A.Lee wrote:
With the amount of woodwork I have been doing recently, a good
purchase for me would be a router.

It would indeed. Don't buy a shed cheapie though, it will put you off
routers.

Presumably when hand held, these are not particularly easy to use (say
for putting a door rebate in a piece of 4x2").

Surprisingly easy to use free hand with a little practice. Do buy an
instructional book or DVD though.

So, looking at both Screwfix, and MachineMart catalogues, they have a
few 'budget' router tables. Some look better than others.
These have got to be the way to go when using a router?
Or a complete waste of time and money?

Tables are an 'add on' to a router, useful for edge mouldings & odd jobs.
Buy the router first,

I have a 20 year old 850 watt Makita 3620. I've bought B&Q and Homebase
1200 watt routers since and they sit on the shelf, I use the Makita. No
electronic speed control, no soft start just an excellent machine.
http://www.lawson-his.co.uk/scripts/...&product=14264

Router tables are dead easy to make for yourself. For many years I used one
made from scrap plywood clamped into a workmate.


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257