BT3 Router Mounting kit on saw table

[papasmurf113]

Tried it this past Friday, didn't much care for it. I'm looking for the "BT3 Master's" recommendations for a router table please, (HD has one from Ryobi for $60 that looks like it'll fill the bill for a "rookie"), thanks to the BT3 guru's for tolerating my questions.
OBTW.....
But I did actually produce a pair of stereo loudspeaker stands....[^]

[LCHIEN]

Surely the BT3 auxiliary table for router mounting is an inexpensive way to get started and it's definately not the best.

IF you are looking for a saw mounted router table the the ultimate is to build you own suspended bewteen a pair of extension rails and mount a Rockler, woodpecker or other high end plate in it with a router lift.
OR better yet, with an Incra fence.

If you look around and all over ht internet, not just here there are many deluxe router stations for do it yourselfers with all parts homebuilt to units with a homemade table but with a commercial plate and fence.

I think the ultimate router table is a matter of personal preference coming from experience of using one.

[softop41]

Woodpeckers(www.woodpeck.com) and Woodline(www.woodline.com) both make good router table tops and will make one to your specifications to mount between the rails of the BT which also serves to increase your table area for the saw.

If a seperate cabinet is your preference, Bench Dog and Woodline both make good free-standing cabinets ready to hang your router in.

What ever your get, the two MOST important parts are the mounting plate for the router and the fence. The plate MUST not sag under the heat and weight of the router so that the plate is level and flat with the rest of the table and bit remains at the depth you set as well as perpendicular to the table. The value of a good fence is just as important on a router as it is on the BT.

If you choose to have one of the companies make you a top to fit between your rails, you choose where you want to locate your router, where you want T-track, miter track, etc., which would allow the incorporation or a miter slot for the right side of the BT blade if you chose to. I am designing one for my BT, mostly just to have the extra table top for the saw but I like to maximize my options when I design stuff for myself. HTH
Jerry

[Chuck In Oregon]

<<recommendations for a router table please>>

You can spend an awful lot of money on commercial router tables and lifts and so forth, and maybe you/we should at some point in our WW lives. They are really pretty useful, cool and they have a high wow factor with our friends. However, there are a lot of cheaper and perfectly acceptable alternatives for us beginners and/or those of us who need to watch our wallets and still do some routing.

One that I built is the "Mini Workbench with Router Table Top" that you can find in Black & Decker's "Home Improvement Library" book [u]Workshop Tips & Techniques</u>. This book, like a couple of the others in this series I have seen, is for beginners who need some direction and advice and who need to stick to a budget. In other words, people like me. I think I bought it at one of the big chain book stores, likely on the sale rack.

You probably have enough scrap in your shop to build some or all of this project. It is a small stand-alone bench with a removable router top, not a benchtop router table. OK, it's not fine furniture, but it's quick, cheap, works well and it looks like it belongs in my shop. My kind of project.

There are lots of router table plans available, many for free, some for a modest price. Pat Warner has a really nice one on his site that you should check out. Norm's is a perennial favorite. I keep thinking that Danny Proulx published one but I can't seem to find it. It seems like the WW mags publish a few every year.

Sure, you may outgrow the B&D version, but you'll still have the mini workbench to pound on. Then you can move up to one of the better versions when time, skill and budget allow. As an added bonus, when your buddies see your bench you will be able to say "I built it myself." There is a lot of satisfaction in that little sentence.

Just my two cents, and worth every penny.

Chuck

[LarryG]

Out of the answers given thus far, I like Chuck's the best, by far.

I am eternally dumbfounded that people who aspire to be woodworkers, people who see themselves building some pretty nice pieces of furniture, seem to think it's necessary to purchase, rather than build, something as drop-dead easy to make as one's first router table. As woodworking projects go, a simple but entirely adequate router table is a lot easier to make than, say, a jewelry box; it's about on a par with building a bookcase.

To be useful, a router table need be no more elaborate than a flat surface with a hole in it (witness the BT's accessory table) and some sort of fence, which can be as simple as a nice straight piece of hardwood. You don't need an insert plate. You don't need a miter slot. And you certainly don't need a fence that can be positioned with gnat's-hair precision (the exception to this would be if you are doing production work and need to quickly return to a known setup frequently. That's not me, and I'll bet it's not you). Granted, an insert plate can simplify bit changes and height adjustments, and a split fence with dust collection provisions can make life more pleasant. In the interests of full disclosure, I'll confess that my table has a lift, and a split fence (built by me) with a dust port. But, bottom line, all you really need is a flat surface with a hole in it, and a stick plus a couple of clamps.

