A person who loves to create and make things on his own will get great pleasure from creating a router table. This is a rather difficult, but exciting task. Making a table for a router yourself means getting a structure that costs much less than one made at the factory. When producing a milling table, it is imperative to follow safety precautions.
The milling table is designed for processing materials, cutting shaped holes, and making joints. A table made by yourself will be more economical and much more convenient than a purchased one.
Work in which it is necessary to perform milling is always associated with the movement of the tool along the surface of a rigidly fixed workpiece. However, when you need to mill a part with small dimensions, some difficulties arise. To solve this problem, you can make a table for the router yourself. In this case, the tool will have a stationary mount; the workpiece itself must move. As a result, it will be possible to quickly carry out end processing and remove overhangs.
Standard milling table
Diagram of mounting the router to the tabletop.
The simplest way to create a table for a router is to mount the router directly to the tabletop. Fastening occurs through a drilled hole. This setup has proven to work well. In this case, the router is located at an angle of 90° to the tabletop; it is rigidly fixed to the table, which dampens excessive vibration.
Such an installation is considered the best if the milling cutter has a solid base and if it has the ability to regulate the immersion of the tool. The base of the router must be fixed to the tabletop so that the router can be lowered to the required depth. This installation method has some disadvantages that need to be kept in mind.
Firstly, the thickness of the table top affects the working range of the tool; it allows you to work with cutters that have long shanks.
Secondly, the work is limited by the single diameter of the hole for attaching the cutter.
And lastly, if you have one router, its constant installation and removal, changing the cutter, and adjusting the height is very inconvenient.
What requirements must the table meet?
A professional craftsman spares no expense in purchasing the most modern and reliable equipment - such investments not only pay off, but also bring significant profits. This is his permanent job and main income, and the higher the labor productivity, the less unproductive loss of materials and the better the quality, the more profit the master has. There is no point in buying expensive machines and equipment for novice craftsmen; one hand cutter is enough for them. Accordingly, the machine must be made in such a way that the cutter can be quickly removed at any time and can be used in normal mode.
The design of the machine should be as simple as possible and at the same time reliable
Another requirement is that the table should be as simple to manufacture as possible. You can do it with your own hands and using the simplest set of tools that non-professionals have.
Drawing of a simple tabletop for a router
Due to such requirements, we will not consider options for complex tables; only master carpenters can make them. In addition, most projects require reworking a hand router; after reconstruction, the tool can no longer be used in manual mode; you need to buy a second copy. It is economically unprofitable to waste time and financial resources on making a table for a router just to use it for a few hours a year, and for ordinary, more frequent work, buy another manual router.
If the need for a manual milling machine is higher, there is no point in building a complex machine
Bed production
Scheme for manufacturing a frame for a milling table.
The bed is understood as the main part, without which not a single router table can do. To make it, a variety of materials are suitable. You can use metal profiles, MDF boards, wood, etc.
Perhaps the best option would be to use a metal profile. Existing butt joints are secured only with bolts during assembly. Welding work is excluded. The design will be highly reliable, it will be technologically advanced and easy to assemble.
The dimensions of the bed do not have fixed dimensions; they are selected by each craftsman purely individually. The main criterion will be the size of the parts that have to be processed. To accurately determine the dimensions of the bed, it is best to make a small sketch.
In order to make it convenient to work, the frame needs to be deepened into the floor by about 15 cm. The most important parameter of the table is its height. The optimal length would be 1 m. To get maximum convenience, it is worth equipping the table for the router with adjustable supports.
Cover device
Scheme for making a cover for a milling table.
A kitchen countertop made of chipboard with a thickness of 40 mm is best suited for this part. This material perfectly dampens vibration, it has a hard, absolutely smooth surface on which the workpiece moves perfectly.
Modern phenolic plastic of high hardness is also suitable for the production of the lid. It has an absolutely flat surface and is not afraid of moisture. Plastic does not cause any difficulties in processing, which makes it possible to make grooves where aluminum profiles and stops will be installed. The only drawback is its high cost.
To make router tables more reliable for long-term use, you can make an aluminum tabletop. This material never corrodes and is lightweight. But before manufacturing, aluminum must be clad so that there are no dirty marks left on the workpieces.
Plates for installing the router into the table
Drawing of a plate for installing the router to the table.
Router tables have the plates needed to mount directly into the table. This method has several advantages.
Due to the fact that the plate is no more than 10 mm thick, it is possible to easily get the router to replace the cutter.
You can use additional insert plates to make it possible to use different cutter diameters. Such an insert plate can become a support plate during the operation of milling surfaces on large parts. The plate gives the router increased stability; the use of plates helps to mill wide grooves of parts.
