# Router table - make or buy?



## Atlanta Lumber Guy (Feb 28, 2011)

I need a router table for a couple of projects I am working on. I have looked at the router tables at Lowes and Home Depot and would like some advice before I decide to make or buy one. The store bought ones seemed ot have improved a lot in the last few years. I will be using it mostly for making panels, small project edge shaping and routing grooves in hardwood lumber.


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## slicksqueegie (Feb 9, 2011)

Make your own!


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## ACP (Jan 24, 2009)

I vote for you to make your own. Those table top ones at the stores are overpriced and not stable in my opinion. For the price of the Bosch at around $180 you could get all the materials you need and build a nice fence with hold downs and install T-tracks and it'd be full size and more stable. Plus you can put a larger table on for more support during working and customize it to how you want it. You can add lifts now or later to make it easier to adjust height, and a bevy of other pluses vs the store bought stuff. I especually recommend this if you are making panels. No fun running a panel over a 12" x 20" surface or whatever size those benchtop models are.


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## slicksqueegie (Feb 9, 2011)

Just yesterday I took my router table apart to store it. It originnally had a cast iron top with terrible router mounts! I got sick of adding blocks of wood for spacers and crap. (in its defense I think it was a HF design.
I swapped out the cast iron top for MDF and had that MDF top on the table for a year now and need more room in the shop so I made a frame for the right side opening on my TS and cut the MDF top to fit and dropped it in. 
My next project will be combining the planer and jointer onto one mobile base rather then two large footprints I will have one.


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## Nate1778 (Mar 10, 2008)

I am a make your own guy as well, big, beefy and stable is the key.


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## DustinB (Mar 30, 2011)

Most people will recommend to make your own. I almost did, but elected to go with the woodpeckers table setup. Fantastic fence. I needed to do accurate jointing for acrylic though and I liked the way it works on that one. Anything you find at lowes/HD will be junk, in the router table selection anyway.


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## knotscott (Nov 8, 2007)

I make my own...not very hard to do, you can make one in an afternoon, and can incorporate any features you like. If time is a more precious commodity than money, and/or you want a cast iron router table, then I'd buy one.


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## dbhost (Jan 28, 2008)

Make your own. Integrate it into your table saws extension wing. You will save precious shop floor space, and have a MUCH better router table than anything any of the big box stores carry... Of course you can buy a nice cast iron Bench Dog, MLCS, or other full size router table, but I rarely think of those because they are quite expensive...


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## dong (May 4, 2011)

i support making your own. it is easy to build one in cheaper price and 
functioned more as you wish.


Atlanta Door Dude said:


> I need a router table for a couple of projects I am working on. I have looked at the router tables at Lowes and Home Depot and would like some advice before I decide to make or buy one. The store bought ones seemed ot have improved a lot in the last few years. I will be using it mostly for making panels, small project edge shaping and routing grooves in hardwood lumber.


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## dong (May 4, 2011)

i support making your own. it is easy to build one in cheaper price and 
functioned more as you wish.


Atlanta Door Dude said:


> I need a router table for a couple of projects I am working on. I have looked at the router tables at Lowes and Home Depot and would like some advice before I decide to make or buy one. The store bought ones seemed ot have improved a lot in the last few years. I will be using it mostly for making panels, small project edge shaping and routing grooves in hardwood lumber.


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## garryswf (Aug 17, 2009)

IMO make a router table yourself, then you can customize it to suit your needs. I do have a template and directions to rout the opening for a router table. If you are really interested in making one PM me.


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## Gerry KIERNAN (Apr 20, 2007)

Made my own. I wanted a large work surface that could double as a work bench when not in use as a router table. A lot of the manufactured tables look pretty good, and I am sure some are very good. But, they tend to be rather pricey. Build your own table and spend the money saved on a good router.

