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Thinking it may be time to add a router table to my shop area.
That said I’ve never actually HAD a router table. So, what are some key elements I should consider / look for / stay away from?
I appreciate the voices of experience here
-B


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For me a good true fence, dust collection, tracks for feather boards, and a a smooth lift. I got a Bench Dog cabinet type many years ago and added a Woodpecker lift with a PC motor and it has been great for my needs.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

All of the above, plus for the fence, it is really nice if it will offset by a small amount on the outfeed side so you can use the router table like a jointer. I use a Kreg table, and replaced the stock plate with a Kreg lift. It does everything I need it to do.

What do y'all do with a router table?

The only use I have for is making molds and benders, and cutting for FB purflings...

Actually considering removing mine...

Truss rod slots, radiusing braces, rounding over kerfing strips, notching braces

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

We use a phenolic Woodpecker 24" x 32" table, Woodpecker aluminum router mounting plate with plastic inserts, Woodpecker precision single offset fence system, and an older 2-1/4 hp Milwaukee variable speed router on a shop-made base (originally supporting a shop-made top and fence system) with enclosure for the router. Dust is collected at the fence and the router using dual 4" drops from the 6" branch duct.

Primary uses are as mentioned: post-assembly routing of outside molds (routing the two outer plies flush with the center 'master' ply), bending forms (done similar to molds), pattern routing, peghead shaping (with Whiteside compression pattern bit), jig and fixture fabrication, and bridge fabrication (rout to shape and pyramid wing shaping). We radius braces on the tablesaw (finishing with a hand plane), mill truss rod slots with a jig taped directly to the neck blank, and hand-cut x brace notches, but those tasks have all been done with the table in years past, just as Mr. North noted.

We do not find a router lift to be necessary, given the powerful 1-3/4 horsepower class routers available with through-the-table height adjustment using a T-crank handle, and we always perform test cut to fine-tune depth in any case. While the previous incarnation of the table did employ a lift, it was sold off - along with the 3-1/4 hp router motor unit - to fund the move from the sag-prone MDF-core table to a sag-resistant phenolic table....the lift is not something that the longer term users of the shop find themselves missing.

In terms of specifics, we find the 24" depth and 32" width of the smaller size Woodpecker table to be a good compromise between footprint and support for the work, but the larger 27" x 43" table might be useful where there are larger project contemplated, or for more general woodworking use. The table is by no means too small for any instrument construction task I have attempted, but for large furniture components (e.g., my Adirondack chair parts made using the Belkov Yacht Joinery plans), the extra side-to-side support might be useful.

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/wood ... -table-top

The fence systems available run the range from a scrap 2 x 4 cleaned up to square with a hand plane and clamped in place to the various 'super-fences' from Kreg, JessEm, Woodpecker, and others. While the shopmade fence of the previous table iteration worked well, the boss opted for the Woodpecker due to the enhanced dust collection options and built-in table compatibility. Buying a compatible table and fence from the same maker makes sense if your fence will be used for much of anything beyond a straight, flat reference surface.

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/wood ... gle-offset

We have a half dozen routers in the shop of 1-1/4 horsepower or more, with the most used being the Milwaukee Electronic Variable Speed (EVS) 2-1/4 horsepower in the table, Porter Cable EVS 2-1/4 hp set up for radiusing, and a tri-base DeWalt EVS 2-1/4 hp kit used for bushing and plunge work. The Milwaukee 5616-20's sensitive through-the-table adjustment, ease of removal and bit changes (not needed for some router lift systems), and good performance in the inverted mounting has kept that tool in the table for a number of years.

The stand is not something I would spend money on to buy already made - a 2x4 and 2x6 open frame with enclosed, top-hung box enclosure does not take long to fabricate, and enables the dust collection and enhanced airflow through the motor offered in just a few of the bench top (Bosch, Sawstop) and one of the floor-standing table systems (Jet). Although an enclosure is by no means difficult to fabricate and integrate, once the time is budgeted for the task, it seems like the additional hour or two to mill out the rest of the support system is warranted, and likely eliminates some of the integration time and design work needed with an existing base.

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan

My "router table" has a table saw attached to it - very handy! I drilled a hole in the plywood auxiliary table on my table saw and mounted an extra router base under it. I make simple wooden fences to suit the particular application I am doing that can be clamped in place and adjusted as needed. If you want to use the router as a mini jointer you could glue a piece of formica to one side of a plywood fence to "offset" the outfeed side.
In the past I made a router table with a corian top that I could lift out the router mounting plate with router attached to make adjustments. I had plates with different sized holes bored in them to accommodate various bits and routers. When rethinking my shop space I decided to do away with a dedicated router table and do the tablesaw mount. For me this made sense and I don't miss the router table. I do use routers quite a lot, but generally in a hand held fashion. I have over 20 routers of various makes and sizes, and still pick them up when I find one at a good price (and listen to the wife say "did you really need another router?" )
Unless your shop is large and spacious I would suggest you try the tablesaw aux table mount and see if that might do everything you want a router table to do. For general wood working there are a lot of things you can do with a table mounted router, with lutherie there are some, but I would be more inclined to spend the money on another router than on a table.


Edit: Actually looking at the prices of the table and fence system Woodie posted you could buy a half dozen trimmers for the same money. A Corian sink cut out might work as well as the phenolic top shown, and aluminum extrusions can be found on eBay to make a fence.

I use mine for all sorts of template routing, headstocks, bridges, brace radiusing, even profiling sides as well as trimming overhang after closing the box, routing truss rod slots, and flushing the neck to the fretboard after glueup using the fretboard as a template and layers of tape on the sides of the fretboard to level the radius. Probably a lot of other stuff I forgot.



I made a removable top for mine out of fibercore which is very flat so I have a nice big area to support the work for template stuff. That really helps. The other big breakthrough for me was figuring out I could Robosand first for some template work like bridges and headstocks and just take off the last 1/32” with the router. That pretty much eliminated catching and chipping out and made climb cuts safer.

I hope others will post more router table tips as well as their alternative techniques for doing a lot of the stuff many of us use the table for. I must admit it is loud, messy, and violent and I never look forward to using it.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

A 1/4" roundover bit in the router table is useful for making rectangular kerfed lining (either reverse kerf or regular kerf). That rounded exposed corner looks nice inside the guitar. A hint (maybe self evident, but I will say it anyway): Round over the edge of a wide board, then slice the strip off the wide board, repeat those two steps for however many strips you need, and then process the strips from there.

Regarding routers: Everybody has their preferences. For guitar work, the ubiquitous Porter Cable 690 has always been enough router for me, including in my router table. And just about every after-market accessory for a router is designed to accommodate a PC 690, so that's handy.

Regarding bits: I try to limit my use of 1/4" shank bits to the laminate trimmer. For the full sized router, I prefer 1/2" shank bits. They are more stable.

Regarding lifts: They are a luxury, not a necessity. And they can be very expensive. But, I do like mine, and I'm glad I splurged.

Final point: Safety. You need to read up on router table safety, which, other than the obvious basics of using PPE, boils down to two main goals: 1. Keeping your hands out of danger, and 2. keeping the workpiece from becoming a projectile. Some things about a router table are not immediately intuitive. You should study how to protect yourself. For instance, we make a lot of small parts for guitars. If you are going to rout small parts on a router table, you need to hold those parts with something other than your fingers. And starter pins can help you not lose control while template routing. Stuff like that.