Inserting the plate is quite difficult. It is necessary to first drill a mounting hole in the table to obtain a tight fit for subsequent insertion of the plate. When there are large gaps, increased vibration occurs. If the plate does not have a reliable, tight attachment to the table, milling accuracy will not be maintained. Drilling a hole too large into the top of the router table you are making will cause it to weaken. Therefore, when calculating the diameter of the hole, care must be taken to create reinforcement for the tabletop. It is of great importance that the table top and insert are made flush. Additional gaskets, washers, etc. will help cope with this problem.
Why do you need a router table?
Professional craftsmen do not ask this question; they have separate milling machines. This can be not only woodworking equipment of industrial series, but also special machines for household use. As a rule, they are complex mechanisms that have a circular saw, jointer, milling cutter and drilling machine in various combinations on one frame.
Woodworking machine requires relevant experience
Ordinary hobbyists do not need to buy such equipment; an ordinary hand router is enough for them. But situations arise when many people think about making a table for a router. Why?
- It is not possible to mill by hand, the tool does not move in a straight line, the surface of the parts is wavy. You have to go through one place several times, and this has a negative impact on the final quality.
- The need to mill long workpieces - only on a table can this operation be performed in just one pass.
- There is a need to work on cutters with a complex profile; the manual method does not provide the required surface cleanliness.
It is not always convenient to work with a hand router.
It should be noted that not all technological operations can be done on the table; there are some that can only be performed with a hand router. For example, it is impossible to mill profiles with a closed contour located in the center of the workpiece on the machine.
Clamping fixtures and lift
Elevator diagram for a router.
Router tables can also be made using jigs. The router is installed in the tabletop, with a shallow drilled hole. The diameter of the hole is equal to the size of the base of the router. The router itself is secured in three clamping fixtures.
The advantage of this method is the quick assembly and disassembly of the router. However, there are also several disadvantages. First of all, this is due to the limited diameter of the hole for the tool, so you have to use only cutters of a specific size. It is necessary to look under the table all the time when setting the router to a certain height.
An additional element required by a milling table is a universal plate.
This part is used by all routers equipped with a built-in lift. The main advantage of such a router is the mechanized lift. As a result, it is possible to adjust the height of the tool above the main surface of the table. You can even raise the engine to replace the cutter.
Before purchasing such a plate, it is important to know a few nuances. First of all, the installed elevator will interfere with the installation and removal of the router. A lift always means added weight. An elevator lift is very expensive, but it will ensure more accurate production of parts.
Making a combination table
An old kitchen table is used for the machine; these used to be in almost every kitchen. The design, unlike the one described above, has metal parts; they are installed in the most loaded units.
- A sheet of steel 2 mm thick is screwed along the tabletop. This place wears out a lot, metal significantly increases the service life. The router is screwed to it with screws, the reliability of fixation is greatly increased.
A wide steel strip with a cut-out hole for the cutter is placed in the middle of the tabletop. - The support rail brackets are secured from a metal strip. These parts are often tightened, the plywood cannot withstand significant cyclic loads and bends, the fastening weakens and the elements have to be replaced. Under the brackets, small pieces of metal plates are also screwed to the tabletop to increase strength.
The support rail is secured with metal brackets - Metal corners increase the stability of the table; a lift for raising the cutter is attached to a rolled platform.
The frame is reinforced with steel corners, and an elevator is mounted on them to move the cutter
If desired, you can install a dust collection box and additional rulers on the machine to adjust the gap between the cutter depending on its diameter.
Various designs
The lightest milling table is considered to be made from a chipboard sheet with a hole for the tool. A wooden guide is mounted to the table, secured with ordinary clamps. Such a design can be easily mounted on a table, installed between stools, and so on.
Craftsmen make milling tables from ordinary 15 mm plywood. The table consists of several parts. You need a lid, a couple of walls, several support bars (usually four), one long block needed to attach the router table directly to the workbench. In the case of an ordinary table, you need to hollow out grooves in the walls in advance in order to install clamps.
https://vsyavagonka.ru/youtu.be/lJs9pa6shFo
There is a special niche in the table top for the cutter. It is made in the shape of a semicircle. This groove can be easily made with a small hacksaw. Holes are drilled into which the mounting screws will go, as well as a movable stop mounted on the table, which is secured with bolts.
Carpenter's router table from a manual router
In search of a worthy answer to the discomfort that arises when working with hand-held milling tools, owners of home carpentry eventually come to the need to purchase a convenient milling table.
VovroKsyuUser FORUMHOUSE
I've been thinking about the table for a long time. Especially after I manually milled 22 m of fence.
The purchase option can be expensive; the dimensions of a machine assembled in a production environment do not correspond to the size of a small home workshop. The optimal solution in this case would be to assemble the milling table yourself.
Those who want to make a homemade milling machine will find drawings and step-by-step instructions in the corresponding FORUMHOUSE section.