Comparing a router table to a table saw is moot. Unlike a table saw blade, a router bit spins in the horizontal plane. There is no "squareness" or "parallel" relationship between the bit and fence. That's why a simple piece of hardwood, jointed straight, makes a perfectly acceptable fence. All you need is something to guide the workpiece along as you make the cut, and if it happens to be sitting 7d 41' 9" out of whack with the table's edges, that is utterly immaterial. Further, positioning the fence in relation to the bit is done almost entirely by eye and by trial-and-error test cuts. You don't need an adjusting mechanism graduated in thousandths of an inch to tell you when you're getting the results you want. All these gee-whiz "features" tacked onto a router table may look cool in the catalog, but for the most part all they do is take an operation that is inherently quite simple and clutter it up with gee-gaws that aren't actually needed.

Buy yourself a copy of "Woodworking With The Router" by Bill Hylton and Fred Matlack. They'll change the way you think about router tables forever. They'll also show you how to build a simple one to get you started, and a fancier one with all the features if that's the way you someday decide to go.

Also take a look at www.oak-park.com which sells the router tables that Bob and Rick Rosendahl use on "The Router Workshop." I'm not suggesting that you buy one of their tables, but rather that you study their elegantly simple designs and realize how simple a router table can be. (I have seen many dozens of episodes of this show and cannot recall them ever once using a fence that was anything other than a straight piece of wood or plastic, held down with two C-clamps.)

[WEG]

Hi Keith;
I agree with Larry He's a pretty bright guy... In fact, most of these guys are pretty bright! I certainly have learned a lot from them. I built a table out of a left over formica counter top and made a box shape fence from 4 inch MDF, real stable and easy! I clamped the MDF at the open ends to the table top. I mounted my router in a Rousseau plate, about the cheapest at the time I could find. I eventually added a Router Raizer. Oh, the counter top is about 5 foot long and sits on a 2x4 leg and 3/4 ply apron stand. Couldn't be simpler to build.
So, have at it and make yourself a router table! or a top to stick into a table saw extension! Incidently, I think the Ryobi router kit for the BT3100 isn't very good, but I'm spoiled
I think I can email you some pics if you would like to see the beast.
WEG

[rockfish]

I use the auxiliary table with my BT3100 and I love it.

It's all I need.






rockfish

[RodKirby]

Congratulations, Larry!

That's one of the best posts I've seen on this forum.

If Sam/Loring happens to see this, I hope it becomes part of the FAQ

[monte]

Great post Larry. You covered it well.

[Stan]

Great post Larry. Agree wholeheartedly. Here's my version of a $5.79 router table.

Top and sides of the box were made from cabinet shop fall-offs (left out by the street). $5.00 for the 12"X12" piece of HDPE for a router plate, $0.79 for a package of screws to use as plate adjusters. Fence is 1-1/2" MDF (again from the cabinet shop 'mall'). Drilled a 1-1/4" diamater opening in the side of the MDF chunk to allow clamping the shop-vac hose in place for DC.



Oh, if you count the clamps also, your still probably under $25.00.

[Black wallnut]

quote:Originally posted by RodKirby

Congratulations, Larry!

That's one of the best posts I've seen on this forum.

If Sam/Loring happens to see this, I hope it becomes part of the FAQ

+1 more!

That said in my arrogant opinion Pat Warner makes for some interesting reading but I've personally found plenty on his site that I simply do not agree with. Many time there are more than one way to do things safely. It's not a case of I'm right and he's wrong; we're both right! I do think his writing is worth reading, as is any you can find on routing. You may gain a different perspective to solve a particular task. The other authors mentioned I've not read at all. Just about everything I know about routing was learned either the hard way (expierence) or from the Router Workshop or New Yankee Workshop on PBS.

IMHO what you need to first decide is how much space you have in your shop. In my arrogant opinion unless you have a surplus of space a stand alone router table is wasted space. Keep in mind on most of my projects I use the router just as much if not more than the table saw. So if you're like the rest of us and have limited space a router workstation built into your saw cart makes sense.

As Larry said router fences only NEED to be a straight piece of stock, and if you are using a bearing guided bit a relief for the bearing needs to be cut in the fence. However a split fence and built-in dust collection can be a real time saver in some situations. If you desire a "better" fence copy mine or if you really don't want to build your own, for a reasonable price, I can build one of mine for you!