x2)	Home Depot	$0.22 for two
1/4" Lock Nut	Home Depot	$0.??
5/16" Carriage Bolts (x2)	Home Depot	$0.48 for two
5/16" Cut Washers (x4)	Home Depot	$0.48 for four

Knock Down Cutting Grid with Sawhorses

Note: I originally posted this in July 2011 on another blog - I moved it here because I am putting all my garage and woodworking projects in one place.

When I was building the Garage Cabinet (which I am still happy with), I realized I needed a method to cut down large stock like plywood without using the bed of my pickup.

Awhile back I ran across this page which had some renderings and pictures of exactly what I wanted to do. It referenced two other pages (here and here) with some extra details.

The plan was to build two sawhorses that could come apart for storage and portability along with a wood grid that could hold a 4'x8' sheet of plywood while it was being cut with a circular saw.

In the cabinet build I came across a deal at Home Depot where a sheet of 3/4" A/C plywood was $24. How can you pass that up? I picked up another sheet- which is all I would need for this project.

What is A/C plywood? One side is rated "A" grade which is the top grade without knots or defects while the other side is "C" grade which will have knots and filled in defects. This is for sawhorses- any grade would be fine but these sheets are solid and straight and cheep- so that is what I used.

Side One:


Side Two:


My cutting guide and list. It is basically all 4" strips of plywood.


I didn't do much in the way of plans this time. I am using the two detailed diagrams from the Wood Working Tips side linked above.

The first part was to cut all the strips. I set up the guide on my circular saw and went to town. The result is a lot of long thin plywood strips.


I then sized all of the pieces needed for the sawhorse legs. The legs are 35" long, the long braces are 21", and the short braces are 11".


Once that was out of the way, I set-up my chop saw to do a 15 degree cut. I put a stop block in a jig because basically every piece needed to be chopped at the end to 15 degrees.


Then it is time for some assembly. Gorilla glue and 1 1/4" screws all around. You will note that there is a vertical piece of scrap at the top. That is a spacer to ensure the stretcher will fit later on.


And the first sawhorse leg is done.


Repeat the same process three more times, and now we have four sawhorse legs.


Then I made up some 2"x4" cleats and attached them to the stretchers. This is what it looks like with the stretcher in place.


I repeated the process on the second stretcher and now I have two completed knock down sawhorses.


After I had an interview this morning, (it went very well, thank you for asking) I got cracking on the grid. The grid consists of two 8' long rails, two 4' long stretchers and the two saw horse stretchers made earlier. They will fit together with notches creating half-lap joints.

Here is the first of the sawhorse stretchers with the notch cut out and some layout marks for notches in one of the grid stretchers.



One I had cut the sawhorse and grid stretchers I realized I could make a small grid if I didn't need to use the whole thing. Nice.


Here is the full size grid all put together.


This grid is sturdy and large enough to hold basically any plywood or normal stock that I would come across. Given a sheet of plywood, this could also work as the frame for a portable workbench as well.

It fully collapses and can get pushed right up on the wall of my garage. I will probably figure out some way to hang it off the floor as well- but not today. Today I take a drink of cool water and enjoy my handy work. Then I get the broom and clean up...

Router Table - Part 1

I am starting to get more and more interested in woodworking so I needed a good project that would get me closer to the goal of being able to do find wood work.

For me, the place to start was a router table. I found a great set of plans on Woodsmith. They are for the quick and easy router table.

It started off with locating some decent 1/2" plywood. I found the go-to lumber yard here in Austin is only a couple miles from the house. It is called Fine Lumber and Plywood. There I was able to pick up a sheet of 5ft by 5ft by 1/2" Baltic birch plywood for $35. Which is pricey, but this is quality stuff. They even helped me load it in the truck and cover it with a tarp because it was threatening rain.

From Router Table

The first step was to cut all the pieces. I used a combination of my circular saw and table saw to cut everything but the corner braces. Those will have to come later on.

From Router Table

The first assembly I did was the drawer. This required rabbeting the ends of the frame and gluing the simple box together. I used 1" panel nails to hold things solid until the glue is dried.

From Router Table

Next up was the main box of the cabinet. I needed to cut both rabbets and dados to be able to fit the bottom and the cabinet base in. I used a combination of the cheap metal router table and my hand held plunge router to do the work. I then glued and nailed the shelves in and also attached the back. You can also see the drawer guides inside the opening which will keep the drawer in place when the table is complete.

From Router Table

From Router Table

From Router Table

That ends part one. In part two, I will finish the base of the cabinet and begin work on the top. It will probably take me about another day or two.

Parts List So Far:

Item	Source	Cost
Birch Plywood	Fine Lumber and Plywood	$35
Panel Nails	Home Depot	$3 for a 6oz box
Gorilla Wood Glue	Home Depot	$4 for a 8oz bottle