How to make a milling table
A homemade milling table is a simple machine for processing wood. The main working unit in it is a manual milling machine. Working with hand-held power tools involves moving the working cutter along the surface of a stationary workpiece (which is not always convenient). A milling table for hand tools allows you to change the processing method and mill in a lightweight way: the hand tool is fixed on the work table, and the workpiece is easily fed to the cutter by hand.
A milling table for a manual router consists of basic and additional elements. Additional elements are not required, but their use makes it possible to make the technician’s heavy work as easy as possible, make the design of the device safer, and make the functionality closer to the capabilities of serial installations.
Universal milling table: basic design elements
The main elements of the milling table are indicated in the figure.
A homemade milling table is a simple machine for processing wood. The main working unit in it is a manual milling machine. Working with hand-held power tools involves moving the working cutter along the surface of a stationary workpiece (which is not always convenient). A milling table for hand tools allows you to change the processing method and mill in a lightweight way: the hand tool is fixed on the work table, and the workpiece is easily fed to the cutter by hand.
A milling table for a manual router consists of basic and additional elements. Additional elements are not required, but their use makes it possible to make the technician’s heavy work as easy as possible, make the design of the device safer, and make the functionality closer to the capabilities of serial installations.
Universal milling table: basic design elements
The main elements of the milling table are indicated in the figure.
Aib User FORUMHOUSE, Moscow.
I really needed a mobile milling table. I welded the frame, painted and assembled the structure.
The dimensions of the milling table depend on the dimensions of the parts being processed, as well as on the height of the craftsman himself. The length and width should be slightly smaller than the tabletop, and the height of the bed is 850...900 mm, which corresponds to the most comfortable conditions for standing work. The homemade legs can be made adjustable, which will allow you to compensate for uneven floors or change the height of the bed.
Tabletop for router
The dimensions of the tabletop depend on the size of the parts being processed.
dautovFORUMHOUSE user
In a home workshop, a small table of 500x500 mm is sufficient.
To process relatively long parts (for profiling edges on door frames), you will need a tabletop of the appropriate size. Let's look at the drawing:
For the manufacture of the frame, wood-based materials are most often used, which can effectively dampen vibrations. This could be a countertop made of chipboard, which is used in the manufacture of kitchen furniture, or a sheet of thick plywood. Here, for example, is a countertop made from chipboard scraps formed after installing a kitchen sink.
Krott64FORUMHOUSE user
With this tabletop scrap, after some simple modifications, you can do some pretty decent things.
Some people make countertops from metal, others from edged boards, but, as practice shows, chipboard and plywood are always a priority.
Orfo74FORUMHOUSE user
If I make it, it will be from laminated plywood (I have one like this on my trailer). I have already traveled hundreds of thousands of kilometers under the heat and below zero. Neither salt nor rain spoiled it. And it can still be used, but you need to assemble it either in 2 layers, or make the bottom out of simple plywood.
To make a countertop, you cannot use material that has defects on its surface (knotty boards, etc.).
Mounting plate for hand router
A hand router is attached to the mounting plate using threaded connections. Therefore, its production must be taken with full responsibility. The material from which the plate will be made must be strong enough so that the router does not tear out during operation (the consequences can be imagined). This can be a rectangle made of metal or plywood sheet (but metal is more reliable).
AlekXFORUMHOUSE user
A powerful car has a lot of dope. And if she turns out of the table while working, it won’t seem too bad.
– not recommended, because the thicker the plate, the smaller the vertical overhang of the cutter.D
DgusepeFORUMHOUSE user
The legs can be made of wood, but it is advisable to make the tabletop from 3 mm metal. For maximum cutter lift.
The length and width of the mounting plate must correspond to the dimensions of the base of the hand router, with which the power tool will be attached to the table.
Longitudinal workpiece stop
The longitudinal stop can be made from a regular sheet of chipboard or from an edged board. The stop must be made movable to ensure the possibility of adjusting the horizontal reach of the cutter. For more precise adjustment, you can attach measuring rulers to the sides of the tabletop.
The design of the locking mechanism, which allows you to secure the longitudinal stop in the required position, is extremely simple. It can consist of two slats with through longitudinal grooves and two threaded fasteners with wings.
Instead of slats, you can use two metal corners, which will last longer and will not deform under the action of clamps.
To prevent dust and chips from interfering with work, it is advisable to equip the longitudinal stop with a dust collector, to which a chip extractor or a small carpenter's vacuum cleaner is connected.
The longitudinal stop can be made double, which significantly expands the functionality of the milling table.
SuperkuzenFORUMHOUSE user
The monolithic stop makes it impossible to carry out a lot of operations performed on the milling table, that is, it makes the table of little functionality.
A milling table can perform the functions of a small jointing machine if an adjustable difference between the working planes is arranged between the two halves of the longitudinal stop. This design allows you to move one half of the stop relative to the other, setting one stop flush with the cutter using thin wooden plates. Adjustment plates are placed under the non-working surface of the stop.
