Friday, January 14, 2011

New Router Table as-is

Here's how the stand looks so far. Only two drawers, but it covers the basics. I've got the keyboard/mouse tray and computer/control electronics. I left room around the router table for an eventual plastic cover to control dust and noise.

A large challenge was mounting the monitor - I wanted it convenient, but not in the way of the plastic dust cover. I decided to mount the monitor on top of an extra length of steel pole I had around. Consider using a heavy-duty closet pole from Home Depot. You need to make sure that the power and video cables will fit through the tube first!

Monitor Mount: I made the monitor mount from a couple of scraps of plywood. The bottom and middle parts are bored-through with a 1.5 inch hole (the same diameter as the support tube). The top hole is a 1/4 inch smaller. This design allows the cables to be fed through the center of the tube and for the monitor to spin 90 degrees so it's out of the way during storage. There is a similar block under the surface of the table to support the tube.

Electronics Drawer: The drawer is roomy enough to hold the computer, power supply for the steppers and the stepper electronics. I added a master "mains" switch and a switch to control the router to the front panel. Also a big "stop" switch (Rockler) at knee height - for those times when things don't go as planned.
Hitting "stop" kills power to the router and to the stepper motors. A pair of filtered, computer case fans provide positive pressure to (hopefully) keep dust out of the drawer. An aluminum cover sits over the drawer.

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  2. It is important to understand that a router table is one of the most useful tools a woodworker could have. That's why certain features are required in order to assist the woodworker with projects.zukzik

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