Shopsmith Forums

I spent a few weeks mucking my way through a replacement router table.

The old one needed to go - as you can see. It was part of an old office desk.

With no pin/ no safety for rails/featherboards/fencing etc it was used rarely due to the shear terror of it.


I followed this design which seemed reasonably doable for my skill level.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMhIZ9WkNbI

Most of the instructions and assembly were good-a few things missing here and there but i got through. I chose a Jessem Rout-R-Lift II for the insert.


Took me awhile -but close now, just need to make the fence and install a kill switch.

Most of the mistakes are luckily on the inside.

b

Very nice upgrade! The new table looks great!

I would be inclined to add holes at the bottom of the door rather than at the rear as 'she' did.

I'm thinking you will really like it. Changing bits might take a bit of effort as you will have to reach inside the compartment, but a solid table like that should make routing work easy. And, we all know if the job goes easy, we do a better job.

I needed a router table a few years ago, and remembered that I had an old Hirsh saw table hanging on my garage wall. I took it and used it for my router. It already had the fence and miter, as well as a kill switch installed.

JPG- yeah- i think it will need some holes somewhere otherwise every crack and crevice will be whistling under vaccuum. Her choice of the back likely was an aesthetic choice rather than an air movement choice.


Garys-actually-the lift is able to bring the bit up high enough you can access everything from the top side. I like your table design- portable to the outside which means dealing with dust collection goes away. I hate dust collection !


b

A couple things that made my RT a bit more friendly were 1.An on/off type foot pedal switch and, 2. A dedicated cheap cordless drill with a hex rod insert to operate the Jessem lift.

Alright-its near complete now.

Hopefully now I can use it to come up with some sort of manly handles/knobs for the drawers.
Not happy with the stickiness of the Milescraft featherboards. They tend to stick in the t-slots and not slide easily when loosened and the bolt tilts.

I added an extra hardwood edge to the fence which goes along with the table surface theme..as I had enough of the material still around.

It seems to catch pretty much all the dust generated-though I haven't run it long term to look for build up.


b

She’s looking great!

You can’t make them with a router table, but these are the manliest drawer pulls I’ve ever seen.

rebar- a manly good idea !

Very nice !
Paul