Been meaning to make a router table for some time... but kind of walked into
the following deals...

Router Base: $10
Routinely our local Lowes has bathroom vanities on clearence. One weekend
they had a 30 inch vanity marked down from $90 to $20... I haggled them, and
they reduced the price to $10. Typical vanity... couple drawers on the side...
used some 1/4" plywood to close in the drawers to prevent sawdust from getting
in there.

Router Top: $3.75
Went to the local Habitat for Humanity Resource Center. They had a nice piece
of laminate counter top that fit my new found table for $5.00... but wait...
they had a 25% off all counter tops...

Insert $30
Ok... I could stop there... but time for me to splurge. Just ordered the
Veritas Router insert for $30 from Lee Valley... just got confirmation
it's gonna ship today. Also splurged for the template guides as well...
and some gardening goodies for my wife... so maybe this cost me more
than I really wanted it to. Anyway, I'm really psyched about the insert. Real
simple design... installation looks ingeniously simple. Great idea Lee
Valley!

Potential Upgrades:
Mobile base... need to look at Harbor Freight to see if they have theirs on sale.
Miter Slot... probably get something from woodcraft...
Router Fence... probably the first thing I build after I get the insert.

In any event... many people have been talking about router tables lately and how to
build something cheaply. Obviously one could just have used a sheet of plywood and
that'd be it... but for $15 or so... I found a reasonable base and top... really
didn't need the insert... but I'd done so well so far... might as well splurge.

:-)

Dave

--
David J. Dube' Cisco Systems, Inc.
Phone: (919) 392-6694 7025 Kit Creek Road
FAX: (919) 392-4537 PO Box 14987
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

Thats a great insert until you want to use a bit larger than 1 1/2". Thats
why I passed on it, I use quite a few bits that are larger than that.

Jim


"David Dube" /dev/null wrote in message
news:1073584782.864888@sj-nntpcache-5...
Been meaning to make a router table for some time... but kind of walked
into
the following deals...

Router Base: $10
Routinely our local Lowes has bathroom vanities on clearence. One
weekend
they had a 30 inch vanity marked down from $90 to $20... I haggled
them, and
they reduced the price to $10. Typical vanity... couple drawers on the
side...
used some 1/4" plywood to close in the drawers to prevent sawdust from
getting
in there.

Router Top: $3.75
Went to the local Habitat for Humanity Resource Center. They had a nice
piece
of laminate counter top that fit my new found table for $5.00... but
wait...
they had a 25% off all counter tops...

Insert $30
Ok... I could stop there... but time for me to splurge. Just ordered
the
Veritas Router insert for $30 from Lee Valley... just got confirmation
it's gonna ship today. Also splurged for the template guides as
well...
and some gardening goodies for my wife... so maybe this cost me more
than I really wanted it to. Anyway, I'm really psyched about the
insert. Real
simple design... installation looks ingeniously simple. Great idea Lee
Valley!

Potential Upgrades:
Mobile base... need to look at Harbor Freight to see if they have
theirs on sale.
Miter Slot... probably get something from woodcraft...
Router Fence... probably the first thing I build after I get the
insert.

In any event... many people have been talking about router tables lately
and how to
build something cheaply. Obviously one could just have used a sheet of
plywood and
that'd be it... but for $15 or so... I found a reasonable base and top...
really
didn't need the insert... but I'd done so well so far... might as well
splurge.

:-)

Dave

--
David J. Dube' Cisco Systems, Inc.
Phone: (919) 392-6694 7025 Kit Creek Road
FAX: (919) 392-4537 PO Box 14987
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

I can go you one better, I've built a table, insert, and fence entirely
out of crap that I found laying around the shop. Glued together a couple
of big scraps of MDF, laminated them with a scrap of white formica I
found, including the edges, made inserts out of plexiglas, and glued up a
bunch of maple and made a big sturdy fence with cherry faces.


http://www.usedforcomparison.com/rtable.jpg
http://www.usedforcomparison.com/fence.jpg


I splurged and spent $3.99 at highland for one of those little lever screw
dealies to tighten the base on my PC router. It was held together with
just a wing nut, and the wing nut was too wide to turn, it was obnoxious,
so I put this level bolt thing in, and put a nut on the other side and
epoxied it to the base of the router, now I have an easy way to loosen and
tighten the base to change the depth.

Now I just gotta build a base for it

"tmbg" wrote in message
news

I can go you one better, I've built a table, insert, and fence entirely
out of crap that I found laying around the shop.
Now I just gotta build a base for it

I did a simular deal. Built a "box" out of MDF, top for a sink coutout I
rescued from a job site. A aluminum plate for an insert given to me by a
friend. I splurged on a extension cord, electrical boxes, switch and outlet,
so I can turn the router on and off from the front of the box. No legs, I
just clamp it to a couple of saw horses.
Greg

On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 18:29:13 -0600, Greg O wrote:

I did a simular deal. Built a "box" out of MDF, top for a sink coutout I
rescued from a job site. A aluminum plate for an insert given to me by a
friend. I splurged on a extension cord, electrical boxes, switch and
outlet, so I can turn the router on and off from the front of the box. No
legs, I just clamp it to a couple of saw horses. Greg

Right now I've got mine on saw horses, I just finished the fence, attached
it and everything's working great! I need to build a DC box for the back
of the fence, as well as a DC box for underneath where the router hangs,
and I think I am going to build a nice cabinet base with a drawer for
bits, and I'm pretty sure I have enough electrical crap floating around
that I can get some front switch action going pretty soon

Lots of good ideas in here. Thanks for posting.

"David Dube" /dev/null wrote in message
news:1073584782.864888@sj-nntpcache-5...
Been meaning to make a router table for some time... but kind of walked
into
the following deals...