Incra Router Table

Alex Reid

Member
Messages
739
Location
Zushi, Japan
I probably have the biggest roun-to-it than anyone here. This project - not quite complete but almost there - took me quite a while to get to. The plate and fence set up has been sitting in a box under my bench for close to three years. But for what it is, it seems to be worth the wait.

I think the biggest reason it took me so long is space - I just don't have enough and didn't know what to do with a new router table in my shop. So I procrastinated and procrastinated and...

I think the big kick-starter for completing this though was a steel stand I got for free. So here it is.

This is a fold up steel table stand I got from a neighbor who was going to throw it away. Perfect I said. I knocked the plugs off the bottom of the legs and re-fitted my own plugs so I could attach some 2x4s on wheels.
irt1.jpg


I was only going to have a top but decided to put a shelf underneath and then again decided to put a cabinet in there. So here it is with the cabinet without any drawers or door fronts on. I also changed the position of the wheels so it will roll in and out of my shop easier.
irt3.jpg


Here it is with the top, which is 1 inch mdf laminated between two sheets of melamine plastic, and a wood border. I also installed a miter gauge track.
irt4.jpg


Making the template for this was not so difficult. As you may know the only tricky part was the corners. But for that I had a forstner bit that matched the radius of the corners.
irt5.jpg


The router plate from Woodpeckers fits nice and snug. No more bending down and wrapping my knuckles to change bits.:D
irt6.jpg


I bought one of these JessEm switches that have two plugs in the back. When I turn the router on the vacuum will come on at the same time.
irt7.jpg


Here is the general layout. I will put drawers in on the far left and one on the bottom under the router. Then I will close up the router compartment and put door fronts on the the other cabinet spaces. I still need to make some ports for the vacuum hosing.
irt8.jpg


And finally a pic of the top with the fully loaded Incra fence system. Love their products.
irt9.jpg
 
Last edited:
Very nice Alex. Thanks for sharing your design and thoughts. I know one thing, i will not complain about space in my shop ever again after seeing how yu and Stu have to get along. Have no idea how you going to work with this table inside the shop.
 
Thanks guys. Yes it does take up quite a bit of space but I roll it outside and work. And if it rains and I really need to work I use tarps. And then again if it is really raining I often stay inside.
 
Great looking table! Is that the LS27 or 32 Wonder fence? I've got the 27, I had to pull all the factory shimming out of it to try to line the fences up square. The outfeed side, upper half still needs to come out about 1/32" or so to stop the lower corner from catching. Is that the Incra table top/stand or one that you made yourself? I made my own (Beginners) router table to put the the fence on and I'm using the same Incra/Woodpecker lift that you are, my tables not anywhere near as nice as your! I see on your table you have a miter track slot, now I have a question for you. How far is it from the edge of your router lift to the edge of your track? That's one thing I have left to do to my table top. Again NICE looking table!
 
That came out great. Being mobile is going to make things easy. Router tables can be a sort of evolution for some of us. I added a wing to my contractor saw; wow. I moved the wing to my Hybrid and added dust collection; wow again. I built a cabinet under the table with better dust collection and storage for all the routing paraphernalia; wow yet again! You just went straight to the final "wow".
 
Great looking table! Is that the LS27 or 32 Wonder fence? I've got the 27, I had to pull all the factory shimming out of it to try to line the fences up square. The outfeed side, upper half still needs to come out about 1/32" or so to stop the lower corner from catching. Is that the Incra table top/stand or one that you made yourself? I made my own (Beginners) router table to put the the fence on and I'm using the same Incra/Woodpecker lift that you are, my tables not anywhere near as nice as your! I see on your table you have a miter track slot, now I have a question for you. How far is it from the edge of your router lift to the edge of your track? That's one thing I have left to do to my table top. Again NICE looking table!

