For large home-made tables I use two layers of 18mm MDF laminated both sides with Formica or similar. Materials used for commercial tables include phenolic board, plastic-faced MDF, alloy, sheet steel, and cast iron. The material that it is made of is less important, unless you have to drill it to fit your router. The essential requirement of a router table top is that it should be flat and stay flat. A heavy top on a flimsy base does not make for accurate work. Unless you are limiting yourself to light cabinet and miniature work, therefore, a large solid table top, at a height to suit the user, is the first requirement. In addition, the router will be worked non-stop for longer stretches at a time. This applies to the router and the table it is put in, because a table-mounted router will tend to be used with large cutters applied to large workpieces. With router tables the old boxing adage “a good big ‘un will always beat a good little ‘un” holds true. At the other extreme, if you are on a limited budget, I am quite certain that you will get far more for your money by making your own table. Paying more will not necessarily give you a better table for your requirements. Price is obviously important, but it is far from being the overriding consideration. Photo 1 shows my big table and photo 2 my small table with guards and hold-downs. In this and the next instalment I discuss the main criteria for choosing a table – whether bought or home-made. All these factors combine to make table routing safer and more accurate, in general, than hand-held routing. Other advantages of table routing are that it is less stressful, it is easier to rout small workpieces, and dust extraction is more efficient. At the other extreme miniature work, such as would be done with the Wealden miniature and modelling bits, needs a table because of the tiny dimensions of the timber and the extreme accuracy required. With the router stationary, many of the larger heavier cutters can be used, although a heavy-duty router with ½” collet and variable speed is necessary. WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A ROUTER TABLE – PART ONEįor most workers the biggest single step forward in expanding the scope of their routing is to buy or build a router table.
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