Thread: Fixing a sagging router table top?

Yes, I've had that kind of support from Col. He rang me from the golf course one Sunday!

These tables were originally designed for using the Gifkins Jig on to give you a smooth flat surface which in good condition they do very well. Not having a thinner insert plate in the top is not detrimental the the height of the router bit as they don't need to go very high to perform their operation with the jig. They weren't designed for a full blown router table, just purpose built.

Originally Posted by Treecycle

These tables were originally designed for using the Gifkins Jig ... They weren't designed for a full blown router table, just purpose built.

To be honest, that's probably what I'm mostly going to be doing on them. (I have the Gifkins jig). I found the router a bit slow and fussy for dado/rabbet cuts (vs table saw with a dado stack), and use a hand router for roundovers and edge profiles. But I'm a total novice at this stage.

OK, I've figured out what the problem is. If you look at the picture of the table on Gifkins side https://gifkins.com.au/wp-content/up...e-blue-red.jpg there is a cross-brace front and back. This is held in place with a cabinet bolt in each end, fitting into a knockdown cross-dowel nut, and a single bolt from the top of the surface down into the middle of the cross-brace. On my table, the cross brace was not snug against the top surface (because there's a bit of slop in the fastener), meaning that the table had some room to sag in the middle.

I took the brace off, cleaned out all the dust (there's a sign of a gap!) and snugged it up hard against the top again. This flexed the table into more-or-less straight. I suspect (before it sagged) the centre bolt was not pulling the cross-brace sufficiently tight against the surface. I wonder if the table would benefit from two bolts at the end of each cross brace, rather than one in the middle (and doing those up tight before the ends). I suspect weight of the router just forces the ends of the cross brace to slide a little down the side pieces (fwiw, the table moved 20km in a moving trailer, it's possible that made it worse).

A view of the top https://gifkins.com.au/wp-content/up.../Table-top.jpg

It looks like from Chris's link that either there was a design change or someone has added an extra bolt at each end of the front and rear cross members. This would certainly help to keep the brace up against the table top at each end rather than relying on the bolts that come in from the end to keep the ends up.

No - mine is the same as that. The bolts at each end go into the sides, not the cross-bar. Only the centre bolt on the front and back go into the cross-bar.

Ah, I see. Just the angle of the photo makes it look like they are in the bracing.