Manual milling machine
The performance of the milling table will directly depend on the technical characteristics of the hand tool (power, number of revolutions per minute, etc.). You should choose a router for a milling table based on the expected load. The additional functionality of the machine will be an additional advantage for the master. If you don’t yet have a manual milling cutter, then choose a tool with an adjustable cutter rotation speed and the ability to set the processing depth (plunge-beam milling machines). Very easy to use machines with a spindle lock (for easy replacement of cutting tools), as well as devices with soft start and quick stop of the spindle.
We looked at the main elements of a milling table, which will allow the owner to perform the simplest milling operations. In order to expand the functionality of the device, make it universal and increase operational safety, it is necessary to ensure the availability of additional devices. Let's look at the most common of them.
Longitudinal guide for movable milling carriage
Using a longitudinal guide built into the surface of the table top, you can attach a variety of devices to the milling table: an angular stop with a protractor, a perpendicular stop, etc.
The longitudinal guide can have a different design, but most often it is an aluminum C-shaped profile into which bolts and wing nuts are inserted. This design allows you to quickly install the device you need at the moment on the milling table.
By the way, using the C-shaped profile, you can also attach a longitudinal adjustable stop to the tabletop.
Vertical clamp
The upper clamp increases safety when working with a homemade router and increases processing accuracy. Its fastening can be implemented using the type of clamps for a movable carriage.
If you are planning to make a router table with your own hands, a video about setting up a universal carpentry workshop for personal use will help you with this.
Lift for router
The vertical reach of the cutter very often has to be adjusted. To perform this adjustment, a milling lift is provided - an adjustable stop that allows you to maintain the milling machine at a given height and, if necessary, quickly change this height.
It is advisable to use a milling elevator in conjunction with submersible milling machines. Their design initially has guides for adjusting the reach of the cutter (unlike machines with a fixed motor).
A lift for a homemade router can have different designs.
Car jack lift
You can use an old car jack to create a lifting mechanism.
leon42FORUMHOUSE user
The elevator can be made from a car jack: there is a shelf under the router, and we attach the jack to the shelf. We turn the jack - the router rises or lowers.
For convenience, the jack handle can be moved out of the side wall of the bed. This will make adjustments much easier.
Threaded rod lift
Blackk FORUMHOUSE user
The angle with the threaded rod is screwed to the protrusion on the router, to which the measuring pin is normally attached. The corner for the threaded rod is threaded. By rotating the pin, we seem to screw into the corner and pull the entire router up along the guides. Accordingly, when rotating backwards, we lower the router.
In this case, the threaded rod has a recess for a hex key.
Elevator based on threaded wedge
Another effective and easy to implement elevator design.
The mechanism consists of a wooden wedge (item 1), in which a through hole is drilled for a screw (item 2). Thanks to metal plates (item 3), attached to the sides of the wedge and having threaded holes, the wedge moves in a horizontal plane, raising or lowering the milling machine. The handle of the lifting mechanism is located on the side surface of the bed. To reduce the load during lifting, the router is equipped with a homemade roller (item 4).
Turning the router table on and off
All necessary equipment for the electrical part of the milling table is already provided in the design of the milling machine. The only thing that can be added to an existing electrical circuit is a remote switch and an emergency shutdown button (after all, no one has yet canceled the safety rules during operation).
You can use a very ordinary switch for the router. As for the possibility of quick shutdown: it can be realized by installing an emergency button with a locking mechanism on the table (in which the unlocking is carried out by turning).
Table assembly
We have listed the main and auxiliary elements of the milling table. Each master can determine the order of assembling the device for himself. The only point to pay attention to is the manufacture and installation of the mounting plate.
After a plate of a suitable size is cut from a steel (or plywood) sheet, it is necessary to drill holes in it for attaching the milling machine, a hole for the cutter (its diameter must correspond to the diameter of the hole in the base of the router) and mounting holes (for attaching the plate to the tabletop) .
The base of the router has threaded holes for fixing the plastic cover. These holes can be used to attach the router to the mounting plate using countersunk screws (the stock plastic trim is removed).
If there are no mounting holes in the base of the router, then metal clamps or standard fixtures provided for by the design of the router can be used as fasteners.
The mounting plate must be flush with the tabletop. Therefore, a recess of appropriate dimensions should be made in the tabletop.
If you have already assembled a milling table with your own hands, we invite you to share your personal manufacturing experience in the appropriate FORUMHOUSE section (there you will find instructions and drawings). People who have seriously decided to master carpentry will be interested in an article about what tools they need to have in their carpentry or furniture workshop. And a video about the design of a homemade milling table and the features of power carpentry tools will help you find answers to questions regarding equipment that is extremely rarely used in a small home workshop.
