I am in the market for a router table set up and have about $600.00 to spend on a router, table, fence, etc. I don’t plan on using large panel bits in the near future and work mostly in walnut, cherry, and hard maple… but I want to leave my options open. Also, I own a Dewalt 621 plunge router but I doubt it will work well under a table and it’s a bit underpowered for that purpose. I’ve narrowed down my options to the following:
1. Rockler fence, table, and JessEm FX Lift + Bosch 2 1/4 hp router kit
2. Veritas table, fence, stop, and holddown + Bosch 2 1/4 router kit
3. Home-made table and fence, JessEm Lift FX + Bosch 2 1/4 hp router kit
4. Home-made table and fence, JessEm insert + Milwaukee 3 1/2 hp router
5. Home-made table, JessEm insert, Incra LS Standard Positioner + Bosch 2 1/4 hp kit
Some questions: What is the value of a 15 amp vs. a 12 amp router given that I already own 10 amp plunge. Will I regret not taking this opportunity to purchase a 15 amp router or will the added versitality of having a 2 1/4 hp kit provide greater benefit in the long run? Another question is regards to the lift. Are they that necessary or is it pretty easy to change bits and to adjust the height of the Bosch 2 1/4 fixed base router under the table? Finally, is purchasing the Veritas or Rockler fence and table, or Incra positioner the way to go over building my own fence and/or table. Please share your thoughts.
~ Lyptus
Replies
Very recently I built Norm's router table. I love it so far. It was probably in the $600 price range when all done. I placed the Hitachi 3HP plunge router in the table. I used a Jessem table insert. Here is the breakdown of what I spent:
Wood ~ $250
Router ~ $160
Plate ~ $30
Rockler Harware Kit ~ $70
Misc Hardware ~ $30
Here is a picture of the final product. I suggest building your own. I worked out great for me. Took a little time, but turned out to be a great table.
Edited 10/12/2005 11:50 am ET by woodworker79
Hello,
I am just starting out and am wondering where I can get a plan of the router table you built? It looks great!!!
This weekend there is a tradeshow in Winnipeg and I will be buying my first router.
In advance I would like to Thank you for your assistance
Allison
Here is the link to the plans...http://www.newyankee.com/getproduct3.cgi?0301Good luck!Tim
Thank you very much for the link!
AllisonAllison Vince
Oakville, Manitoba, Canada
I have the Bosch 1617 and a Bench Dog contractor style table. The Bench Dog is a wonderful table: flat, adjustable, compact yet plenty of room to work, has a miter guage. Add an external switch for power (available also from BD and you're good to go!
$200 Bosch 1617
$200 Bench Dog Table
$40 Bench Dog Power Switch
----
$440
Bench Dog makes a full size table as well, but I don't know the price. Everyone I know that has one, loves it.
Slacker Extraordinaire
Specializing in nothing but knowledge in everything.
A little off subject, but have you noticed that routers blow air down from the top and out through the bottom (where the collet is). Well, in a normal router table, the chips and dust will fall down inside the cabinet and get sucked up into the air stream forcing the junk into the motor. This will greatly shorten the life of the brushes and communtator segments.
What I did was build a 12" x 12" box inside the cabinet to enclosing the router. I cut a 3" hole in the bottom of the box and then glued closed-cell foam around the circumference of the hole. When the router is inserted in the table, the top of the router presses against the foam. This causes it to draw clean air up through the bottom hole. I also have my 4" DC hose connected to the back of the box. This also serves to increase the air flow through the router keeping it cooler. After 5 years of daily use, the brushes in my router still look like new.
If you make a cabinet you want it to be VERY sturdy and heavy. If you put wheels on it, make sure you get wheels that lock.
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy (maker of fine sawdust!)
PlaneWood
All five of your router table options list the most important element - the router - last. Why? And why not have the biggest, baddest router on the planet under your table - a fixed base, 3.25HP, 5-speed Porter Cable Speedmatic. Available online for $300. If you had the extra power, you'd be open to finding ways of using it.
I'd reorganize your options as follows:
PC 3.25hp, 5spd Speedmatic + home made table + home made fence.
I'm of the opinion that the best router tables are the simplest router tables. Sturdy and squared, for sure, but simple. You might even consider building the table top into your table saw. There are some limitations to this concept, but having an accurate fence that's already paid for isn't one of them. If you do go the route of building the router table, and the fence, you can always upgrade from the "home-made" fence once you've determined your level of need.
BTW, the Milwaukee router has an appealing option, or lift mechanism, for use in router tables, but customer reviews lean towards poor build quality and excessive wear leading to malfunction (over time) of the lift mechanism. I'd seek out "user" opinions on the unit before buying one.
Regards.
I have my router table built in to the right side of my table saw and have used it with both a old elu fixed base router (same as a dewalt 610) and a 3hp dewalt 625. I like the table saw arangement for saving space in a small shop and I can use the table saw fence to with the router. For small bits the dewalt 621 should be fine. That being said you can get the 625 for a pretty good price at amazon last time I checked. I know some people have had problems with dewalt but my router has been very good.
Good luck
Troy
Lyptus,
Check out the information on Pat Warners site for cogent thoughts and plans for router tables. http://www.patwarner.com/router_table.html
Have you looked into a CMT phenolic table top, fence and insert? That has to be one of my best investments. I built my own cabinet, to my specs and have a Porter-Cable router. Check out cmtusa.com.
dlb
.
I agree with Beachfarm on a couple of points. First, a big PC router is the way to go. I work in a commercial shop where these are put to work every day, we like them best. Second, in my opinion, simpler is certainly better. I've tried many different router table set- ups some elaborate some not. What I have settled on is simply a router base mounted to piece of MDF about 2'X4' that I set up on horses. I use scrap ply as a fence. It takes up almost no space, and performs as well as anything else.
