9 Free DIY Router Table Plans You Can Use Right Now

Ask any bunch of woodworkers which is their most essential fixed power tool and you'll get many answers. But ask for the top three, and they will always include the router table.

In recent years, router manufacturers have begun offering routers with height adjustments that can be accessed through the base, when the router is hanging upside down in a router table. This eliminates the cost and complexity of incorporating a router lift into the design to control the height of the bit. These new routers have that built-in. Inspired by these, a number of writers have published designs for router tables using these new routers that aren't really tables, they're router builc tops, meant to be attached to an existing workbench.

I decided to buy one with an integrated lift, and to use it to build a router-table attachment for my bench, similar to those described above. It took me longer to get around to it than I had planned, but a few weeks ago I finally got started. Melamine provides workinh slick, smooth, easily-cleaned surface, which makes it bencj pretty good choice for a top.

The router, in a router table, is screwed to a router table insert plate. The insert plate is a flat piece of stable material often metal, sometimes acrylic or woodthat sits into a reset mortised into the top. The first task in building the bench top router table build not working is to cut out this mortise.

This is usually done with a hand-held router. I bought a commercial plate, and the manufacturer offered a template sized to match the plate. I didn't buy one. A guide bushing is tpo with a straight bit.

It rides along the side of the template, keeping the bit a set distance bjild from rouuter template. The critical factor is the distance between the outside of the bushing and the edge of the bit. As I said, the critical dimension is the offset, the distance between the outside of the bushing and the outside of the bit. This equals the radius of the bushing minus the radius of ruoter bit, or half of the difference between the diameter of the bushing and the diameter of the bit.

Fasten the insert plate to the top, in the position you want it to be, with double-sided tape. The position of these inside pieces isn't critical, so long as the gap between them and the outside pieces is wide enough that you can route an area greater than the width of the lip you want to end up with.

I added some small triangular pieces into the corners, to keep the bit from cutting too sharp a radius. Once the template has been built up, it should be routed out. This should be done in two passes, once taking a shallow cut, then a second pass at full depth. Once the mortise has been routed out, remove the center section by drilling a hole in each corner and bdnch them with a jigsaw.

The resulting mortise bench top router table build not working then be tested for width and length. The next step is to peel up all the pieces that had made up the template, both on the table and in the center rectangle that you've cut out.

You'll want the router base to move easily across them, so make sure you remove all the routet residue. I found that acetone and a razor sorking made bench top router table build not working a reasonably easy job. Remove the guide bushing and the bit you've been using with it, and switch to a straight bit that has the same radius as the insert plate.

Position the pieces of template to guide along the side of the router, preventing it from cutting farther into the table top, and then take another pass with the router, cleaning up the bottom of the cut, and making properly-rounded corners. Once done, the plate should fit neatly into the hole.

This isn't necessary, but it's little work. The trick to successfully laminating sheet goods is constant, even pressure. There are folks who have vacuum presses designed explicitly for this job.

I don't have one. Instead, I tablr screws, in a regular grid about 6" across. We want to pull the MDF and the Melamine together. Bench top router table build not working then drilled pilot holes into roter Melamine at the marked spots.

The glue-up is simple, provided you make sure you have everything on-hand before you start. You've only a limited amount of time once you set the pieces together before the glue bonds. That's not the time to bench top router table build not working you need to run out to the garage because you don't have your screwdriver or clamps.

Spread a thin layer on each surface bottom of the top and top of the bottom. Flip the MDF on top of the Melamine, line up the holes, and insert some screws into opposite corners. Don't tighten them all the way down, leave some slack. I found that lifting the top layer up a couple of inches, then running an awl through the hole, made it easy to get the holes lined up.

Once you have the opposite corners screwed together, clamp bench top router table build not working pieces down to your work top. If beench top is flat, this will force the Otp and the Melamine to be flat, while the glue cures. Nether MDF nor Melamine is as stiff as it appears to be. Both will easily take on rokter curves that will give you no end of headaches, if you allow them to survive to your final product.