Sorry for the late reply Cliff. This is the Wonder Fence system I am using. I didn't have any of the problems you had setting it up. Right out of the box it is square. The Wonder Fence has great adjustability. The table top was made by me. The miter slot is center-to-center 175mm (6.8inches) from miter slot to router spindle. Or if you are measuring from the router lift I think it is 150mm (5.9 inches).

Looking forward to seeing yours when you post it. :thumb:

That came out great. Being mobile is going to make things easy. Router tables can be a sort of evolution for some of us. I added a wing to my contractor saw; wow. I moved the wing to my Hybrid and added dust collection; wow again. I built a cabinet under the table with better dust collection and storage for all the routing paraphernalia; wow yet again! You just went straight to the final "wow".

Glen I have also been using a wing on TS for a router table for several years. Just getting too hard to bend down though. :thumb:
 
Here's the finished table with the drawers and cabinet complete. Today I did the last job I needed to do and connected the vacuum ports together with a T-joint. So now I have the vacuum going to the back of the fence (Wonder Fence has a vacuum port) and the router case. I hope my vacuum cleaner is strong enough.

irt10.jpg


irt11.jpg
 
Very cool Mon Ami. Its really good to see you make something with borg type wood. :) Makes the rest of us mortals feel its attainable. The guitar was a beauty but boy you stretched my thoughts of ever getting to your level. :)

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2
 
Looks fantastic Alex!!

I hope you are going to finish the wood somehow...?

Oh, you think I should finish it eh. I was going to leave it bare.

Very cool Mon Ami. Its really good to see you make something with borg type wood. :) Makes the rest of us mortals feel its attainable. The guitar was a beauty but boy you stretched my thoughts of ever getting to your level. :)

Borg wood is definitely up my alley when the time calls for it. This stuff was left over from some knock up shelving I did. Worked out perfect.
 
Bravo Alex.

Super nice router table setup. (All in the Alex Reid tradition of craftsmanship) I am envious of all the Incra, etc. accrssories.

You said you were tired of bending over to use the router table attached to your table saw? What is the height of the new table? My Unisaw, which is getting an extention table for my routers is 35". I know you are some taller than I (@ 5'7") so maybe that is where you needed the height adjustment for routing. Just wondering if I will experience the same later.

Did you glueup the panels for the doors? Good looking job. Oh, one thing, make sure you have an adequite supply of fresh air to the router so you don't overheat it while running, even with the vacuum running.

Boy, I sure hope I have a chance to visit you, and Stu, and Kyle whenever I get back to Japan to see our Son again. That will be an experience never to be forgotten.

Aloha, Tony.
 
You said you were tired of bending over to use the router table attached to your table saw? What is the height of the new table? My Unisaw, which is getting an extention table for my routers is 35". I know you are some taller than I (@ 5'7") so maybe that is where you needed the height adjustment for routing. Just wondering if I will experience the same later.

Did you glueup the panels for the doors? Good looking job. Oh, one thing, make sure you have an adequite supply of fresh air to the router so you don't overheat it while running, even with the vacuum running.

Aloha, Tony.

Hi Tony. The bending over was due to access to the router lift. On this new router plate there is a router lift, which is accessed using a slotted key from the top hence no bending over. On the old setup I have an extension on my TS, where the router is accessed from underneath.

The wood I used is as Rob put it Borg type wood. It is a laminate pine. The wood is cut into strips about one inch and glued up, then dimensioned to length, width and thickness. It is fairly stable and flat, and ready to use. I buy it in sheets of 500x2500mm.

Thanks for the vacuum tip. I have a vent there. I wasn't thinking though about the router overheating but more about having a vent so the air flow allows the dust to move more easily.

Cheers.
 
alex, I need to box in my router under my extension, how is the heat build up in a closed cabinet like that?

Make sure you have a vent for air flow. As I said in the post above you need a vent to allow the air to flow in and out, which carries the dust. But as Tony pointed out the air flow is also so the router doesn't overheat.
 
Top