Giving up on my router table

Roger Tulk

Member
Messages
3,018
Location
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
I have had a Ryobi router table for several years, and done some good work on it. I haven't used it in the last year at all however, and a few weeks ago I tried to set up to cut a rabbet, and finally gave up and did the job on my table saw, much quicker than I ever have on the router table. Part of my issue was with storing the thing. No matter where I put it in my 8' x 10' shed, it was in the way. It has a Skil router attached to it at the moment, and it was no fun to set up. I had to take the router and plate out of the table to be able to set it up, and no, I can't afford any of the router lifts in the catalogs.

I know the Ryobi table isn't the best around, and when I get a real shop, I will probably spring for a good table and a router lift. Meantime, I can do a lot with a Dado blade and a handheld router. I intend to use the money I get from selling the table and router on Kijiji to defray the cost of a good Dado blade.

I'm sure the Memsahib will be happy to hear I have gotten rid of a tool. She thinks they are all surplus to my requirements anyway.

Just needed to share.
 
You know I haven't had a dedicated router table in years. There are some cases where I definitely miss it, but then I usually figure out some way around the problem (sometimes involves scaling back my design .. or just doing a different project :D). You definitely have to make some hard desicions in a shop that small and I certainly can't say that that was the wrong one.
 
I gave up my router table about 10 years ago. But that was when I got a shaper as part of my combo machine. After getting comfortable with the shaper in the combo, I bought a second separate shaper, and it gets a fair amount of use.

When I was picking up the shaper at Woodcraft (5 hp Powermatic), one of the "not too smart" salesmen commented, "I can't imagine why anyone would want a shaper." I said, "this is my second." He wandered off shaking his head.

When you build your ultimate shop, consider a shaper rather than a router table.
 
I can't imagine being without my router table. I built my first one about 14 years ago and sold it only because I bought a new tablesaw with router lift in the extension a couple of years later. When we moved to Georgia and I built my dedicated, larger shop, I put the router lift in a portion of my bench that lets me keep it ready most of the time. I have used it for everything from small profiles to raised panel doors. I looked at shapers a few years ago but decided one couldn't give me any capability I didn't already have.
 
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