BT Mobile Base Diary

[dbhost]

Jon,

Wow, you are doing a really nice job on this so far... Okay an oops or two is understandable... Is it bad enough to scrap that sub assembly and start over on that area? That's up to you...

I see where you are going with this, and until now I had NOT considered building a cart / base for mine because I couldn't see the benefit. Seeing yours I sure can now...

I don't often say this about other folks projects, but this one has me riveted...

What are you going to be doing for a top?

[poolhound]

Jon,

Wow, you are doing a really nice job on this so far... Okay an oops or two is understandable... Is it bad enough to scrap that sub assembly and start over on that area? That's up to you...

I see where you are going with this, and until now I had NOT considered building a cart / base for mine because I couldn't see the benefit. Seeing yours I sure can now...

I don't often say this about other folks projects, but this one has me riveted...

What are you going to be doing for a top?

Thanks DB, do I now see one in your future? Not sure if I have ever had anybody call one of my projects Riveting!

As far as the top goes I was orginaly going to use a piece of high pressure laminate covered particle board that I have with a secondary layer of MDF. However, I picked up a couple of sheets of phenolic ply when Rockler had them on sale a few weeks back - The phenolic surface is real slick!

When I get to that point I will see which one will be flattest. I am guessing the HP laminate will be more stable but I would like to use the phenolic. The phenolic is coated onto baltic birch but currently the two sheets I have are not dead on flat - not bad but not perfect. I am hoping that once I attach the second layer of MDF and some HW edging plus mount it on the base it will keep any slight bows in check - at least thats the theory

[poolhound]

Weekend #5 Complete the Router Base and Build the Top.

I didnt get quite as much shop time this weekend as I had other things to do and a trip to the theater on Saturday but managed to move things along well and there were no "Oops" this weekend - Moon must be in a different phase.

I wanted to get the router base cabinet finished along with the extension/router tabletop so next weekend I can get everything aligned with the saw top and all bolted down as well as fit the new router lift.

My first job was to deal with last weekend's "Ooops" where I forgot to cut the holes for the DC piping before assembly. The hole from the outside wasnt hard as I had full access although I needed to make carefull measurements to ensure the inside and outside holes lined up.



The inside one, as expected was more of a PITA, however, using a RA drill attachment got it done. You can see from this pic that there is not a lot of clearance. If I had cut the holes first I would have made them flush with the back and bottom but clearance for my hole cutter didnt allow for this once assembled. I will be fitting a false bottom later to raise the level just above the bottom of the pipe to make chip collection easier.



Here is the HF RA drill extension I picked up to get the inside hole cut. Its pretty solid and should come in useful in the future.



Cut and glued the PVC pipe using polyurethane glue. It expands nicely to fill the gap in the 2 3/8" hole around the 2" PVC.



Next job was to trim out the base to cover the exposed ply and to match the main base cabinet. I also gave the cabinet a seal coat.




I also fitted the switch for the router and cut the holes for the cords (inside and out). Anybody recognise this switch (seemed like a good solution)



Now to the top - once you get to work on the top the end seems in sight. I was first dissapointed as I had bought a piece of Phenolic ply to use as the surface as that stuff is really smooth and slick. However, even when clamped to the MDF substrate it wasnt perfectly level. It wasnt a huge amount out but as this is to be a router tabletop there was no sense in going for less than FLAT! I went back to the orginal piece of HP laminated particleboard as this was pretty much dead on.

The first step was to cut both pieces to rough size and ensure two edges and one corner were true. I then laid out where the router plate, miter slot and fence slots would be, marked up for screws then drilled and CS them. Although they were clamped tight when I drilled, I then gave both surfaces a light sand and a clean. This is a step not worth skipping, if you get something trapped in there, even something small, it can throw everything off. I then glued (polyurethane glue) clamped and screwed them together.



Once dry, the next step is to trim and true the top to final size.



Although this lamination should be pretty stable I wanted to give it a good solid HW edge. Mostly to help keep it flat but also for cosmetics. I used some Oak that was going spare. I guess I could have used Walnut to match the trim but I didnt really want to use some of my 6/4 Walnut for this as it seemed like a waste.

Here is the trusty miter sled in action cutting the Oak edging.




I used biscuits, added the glue and last but not least solidly clamped up with a bunch of besseys. OMG with the top itself and 6 bessey clamps this thing weighed a ton - I couldnt lift it off myself so had to let it dry sitting on the bench



Thats it for this weekend. Next week will be fixing everything together. I am still puzzling about the best way to do this as I know some shimming will be needed. I am thinking of fixing the router cabinet first and then setting and shimming the saw base to level it with the extension top. Then I can mark the position of the rail extension fittings.

If anybody has any other ideas or tips let me know.

Until next week...

[dbhost]

Thanks DB, do I now see one in your future? Not sure if I have ever had anybody call one of my projects Riveting!

As far as the top goes I was orginaly going to use a piece of high pressure laminate covered particle board that I have with a secondary layer of MDF. However, I picked up a couple of sheets of phenolic ply when Rockler had them on sale a few weeks back - The phenolic surface is real slick!

When I get to that point I will see which one will be flattest. I am guessing the HP laminate will be more stable but I would like to use the phenolic. The phenolic is coated onto baltic birch but currently the two sheets I have are not dead on flat - not bad but not perfect. I am hoping that once I attach the second layer of MDF and some HW edging plus mount it on the base it will keep any slight bows in check - at least thats the theory

There is a very good possibility of that. I had always thought that the mobile cabinet build would be much more difficult than what you show... The joinery is well within my reach, and the materials aren't exactly expensive. I like the storage / organization something like this can provide for the shop... I have a number of other projects to finish first, but this just went on my to do list...

