Router table build!

[Andyjr1515]

2 hours ago, Prostheta said:

That and farting during the quiet parts in film dialogue?

Yes!  D**n!  I must have darn well got it!!!

[Prostheta]

They're using sniffer dogs in Helsinki airport to detect corona.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/24/close-to-100-accuracy-airport-enlists-sniffer-dogs-to-test-for-covid-19

"Sorry, I don't have corona....it must have been the dog"

[Prostheta]

Split fence in progress.

 

There'll be two knobs per fence half, I am thinking of making a thin ~0,5mm shim sheet to slot behind the left fence. That way it can be offset forward as an outfeed for jointing on the router table.

[Prostheta]

Not the best way of fitting the rail support brackets as having the cross-cut fence "locks" the two halves of the fence together. I might have to re-think that a little, however it isn't the end of the world to remove the cross-cut fence anyway. Just a ballache having to store it somewhere when not in use.

 

The cross-cut fence will see a lot of action when we get around to remodelling our kitchen and making solid wood door frames, some glazed and some with raised panels perhaps. Either way, solid mortise and tenon joinery will be sweet and easy.

[Prostheta]

Small update on where I'm going with this....slowly. I'm midway through decorating and fitting mouldings around our home, so I need the router table fence in action sooner rather than later. The main thing is the fence positioning - which I could do temporarily with clamps either end of the top which is less than ideal - however the t-tracks for this are due this week. The second thing is management of waste. This will be the usual "behind and under" approach, with a dust port to the rear of the fence plus a collection point under the collar around the bit. I think that the port supplied with the Makita should fit in spite of it being in a lift.

So, the fence angle plate needs a port routing in the aluminimum. I drilled and sawed out the majority of the waste, then got to routing the port to size. A cheap 1/2" router bit through a 20mm diameter guide bushing does the trick, as it allows gradual depth of cut to be dialled in since aluminimum is sticky and should be routed at the slowest speed a router can manage. Chips only!

Quick rationale on my layout. It doesn't need to be amazing or accurate, however I took the target dimensions and added the offset (half of the guide bushing OD minus the cutter diameter) either side. Three pieces of 3M DST were more than enough to keep the plywood template pieces in place. None of that dumb masking tape and superglue "trick" here! Taking chances is not an option. I cut maybe half a mm at a time and dammed up the gaps to control the flying aluminimum to the extraction hose.

 

[ScottR]

Is this thing on the job now?

SR

[Prostheta]

It is, more or less. I dug out a couple of 0,5mm brass sheets to use as shims for the outfeed table so that it can be used for jointing and it does so pretty well. I've noticed on longer pieces that the fence halves are no longer parallel when shimmed which is weird as hell. I disassembled, checked both extrusions for straightness plus the large rear angle also. The most I can figure is that this might be down to the bearing strength of the fence locking knobs; each brass shim sits either side of the threaded sections which should be close enough....I'm going to drill a couple of holes and saw in slots so the shims sit either side of the thread to see if this makes a difference.

Extraction is clearly the next job, as my little Festool CTL SYS doesn't even come close to hacking it. I might need to invest in a CTL MIDI or MINI to flow enough air at speeds that capture the chips, or at least the dust. The dust port fitted to the rear of the angle should be brought out to a Y-splitter at the rear which also extracts through the main cavity itself. Until a door is added to the front to make this more or less airtight, extraction will continue to be balls. Damming off the front with the router powered shows a large drop in apparent volume, so fully sealing this cavity and maybe even adding sound deadening might make this less of an ear defender magnet.

The cabinetry work is a further job to do, beyond the door and cavity sealing work. To be honest, since the table can be used on a basic level I've been cracking on with house renovation work. We've got about 43lm of Sapele picture rail going up around the house, I'm taking in a 1/4m³ (120 board feet?) of 52mm/2" Sapele later this week for door frames and doors....yeah, I really should be cracking on with some guitars really. I'm such a slacker, McFly.

[Prostheta]

At a push (literally, using a push stick....no fingers here) the table can also be used for thicknessing small parts. Generally it's a bad idea to have a workpiece captured between the fence and the cutter. but it's possible to feed through squared pieces left to right. Obviously, we're talking small things under an inch thick. Over that and you're asking for trouble! Still, having it shave off 0,5mm or so at a time to parallel up two faces is pretty neat. As long as you don't get fingers anywhere near and don't mind filling your pants every now and again.

[ScottR]

57 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

We've got about 43lm of Sapele picture rail going up around the house, I'm taking in a 1/4m³ (120 board feet?) of 52mm/2" Sapele later this week for door frames and doors...

You're trimming your house out in sapele? Nice!

SR

[Prostheta]

Well it's either that or go outside and deal with....people.

[Prostheta]

We're at the point where the design is being refined based on initial suspicions and subsequent experience. Firstly, refer back to the video in the original post; a pipe is inserted through from the back to the base of the router cavity. This is insufficient. It doesn't extract waste anywhere near cleanly enough, so dust and chips sit in the base of the cavity until the router fan whizzes them up into the motor. Mentioned previously, the normal way that this router extracts waste is through a polycarbonate hood that fits in the base, which unfortunately conflicts with the router lift slightly. Ten minutes with a lighter heating up the polycarbonate (not FOR ten minutes of course) and pushing it into place reformed the plastic enough for it to fit. Not ideal, but will certainly do the job.

So now I need to consider the arrangement of hoses. The original pipe running to the base of the cavity is ideal for allowing clean air in, whilst the ring hood around the cutter base captures dust that isn't managed by the fence port. I need to do some cutting and fitting of hoses, so once this is done I can show how this arrangement finally ends up.

Whether it will work as intended or not, I lined the interior of the cavity with 10mm of adhesive sound deadening foam uses for cars. Once the extractor is on and the cavity is in negative pressure, the acrylic door is pulled taut against the sealing foam and sound drops dramatically. Almost to the point of not needing ear defenders! I'd always recommend using ear defenders anyway, whether the sound is comfortable or not. Cumulative hearing damage is not something one can regret after the fact. Or will regret. You know what I mean.