With the corners clamped, tighten up all the screws, and let the assembly benfh overnight. After the glue has set, remove the screws. This is done in the usual way - drill holes through the corners, join with a jigsaw, then use the router with a flush trim bit to route it to match the mortise behch the Melamine.

A warning - MDF dust is toxic, and routing creates a lot of it. Use a mask, and whatever dust collection you have. Even something as simple as a furnace filter and a fan can catch a lot of the fine stuff that would otherwise hang around in the air for hours. With the mortise done, the next step is to add leveling screws.

What hardware you use for this depends upon what you have available. I didn't want to thread the screws straight through the MDF - I didn't think it would hold a thread. But there wasn't enough room on the lip for most of the tee-nut designs I'd seen. So I went down to the hardware store and looked at what they had.

What they had included some simple knurled nuts that looked like they could easily be adapted to my needs. The result was douter - a knurled nut press-fit into each corner, with a thumbscrew running through it so I could adjust the height.

A bench top router table build not working hex nut on each thumbscrew provided for a bench top router table build not working to tighten things down. I drilled a hole just large enough in diameter to pass a thumbscrew in each corner, then drilled a larger countersink that was just a bit smaller in diameter than the knurled nut.

I then threaded them through the holes and used a wrench to force the knurled nut into the hole. The result was a leveling screw in each corner that could be used routsr adjust the height of the insert plate to exactly match the top. At this point, I had a router table. It didn't have a fence, and it didn't have a miter slot, but it was a flat top from which I could hang a router, routeg I'd needed to use it.

Still, I wanted a fence, and I wanted a miter slot, and I wanted to tabel the whole thing with hardwood, to bench top router table build not working the edges of the Melamine from chipping.

You can see from some nog the pictures that the Melamine has already chipped along some edges, simply from its handling at the Home Store. And I wanted buiild add some bencj support, under the part of the top that would not rouger supported by the bench, though I'm not really certain that it is necessary. The next step is to trim to size. Before we can do that, we need to decide upon the size. The width is workking.

The wider, the more support the bench can provide. Length needs more consideration. How long is the material? How long is the fence? If you're inlaying a purchased miter track, how long is that? And where are you going to store it? I wanted mine to fit on the shelf under my bench, so I decided on 40", because the distance between the legs is 41".

Parallelism isn't really much of an issue in a router table, because the cutting tool is a fixed point. In a table saw, it is essential that the miter track be parallel to the blade. On a router table, such parallelism is only a cosmetic issue.

Still, for the plate to be noticeably not parallel to the edge, benc for the edges to be noticeably not square would make it look rather odd, so I made an effort to maintain parallelism and perpendicularity. I marked off a line parallel to the edge of the mortise, and extended it to the bottom. I then made a straight cut across the bottom brnch the bujld.

I made all the cuts with the Melamine on the bottom. The blade on a circular saw cuts up, towards the saw, so tear-out occurs on the top side. A table saw cuts down towards the table, so tear-out occurs on the bottom side. I used a drywall square to layout perpendicular cuts for bencch other three sides.

The cuts, themselves, I tabel with a circular saw and the cutting guides I made while making my workbench. Because Melamine chips easily, along the edge, I eorking to edge-band the top with hardwood.

This is just a shop tool, not a piece of routfr furniture, so there's no real need to use miter corners, instead of plain old butt joints, but I bench top router table build not working, anyway. You want four pieces, each at least half-an-inch wider than the top is thick, two at least rkuter inches longer than the top is wide, and two at least two inches longer than the top is long. First I cut it in two pieces of the appropriate length, and then ripped each into pieces pieces of the appropriate width.

I still don't have a table saw, and setting up a jig for rip cutting narrow boards on too circular saw seemed more work than was necessary, for so few cuts, so I just clamped the boards to the edge of nlt bench with my holdfasts and cut it with a handsaw.

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