I am with you on the Phenolic ply. If you can get it dead flat, I bet it would make a sweet surface...

[poolhound]

I am with you on the Phenolic ply. If you can get it dead flat, I bet it would make a sweet surface...

Unfortunatley it didnt quite work out. I think once I had afixed it to the MDF substrate it would have kept the ply itself flat but the surface seemed to be uneven. I am thinking that the coating may have introduced this.

It would be totally fine for an outfeed or even a general saw table but I wasnt going to introduce any uneveness into a router top. In smaller pieces it will be great for jig parts and/or sacrificial fences or even router fence faces.

[LinuxRandal]

Is that dust tube supposed to be flush with the inside, or stick out for an elbow?

[footprintsinconc]

looking nice!

[poolhound]

Is that dust tube supposed to be flush with the inside, or stick out for an elbow?

The pic that shows the PVC pipe sticking out is in fact the outside and is intended to be this way. A T will go on here with the DC connected to one side and the other running up to the router fence. I didnt take a picture of the inside but that is set flush.

[JR]

Jon, the cabinet is really shaping up beautifully. Good job!

JR

[dbhost]

Uh. Dumb thought but... Are those extended rails half rails or full? They look like half rails in the photos... What kind of rip capacity does that give you?

[poolhound]

Uh. Dumb thought but... Are those extended rails half rails or full? They look like half rails in the photos... What kind of rip capacity does that give you?

Yes they are half rails. I had both a half and full set of rails but I dont have the room to setup a saw with the full rails and to be honest not sure there is a huge benefit - at least for me.

With the half rails added and the scale set for zero my rip capacity is a tad over 40". If I really needed to I could reset the rails and get a 48" rip. Other than trying to rip a full 8' sheet in half I cant think of many reasons for needing much more and I dont think I would want to try and man handle a full sheet on the BT anyway. A good straight edge and my CS does a good job and I can then cut to final size on the BT.

[dbhost]

Kind of what I am thinking...

With my full rails, I get 72" of rip capacity. But who on earth wants to rip material 6' wide? Or more correctly who that likes to keep their limbs...

[JimD]

I cut a few inches off my rails but still have about 60 inch capacity. I use it occasionally. It is nice to cut a cabinet back, for instance, on the table saw rather than use a hand-held or try and cut a small piece off a big piece on the table saw. You have to make sure you keep the wood tight to the fence and not make a cut this way unless the piece is also pretty wide but if you are careful, I think it is safe enough. In other words, I would cut a 24 to 30 inch wide cabinet back to lengths up to 60 inches on my BT3100.

Most professional models top at about 50 inches - a little more than half a 8 foot sheet. I've thought about reducing mine to this to save space but I like what I have.

I have my BT3100 on a separate board with a hole in the center what is hinged so I can turn it up for cleaning. Got the idea on this website. It is worth doing, IMHO. Makes cleaning a whole lot easier.

Jim

[jabe]

Looks great!!!

[poolhound]

Weekend #6 The Router Table - Nearly Finished.

The main focus this weekend was completing the router table top and getting the saw aligned and fixed down. It doesnt look like there was as much progress but there was a lot of accurate layout and careful cutting involved as this is where the rubber meets the road .

I did first go through the whole process of laying out and cutting the router plate opening on a scrap board so I could make sure I got it right first time when I came to the real thing. If I was going to make any mistakes I wanted to learn from them and not end up having to make a whole new top!!


The first job, as always, was accurate layout. I figured out exactly where I wanted the plate and the miter slot and used the straight edge clamp to ensure the template would be perfectly parrallel to the table.

I drilled out the corners of the cutout and then took out the waste with my trusty bosch jigsaw.



With the template aligned with the straight edge and firmly clamped to the bench I used a pattern cutting bit and routed the 3/8" deep rabbett. I could have made the template but elected to just buy the one that Woodpeckers sells to match the plate. It seemed worth the $8 to ensure it was going to be right first time. One potential "GOTCHA" here is matching the bit to the template thickness and desired depth of cut. To use the template alone would have required a shorter bit than I owned (shortest one I have is 1"). this required shimming up the template with some extra 1/2" MDF. That was one thing I learned from my prior experiment.



Then using the straight edge again I routed the slot for the Miter track. Here it is with the plate and miter track installed.



Next job was slotting the top to take the router fence. I elected to do ths rather than have something that attaches to the rails. It will use T-bolts. With the router guide set to the correct offset from the edge it then becomes easy to route the large hole, the bolt slot and the rabbet for the head (underneath) and ensure they all align.



Then it was on to fixing down the top and getting the saw and the table in plane and level. This took much longer than I thought. One thing that did cause a little distraction was that once the large hole for the lift was cut the top did deform slightly. I then needed to add some solid HW braces underneath to keep it dead flat (sorry forgot to take pics before I fixed it down).

I elected to attach the router table get it level and then shim the saw to match. After my first attempt I found the table was still about 1/16- 1/32 shy so I took the whole thing off and added some old CCs underneath to raise it up. Then using some washers and other shims inder the saw base I got it all levelled. I decided to use capitive nuts in the base so I could use bolts to attach the saw. This should make it easier if and when I need to remove it.




Here are a couple of pics of everything in place. you will also note that I stained the table edges to nearly match the walnut trim. I also added the draw slides before fixing the top.








I didnt quite get around to fixing the rails on yet but that will be next weekend. I am nearly there just the rails to fix, some more drawers and the router compartment door and I am DONE!

Will still need to make a router fence but thats another story...