"Rick P." wrote:
I need to build a solid and sturdy workbench for my new little
hobby shop work area and I also would like to try my hand at building a nice
router cabinet.

The essential parts of a router table a
1 - A mounting for the router that doesn't move around (ie, if
you're going to use a router plate insert, make sure that there's *no*
slop in the cavity it goes in.
2 - An adjustable fence.

The first router table I started building was the one that Norm did on
New Yankee Workshop... a big behemoth with a footprint bigger than
3'x'2. I never even finished it before I realized that the space it
consumed was just way too much compared with the size of my shop and
the amount I anticipated using it. I tore it all up and then bought
Rockler's $99 benchtop one and I'm very happy with it.

Almost all router tables you see for sale (and many plans) include a
miter gauge slot. If you ask most people here, hardly any have every
used the slot for anything... and most are even at a loss when they
try to *imagine* something you'd use it for (the only thing I can
think of is for making tenons). So, the miter slot is fairly overrated
on router tables.

As far as workbenches go... that recent one from ShopNotes about a
year or so back is a bit of a beast. I'm currently making the one from
issue #24 (http://store.yahoo.com/backissuesstore/sn024.html). It's
going to be 2'x5' when I finish it. If I had it all to do over again,
I'd probably have made it 2'x4' so that it would be a snap to go down
to the hardware store and buy more sheets of 2'x4' masonite to use as
disposable tops.

Anyway... project-specific tips aside, the best bit of info I've
picked up from this group so far is this:

Power tools won't make you a woodworker.

The explanation of that axiom is: If you don't know how to make stuff
with hand tools, then power tools aren't going to help much. Unless
you know how to make stuff fit properly with hand tools, they probably
aren't going to fit properly made with power tools.

This doesn't mean that you should go out and spend your kids' college
fund on all of the exotic hand planes you can find, but you should, at
least, be able to picture how you'd do something with hand tools
before you save your time by doing it with power tools.

- Joe