Thread: Tassie Oak Router Table Cabinet

After the joinery was cut I did a quick dry fit. To my surprise and delight it all went together nice and tight and it was all bang-on square in every axis! Seems that paying close attention to hitting precise layout lines pays dividends. I've had previous projects that have requires some fandangling to get them square after cutting joinery so this was very welcomed!

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With the basic structure done it was time to figure out how to sort out drawers and the central cavity for the router / lift. I had decided to try to make the drawers slide on the wood structure of the cabinet rather than using metal slides as that is the technique I wanted to learn for future, more important, projects and figured a shop cabinet would be a good place to learn. I just didn't realise that it would require quite a bit of additional structure; particularly given the central "box" for the router.

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I started with two lower horizontal dividers on the front and rear of the cabinet. Both would fit in dado's on the legs, with the front dovetailed in - again, a new technique I would like to try and want to learn for future projects.

I decided to use a piece of wood and a trim router to cut the bulk of the waste from the dado and chisel to the line/to fit. Then disaster struck! After cutting the dado I didn't wait for the router to stop and clipped the front edge of the leg with the bit - causing some ugly tearout to the visible front-edge. That dog won't hunt Monsignor! (sorry old Futurama reference).

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After swearing at it for an extended period didn't fix the problem I decided to remove the offending area, found some timber with similar colour and grain match and glued in a patch (so to speak). Turned out well. You can still see a faint line if you look closely, but you wouldn't notice if you weren't looking for it I think.

Routed away a strip between the two dado's:

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Glued in a matching strip-
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Turned out ok I think! Repaired Front Edge:

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And from the other side showing the repaired area:

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Cheers,

Dom

Fantastic, crispy joinery. Is that a Rotring 600 I spy? If you ever decide to become a monk and give away your worldly possessions, I call dibs on it. Hope the finger mends well.

Originally Posted by Alkahestic

Fantastic, crispy joinery. Is that a Rotring 600 I spy? If you ever decide to become a monk and give away your worldly possessions, I call dibs on it. Hope the finger mends well.

Haha. Thanks. Good eye. It's a Rotring 800. Christmas present.

Cheers, Dom

I also know that a good session of swearing does not in itself repair the mistake but if done right it puts you in the frame of mind to go fix things. Something zen masters do not teach.
Regards
John

After cutting dado's in the legs, I notched the horizontal dividers to fit, leaving about 20mm of overlapping material to dovetail to the legs. I then cut dovetails on the ends of the dividers, transferred the dovetail to the legs and cut the matching sockets. This was done with hand saws and a chisel, but I used a forstner bit to hog out some waste from the sockets. I also cut dado's in the legs to accept 12mm marine ply panels to fill the sides and rear of the case.

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I then milled up and cut some additional pieces to create web frames for the two lower drawers and a heap of dividers between the front and rear legs to facilitate 3 small drawers either side of the central router box. These will all be fitted with loose tenon joinery (Domino) as the joints aren't critical and using the Domino saved me some serious time. The web frame won't be glued at the rear to facilitate some expansion / contraction of the legs.

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Another dry fit -

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This is where I'm at to this point. Once my finger heals enough I'll continue the build. I need to box-in the central cavity, fit some ducting for dust collection, put some more rails in for the top drawers to run on, glue up, fit some adjustable feet to the cabinet, make a door, make and fit drawers, apply finish, and then fit all of the hardware. I'll actually probably leave the drawers to last and make them after I have the rest up and running.

Cheers,

Dom

Looks good Dom. When you say construction grade tas oak, is it F17 that you’ve dressed ? How’s your thumb? Bad injury or just a nick ?

Sam

Originally Posted by Sam

Looks good Dom. When you say construction grade tas oak, is it F17 that you’ve dressed ? How’s your thumb? Bad injury or just a nick ?

Sam

Hi Sam,

Thanks mate. Yeah it's just F17 construction timber.

Thumb isn't great but hopefully no permanent/nerve damage. Checkup and clean etc tomorrow. It certainly hurt like hell, although I always suspected sucking it into a 22,000rpm 12mm router bit would. Now I know for sure lol.

Cheers, Dom

Lovely joinery as usual.

Routers certainly make a mess of little fingers

Don't just think about the cut. *Gore warning*

but, with a good surgeon, they end up almost original.


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Originally Posted by Lappa

Lovely joinery as usual.

Routers certainly make a mess of little fingers

Don't just think about the cut. *Gore warning*

but, with a good surgeon, they end up almost original.


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Thanks mate. I won't be looking at your before pick - I don't like seeing those sorts of things. I can't even bring myself to watch those medical TV shows etc. Looks like it healed up ok though which is great. I don't think mine is that bad thankfully.

It has certainly restored some healthy respect for the dangers of working with tools though, which is a good thing. Hopefully just the right amount of pain and damage to properly reinforce the lesson!

Cheers,

Dom

So after a break to allow the finger to heal enough to allow me to carefully start working again I cut the cabinet back and sides out of 12mm marine ply and cut holes for dust collection in the sides;

I used a little aluminium jig I made to route circles with my router.

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I am going to run 6" to the side of the cabinet and have holes on both sides in case I need to swap things around in my shop in the future and want the port on the other side of the table.

I then glued up the case and gave it a coat of Osmo;

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More to follow.

Cheers,

Dom

I also routed an bell mouth intake port for the dust collection cabinet/box under the router. I will have a 4" port at the rear that will run 4" flex to the fence.

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I used a length of 160mm flex because whilst it may be slightly less efficient than a smooth large radius 90 degree bend it will alow me to switch the intake to the right hand side of the cabinet on the slight chance that this is required.

After that I fit mobile casters to the legs and also fitted some adjustable height feet. I used some 10mm internal threaded inserts that worked really well and seem more than strong enough IMO.

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More to follow.

Cheers,

Dom

I couldn't resist fitting the top, fence, lift etc. I still have to do some work to properly fit these and the top will need some filing / drilling to properly secure the lift etc.

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I'll say that I'm very happy with the Jessem fence and lift etc. It all feels very good.

Next is the drawers and door.

Cheers,

Dom

I decided to make the central door from some blackwood I had and will make the drawer fronts from the same.

I made the door about 25mm thick. Rail and stile with a rebated panel.

I first planed and ripped the Blackwood. I love how stable this air dried Blackwood was compared with stuff like Tassie oak.

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I decided to cut all of the joinery for this small door completely by hand and practise my hand tool skills.

Grooves in the rails and stiles with the small veritas plow. I really love this plane.

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Then used a shoulder and skew rebate to make the panel.

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After a dry fit I glued up the panel. Pleasantly surprised with the fit. No need for corrections to the shoulders and the door came together nice and square.

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A quick coat of wax, some Gerner hinges and the door is in.

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Next I need to mill stock for the drawer fronts and sides and start on those. 10 drawers to cut and I feel it will be a good opportunity to get some dovetail practise.

Cheers, Dom

I've been following along with this build on insta, and just happened upon this thread (haven't been very active on the forum). Loving all the extra detail! Bonus points for Futurama reference..

Cheers,

Ben