Gerry


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## klr650 (Apr 4, 2010)

dbhost said:


> Make your own. Integrate it into your table saws extension wing. You will save precious shop floor space, and have a MUCH better router table than anything any of the big box stores carry... Of course you can buy a nice cast iron Bench Dog, MLCS, or other full size router table, but I rarely think of those because they are quite expensive...


I'm considering making my router table into my tablesaw extension - but my concern is the small dimensions of my extension (get your mind out of the gutter...) For a router table insert, what do you think would be the minimum size extension?

It's a bit odd to me, the fence on my tablesaw is rather large - in fact it sticks out almost a foot beyond the extension table. Makes me wonder why they sized it the way they did.


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

Build your own. You'll be much happier with it! There are plenty of people with advice and help on it because they have built there own!

Search "scrap wood router"
Or maybe a brother on their PC can help me out with a link? lol iPhone app has it's limitations...

~tom


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## xphnmn (Dec 7, 2009)

klr650 said:


> I'm considering making my router table into my tablesaw extension - but my concern is the small dimensions of my extension (get your mind out of the gutter...) For a router table insert, what do you think would be the minimum size extension?
> 
> It's a bit odd to me, the fence on my tablesaw is rather large - in fact it sticks out almost a foot beyond the extension table. Makes me wonder why they sized it the way they did.


 
I'm getting ready to install an Incra router table to my tablesaw. It measures 28 1/2 inches by 21 inches and replaces one of the wings. (left side) It just seems like plenty of work surface to me. If you make your own, You'll have to size it according to the distance between the fence rails. My rails stand away from the saw 3/4 of an inch front and back so that's why it's 28 1/2" . I also have some extra length on the rails but even with the 21" depth of the router table I'll still have some extra length on them and the router table will still be inside the rails. Probably by at least 6".


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

klr650 said:


> I'm considering making my router table into my tablesaw extension - but my concern is the small dimensions of my extension (get your mind out of the gutter...) For a router table insert, what do you think would be the minimum size extension?
> 
> It's a bit odd to me, the fence on my tablesaw is rather large - in fact it sticks out almost a foot beyond the extension table. Makes me wonder why they sized it the way they did.


Give us make/model of your saw and Picts would be even better...

~tom


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## dbhost (Jan 28, 2008)

klr650 said:


> I'm considering making my router table into my tablesaw extension - but my concern is the small dimensions of my extension (get your mind out of the gutter...) For a router table insert, what do you think would be the minimum size extension?
> 
> It's a bit odd to me, the fence on my tablesaw is rather large - in fact it sticks out almost a foot beyond the extension table. Makes me wonder why they sized it the way they did.


That will depend on your table saw. Mind you, I have seen guys make table saw / router table wings that slide into the open portion of an extended Ryobi BTS-21 table saw and clamp solidly to the table. You can make it work on most table saws. Some of the tiny bench top jobs are a no go, but those are the exception rather than the rule...

For what it's worth, the extension on my Ryobi is good and long, but limited depth wise by my rails to 22.5" (this is not a standard 27" deep saw unfortunately...). I haven't run into anything I can't do with mine yet...


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## Grubgrub (Mar 7, 2011)

May I make a suggestion. 
I went to a local marble dealer and asked if they had a piece of scrap I could use for a sand paper sharpening stone. They were very cool about it and showed me to the pile of scrap and I had my pick. I got a Nice 2' x 3' big piece for $0 for a very flat surface. If you had the dimensions of the table you wanted and the placement of grooves and holes I'm sure they could mill you out a nice marble router table top for the cost of milling. 
It never hurts to ask a price. 
Other then that I would suggest making your own with some kind of laminate top. Making your own gives a bit of pride in the piece and the work that comes out from it.


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## firemedic (Dec 26, 2010)

firemedic said:


> Build your own. You'll be much happier with it! There are plenty of people with advice and help on it because they have built there own!
> 
> Search "scrap wood router"
> Or maybe a brother on their PC can help me out with a link? lol iPhone app has it's limitations...
> ...


Couple tables here you can look at...

http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f12/scrap-wood-router-table-build-25271/


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