Hey all,
Yesterday I started on a router table for my Unisaw. I looked at all of the me-made tables out there and all I can say is “expensive”. I thought I could make a table that was at leas as good as one I could buy, and maybe better because it would be custom. So here we go. . . .
MDF being pretty cheap, I picked up two 24” x 48” x 3/4” panels at HD for $11. Added contact adhesive, a roller, a formica panel and my total was $60.00. I cut both panels down to size, 14” x 21”. My space is 27” wide between the table saw rails, and 24” deep. I’m going to put a solid wood frame around it of 1.5” wide so that’s the reason the MDF is smaller. The table assembly will bolt to the rails through the solid wood frame, and I’ll rout out recesses in the MDF to allow wrench access to the nuts because it will be tight clearance.
I forgot to take pictures yesterday so I missed the part where my daughter and I put the formica down. I had quite the clamp assembly going on, complete with a pile of bricks on top.
Today it looks similar, I glued three MDF panels together with the formica on the bottom of the sandwich so all the panels will register off of that, this gives me a table thickness of 2 1/4”. I think that’ll do.
This is as many bricks as I dare put on the table saw. It’s sitting on an HTC 3000 mobile base that’s rated for 700lbs so this is pushing it. I’m using the table saw ‘cause it’s the largest machined surface that I’ve got that I can trust to be flat.
I’ll have more next weekend.
- Wayne