With the amount of woodwork I have been doing recently, a good purchase
for me would be a router.
Presumably when hand held, these are not particularly easy to use (say
for putting a door rebate in a piece of 4x2").
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?
Ta
Alan.
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"A.Lee" wrote in message
.. .
With the amount of woodwork I have been doing recently, a good purchase
for me would be a router.
Presumably when hand held, these are not particularly easy to use (say
for putting a door rebate in a piece of 4x2").
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?
Ta
Alan.
--
To reply by e-mail, change the ' + ' to 'plus'.

WHAT! "Presumably when hand held, these are not particularly easy to use"

only in the wrong hands

The 4x2 in a wormate is all thats needed.
A router table is for more intricate mouldings that require large bits and
an half inch router.
Putting a rebate in wood does not necessary need a table to do it.

Router tables come into their own when using large routers with large
diameter bits on long timbers - i.e. running off mouldings.

They're also good if you make up a crosscut sled to cut end mouldings.

Some people make every possible wood joint on them - and very neatly -
but that does require the patience of Job. I see router tables more as
small and lightweight spindle moulders.

I bought the CMT table from Axminster - which is very nice - but with
hindsight I'd probably make my own.

On Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:56:06 +0100, A.Lee wrote:

With the amount of woodwork I have been doing recently, a good purchase
for me would be a router.
Presumably when hand held, these are not particularly easy to use (say
for putting a door rebate in a piece of 4x2"). 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? Ta Alan.

==================================
For the example you give (rebate in 4" x 2") a circular saw - either bench
or hand-held - would be quicker. Two passes through the saw will leave you
with a perfect rebate and a cleanly cut out strip of spare timber. Doing
the same job with a router would leave you with a pile of wood chips
blowing in the breeze.

It would be a good idea to buy a cheap basic router and experiment to see
what you can do with various bits before you consider a table. Some
jobs are best done with a hand-held, some are better done on a table. Some
of the cheap tables have rather crude fastenings for the router which
could work loose with dangerous consequences.

One of the Machine Mart tables which appears to be a new version of an
earlier one that was on sale briefly has an integral router so it
should be more secu

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/pr...enchtop-router

If you've got a pillar drill you can use it as a bench router with a
simple table attached to the drill table.

Cic.

--
===================================
Using Ubuntu Linux
Windows shown the door
===================================

On 2007-09-25 19:56:06 +0100, (A.Lee) said:

With the amount of woodwork I have been doing recently, a good purchase
for me would be a router.
Presumably when hand held, these are not particularly easy to use (say
for putting a door rebate in a piece of 4x2").
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?
Ta
Alan.


If your main intended use is to be able to do operations such as a
rebates in long lengths of 100x50mm timber, you would be better off
with supporting the timber on a flat bench or equivalent and using the
router hand held, possibly with a jig to support the base. Sometimes
said jigs come with or are available for routers, but it's easy to make
one if not.

I began with using a router table with a 12.7mm router some while ago.
It is interesting for fairly small work involving cutting of
mouldings etc. or for work like panel raising and cope and stick
joints - e.g. on making cupboard doors. These can involve quite large
cutters which would not be very safe or satisfactory to use in a
handheld router. However, the size of the pieces is then generally
fairly small and can be reasonably supported on the typical router
table.

If you do a bit of searching around router tables and components,
you'll find that there are quite a few home made and retrofit designs
around. For example, it's quite popular in the U.S. to fit a router
table plate in a special mount to a table saw or to a bench. This
gives a much more stable support arrangement allowing safer use and
better control than a small table.

Nowadays, I have a combination machine with spindle moulder built in
that can take router cutters, so that I no longer really use the
portable table. However, if I were doing the exercise over again, I
wouldn't buy one of these portable jobs, but would go for one of the
insert type of solutions and build a standalone table or fit something
to a bench in some way. Results would be far more satisfactory.

If anything, I would suggest starting with a good quality 12.7mm router
such as one based on the Elu design (DeWalt 625, Trend, CMT), Bosch,
Makita or for something still good but less expensive Freud - certainly
nothing in the sub £120 range.

After that, I'd suggest buying a good book on routing, routing
techniques and jigs.

I think that you would get a lot more out of that.

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

On Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:56:06 +0100, (A.Lee) wrote:

Presumably when hand held, these are not particularly easy to use

Most of the interesting uses for a router _require_ a table, either
because you need the fence, or because the cutter is big enough to need
the rigidity of a fixed router.

Don't waste money on a router table. They're nearly all garbage and
they're easy to make yourself. Good ones are expensive.
http://codesmiths.com/shed/workshop/.../router_table/

in 668818 20070925 230743 "The Medway Handyman" wrote:

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

I've bought two and made two over the years. The home-made ones were definitely
better!

On Wed, 26 Sep 2007 07:42:24 GMT
Bob Martin wrote:

in 668818 20070925 230743 "The Medway Handyman" wrote:

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

I've bought two and made two over the years. The home-made ones were definitely
better!

I built one myself after years of using an old worktop with a hole in
it balanced on two trestles. My present one looks amazingly like this
one from a US TV show:

http://www.newyankee.com/getproduct3.cgi?0301

although not as pretty!

R.

On 2007-09-26 09:09:26 +0100, TheOldFellow said:

On Wed, 26 Sep 2007 07:42:24 GMT
Bob Martin wrote:

in 668818 20070925 230743 "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

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

I've bought two and made two over the years. The home-made ones were
definitely
better!

I built one myself after years of using an old worktop with a hole in
it balanced on two trestles. My present one looks amazingly like this
one from a US TV show:

http://www.newyankee.com/getproduct3.cgi?0301

although not as pretty!

R.

You don't happen to wear lumberjack shirts, have a beard and look as if
you fell out of the ugly tree hitting every branch on the way down, as
well do you? :-)