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I finally finished my mobile base unit!!
It is based on RayintheUK's article with a few modifications. I followed his lead by insetting the center panel into the torsion box then figured I might as well do the same for both end panels. That makes for a very ridgid unit but a lot of extra calculations to get it right. Also, I decided on just bolting my BK3 to the base using threaded inserts instead of making a hinged platform. I figured that when I need to, unbolting the unit would not be that difficult plus I can shim the BK3 if necessary for alignment changes. Many thanks to RayintheUK for the instructions and inspiration.
The dust collection is based on Phil Thein's "Frankenvac". I decided to use the center compartment for dust collection with blast gates for the BK3, router table, and router fence port. With this arrangement I can use top or bottom or both at the router, and the dust port on the BK3 plus, by moving 1 hose, attach a Shark Guard in the near future. The door had to be weatherstripped to make it air tight and I installed plexiglass just to watch. Just as Phil said, it's pretty neat to see how it swirls around and settles. Thanks for the information Phil.
The entire unit is made from 3/4" MDF except the dust collection door which is poplar. I painted the entire base including the router table top which also has 4 coats of poly followed by 5 coats of Johnson's paste wax. I happened upon the craftsman pro roter fence at clearance for $47.00 while looking for ideas on building my own fence, The only modification needed was to remove the Craftsman label.
All in all this base cost me about $465.00 to build, plus another $370.00 for tools that I just had to have.
Thanks go out to all the posts that helped me with this project.
It is based on RayintheUK's article with a few modifications. I followed his lead by insetting the center panel into the torsion box then figured I might as well do the same for both end panels. That makes for a very ridgid unit but a lot of extra calculations to get it right. Also, I decided on just bolting my BK3 to the base using threaded inserts instead of making a hinged platform. I figured that when I need to, unbolting the unit would not be that difficult plus I can shim the BK3 if necessary for alignment changes. Many thanks to RayintheUK for the instructions and inspiration.
The dust collection is based on Phil Thein's "Frankenvac". I decided to use the center compartment for dust collection with blast gates for the BK3, router table, and router fence port. With this arrangement I can use top or bottom or both at the router, and the dust port on the BK3 plus, by moving 1 hose, attach a Shark Guard in the near future. The door had to be weatherstripped to make it air tight and I installed plexiglass just to watch. Just as Phil said, it's pretty neat to see how it swirls around and settles. Thanks for the information Phil.
The entire unit is made from 3/4" MDF except the dust collection door which is poplar. I painted the entire base including the router table top which also has 4 coats of poly followed by 5 coats of Johnson's paste wax. I happened upon the craftsman pro roter fence at clearance for $47.00 while looking for ideas on building my own fence, The only modification needed was to remove the Craftsman label.
All in all this base cost me about $465.00 to build, plus another $370.00 for tools that I just had to have.
Thanks go out to all the posts that helped me with this project.
Attached Files
), and lately have considered orienting the fence as you have. I just haven't seen it done on anybody else's mobile bases, so thought maybe my idea was silly. My reason would be to give more width for running long stock across the table.
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