Horizontal Router Table

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What are the benefits of having one of these? I picked up a copy of WW Journal, because they had the plans for a tilt top. Figure I have enough routers to dedicate to one, but now I don't know if I really need one. Give me some help here, does a person need one or not.
 
I don't know just what the benefits might be. I built one from plans in Woodsmith about fifteen (maybe even twenty) years ago, and used it once or twice (right after building it). I don't think it's been used since. I know for sure that it's not been used in the past five years. It's stored in my shop attic.

You could use one for mortising, or tenoning, but other ways of making M&T are better.

You could use one with a vertical raised panel bit, I suppose. It might be a bit easier than using a high vertical fence - maybe...

YMMV
 
They're also handy for laying down a face bead along the edge of a wide panel - keeping the panel properly upright against a conventional router table's fence is hard to do, but keeping it lying against the table is easy.

Many's the time I've wanted one, with the expectation that I'd find things to do with it once I built it... but I never built it so I dunno what I missed out on. :)
 
This one also has a tilting top. Supposed to take your routing to the next level. I can see where you could "invent" a different profile with a tilting top. I don't know, I just might have to build one and see. Jury is still out.
 
I use a hand held router some. I use my table top router all the time. I will say that it is important to have the best fence that you can get. Several years ago, I bouth a first version of the Incra fence, and later I bought their next stage that had a moveable fence with mirco adjusting. Later I bought the Incra Twin Linear. For my way of thinking, this the finest router table fence system ever designed. I will admit to some prejudice however. There may be something new that has come along since I bought it 10 years ago. I frankly couldn't build furniture with out it.

I built a mission style bide with lock miter 4 sided hollow quater sawn legs for it. I bead and coved miles and miles of cedar strips for making a Cedar Strip White Hall boat.

It is so nice to manipulate the wood and let the tool stay stationary and do the work. It is like the difference of a TS vs 7 1/4" circular saw. Both have their place, but the table tools win out most of the time.
 
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