For larger jobs, I strongly recommend a shaper. Three horse versions are out there for about what a cabinet saw would cost. So much more solid for raising panels and other large work. If you plan on using a router table a lot, the shaper might be a better choice long-term.
get the biggest router you can, I personally don't recommend the Rockler Table, I'm on my 3rd one. Going to build my own soon.
Check out the CMT router table or Bench Dog table if you don't want to build your own.
Jessem also looks like a nice unit but $$$$
I forget the issue, But back in 1980-81 in FWW, there was an article about something called a "sublime" router table. Well, a few years ago I built one an it was fantastic. I've since made one for my neighbor and a third for myself (i gave the first away, it was a nice prototype, but i have made lots of improvements since then). Anyway, the best feature was a sliding fence. It's is a little hard to articulate without showing off an illustration, but it might be worth looking into. I sure like it, and it took a day to build and maybe 90.00 in parts, including a rosseau router insert. At any rate, good luck. A good router table is a huge asset to any shop.
sincerely,
Josh
Veritas or Rockler fence and table, or Incra positioner the way to go over building my own fence and/or table.
ALL will work.. If price is no object get that JessEm? If it is.. I had a rockler table once.. Gave it away (not that it was bad)..
I see a router table as FLAT! AND the bit is 90 degrees to the table top! .. And a TALL fence you can adjust with some kind of reference where Ya was before..
I have the Veritas table and a PC 7518 router. There are a bunch of good tables out there- what I like about the Veritas is that the surface is coined 0.125" stainless steel. Not only is it durable and well finished, but it will never sag. Sagging over time is a vexing problem with many other tables, particularly if you mount a heavy router in them. The 7518 is such a beast, it is very powerful (I have no trouble cutting raised panels with it), and has variable speed so you can use large cutting heads safely at the slower speeds. I think Pat Warner has endorsed its use for a table mounted router- but others do like the Milwaukee.
If you do go with the Veritas top, you can always build your (or Norm's) dream router table base and mount it in that.
Just my 2p,
Glaucon
If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...
Lyptus,
Count one vote for the Big Red Milwaukee...
The PC Speedmatic is a great machine with lots of devoted fans, but the above table micro-adjust feature and the fact that the Milwaukee can be bolted directly to the insert plate without complicated lifts sold me. Also consider continuously variable speed (vs. 5 pre-set speeds on the Speedmatic) and included multiple base plates and 2 different handle sets.
Both are fine machines, but just adding a good lift (like the BenchDog ProLift or the Jointech) to the PC to accomplish the adjustment that is built in to the Milwaukee will add another couple of hundred to your total.
I've been running this setup for quite a while now and have never regretted the descision.
I agree with the other postings above that it is easier to upgrade tables and fences later than to wish you had opted for enough router from the beginning...
I hope this helps,
STEELHEAD
"How would your woodworking differ if all lumber was $400 a board foot? Now pretend that it does..." -Marc Adams
Lyptus,
In general, you can build a much better table for the money than you can buy. I've seen some examples of Norm's table and it seems to be a solid design.
What I really wanted to do is steer you toward the Hitachi M12V 15A router. I have several Bosch 1617EVS routers and wouldn't trade them for anything. I had one in my router table for years and it performed great even when raising panels. A few months ago, I picked up the M12V because it was on special at Amazon, more powerful and I had a couple of bucks in my pocket. I haven't been disappointed with it at all. It would be a good router for you to have.
Now, having said that, something to think about if you're going to use a lift in your table is getting a single-speed router and an external speed-control box. The only slight inconvenience is having to lift my router out of the table to adjust the speed down for larger bits. Because of interaction I'm not sure I understand, you're not supposed to use an external speed control on a variable-speed router. Logic says it's kinda redundant anyway.
Regards,
Bill Arnold - Custom Woodcrafting
Mensa Member
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Food for Thought: The Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
Lyptus. To look at your list from the bottom up. A 3+ hp router is the ONLY one to use in a table today, any thing less and you wasted your time. I started out in the late 60's and early 70's a young marrired with no money with a sears 1 hp rack and pinion height adjust and built every thing. Mounted it in a cheap tin table and bought another (the delux model with a light) for hand held work. Move ahead 25 years and it's time to upgrade with a roybi pl 180 plunge . As the Amish say- we get too soon old and too late smart- and I gave it back to home despot in less than 6 mo. It had the life span of a 60 watt bulb.
I picked up the PC 694 vsk kit with all 3 bases in a good deal and it's the best hand held I have ever seen. Then a Milwaukee 3 1/2 and a factory mdf type table on a steel frame. It had a great steel frame, the top sucked. It had raw rabbited T slots in the mdf and in a year looked like a valley in the Alps. The solution was either build Norm's table that I would delight in doing or get an "instant" table. I am in the middle of a move to a retirement house so Norm was out-for a while- and based on the excellent advice of several folks here I did the Veritas top, fence, cross sled, stops, hold downs and dust pick up. With no time to spare I also did their table mount and the floor stand and was in business with 4 coats of poly applied in two days.
The Milwaukee on the Lee Valley top is magical. I can't think of any safe task that I can't do with absolute precision. You can build your own table mount from their plan and tack it to a bench or utility stand. The old sears BTW are set up to do round over and the other to champher the corners off stock prior to routing a moulding edge so the moulding cutter has less work to do. The steel table frame will hold two bench top machines in the future. Waste not want not as they say.
The best of luck in your choices-never go second class, just wait a little longer- Pat
Edited 9/19/2006 7:20 pm ET by PADDYDAHAT
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