Thread: Router Table top

Not sure if this will help but Ikea of Sweden is in many cases Ikea of that big country near Japan - don't know if this is the case with what you are chasing or even if it is an issue.

The product is quite expensive at $90. I would suggest you do a little searching around the kitchen building places - these blokes work in it every day, have bits left over [often at reasonable prices] and should be able to answer your questions re strength etc. Bear in mind that any top which does not have sufficient support close enough to the router will most probably have sagging issues.

Welcome to the long slippery slope of building your own - it's a great road to go down.
Regards,
Bob

Save the $90 and go for a drive around kitchen/joinery joints tomorrow morning and you will find places that even throw out big off-cuts of laminated MDF and chipboard left over from fit outs etc.

I grabbed a few large off cuts a few months ago from a local place in Bayswater for various uses in the shed.

Don't know where you are in Melbourne, but if you give A&R Salvage on Sydney Rd Campbellfield a ring they often have a lot of bench top remainders in stock. It is where I got my router table top from, 35mm thick chipboard, have a big Triton router permanently under it, no sagging after a couple of years.

Thanks for the tips. I gave A & R a call, nothing doing on that front. The cost is not so much of an issue; but time is, so I'll head off to Ikea tomorrow and check out what they have and make a judgment. The specification for its weight is 20kg, so hopefully it is sturdy enough. And I'll use plenty of angle underneath to support it.

Just a word of caution. IKEA benchtops have very thin laminate on heir tops. I would steer clear of this for the purpose you intend.

Look up Roger Gifkins site. He has plans for a router table. I made one based on his plans and it is the bees knees. I bought a full sheest of 3mm laminex for shower recesses at Bunnings Just the ticket.

A couple of things I did when I made my table:

# All outside edges were also laminated.

# All bare MDF was coated with super glue to seal it.

I took Waldo's advice and went to a local kitchen place around the corner. They fitted me out with a piece of laminated (both sides) 32mm chip board which they squared up for me on their panel saw. Overall size is 1300x710mm which is huge but I have a newly acquired Incra LS 25 system for it. I paid $60.00 which seemed reasonable (for the chipboard). Of concern was that when I put it on the carcass I have made, it is not completely flat, but I put some clamps on it and now appears to be uniformly flat. Finding suitable fasteners for chipboard that will hold it in place is the next immediate challenge. So thanks for the tips again!

...Nummins...
...off topic, but where did you source your Incra LS setup from, OS or local.
If OS any hassles with length and from whom did you get it from...
cheers

Glenn

I purchased o/s from Incramental tools - just email Mark there and he will give you a quote. Their service is excellent, delivery took about two weeks and postal charges was about $200USD. I went of the LS25 as it was only about $30.00 more and gives me the option of greater rip capacity if I ever decide to mount it on a table saw. I also took the opportunity to order a bunch of their other stuff that isn't available locally such as the magnaloc plate and a few other bits of track and router bits. It is pretty hard to resist buying o/s at the moment with the favorable exchange rate.

Cheers
Nick

If you wanted a smaller top. Find a cabnet maker that has just done a kitchen install and grab the cut out from the double sink, normaly free. I just grabed one for a mates table i'm building, trimed size was 900x430. I've made it 900 high so he can use his two portable work benches, 1200x800, as feed tables.
Paul

After just starting to buid a router table myself,If I was going to do it again,I would be buying a top from Profesional Woodwork Supplies.

I reckon by the time I got the Laminex and MDF etc it would have been cheaper to get one already made up.

Greg

Originally Posted by nummins

Of concern was that when I put it on the carcass I have made, it is not completely flat, but I put some clamps on it and now appears to be uniformly flat. Finding suitable fasteners for chipboard that will hold it in place is the next immediate challenge. So thanks for the tips again!

G'day Nummins,

To secure my PWS router top, and you can do the same with the 32mm laminated c/board, I secured it at either end to the carcass of the router table with steel angle. https://www.woodworkforums.com/f20/wa...63/index8.html

I ended up getting a steel frame from an old school desk/table and will building the carcass around that ala Bigshed's. I also purchased three 20mm x 20mm x 1000mm pieces of steel and secured three to the underside to ensure the top remains ridged. The only problem with the PWS tops is 1. Their largest top is not long enough for an Incra LS25, you still need to add a canter levered section. 2. They are only 600mm wide which means that there will be a 50mm overhang of the Incra fence on either side. Perhaps this is not that important, but I don't fancy catching my clothes on it every time I walk pass it.

Originally Posted by nummins

I ended up getting a steel frame from an old school desk/table and will building the carcass around that ala Bigshed's. I also purchased three 20mm x 20mm x 1000mm pieces of steel and secured three to the underside to ensure the top remains ridged. The only problem with the PWS tops is 1. Their largest top is not long enough for an Incra LS25, you still need to add a canter levered section. 2. They are only 600mm wide which means that there will be a 50mm overhang of the Incra fence on either side. Perhaps this is not that important, but I don't fancy catching my clothes on it every time I walk pass it.

I am pretty sure they can get them made up to what ever you want.

Originally Posted by Strungout

I am pretty sure they can get them made up to what ever you want.

Yep, you can.