Joe Emenaker wrote:

"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.
snip
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.

snip
- Joe

I, OTOH, use the miter slot frequently, but mostly for holding a
featherboard. I guess the frequency of use depends on the kind of stuff
you do.

Glen