Well, I thought you guys might like this so I took some pictures.
My router table crapped on me today, and so did my router, bad day in the woodshop.
Anyway, I got the router replaced and totally remade my table.
I decided to go with a thick hardboard and thick acrylic top for the new setup.
It was sort of a pain to work with the acrylic since its so thick, but I got it done.
It is REALLY smooth now, I am extremely pleased with how well it works now. No more sticking and dragging. No more catching and slipping. Just smooth routing!
Any time I smell that crap I feel like I’m taking years off my life… I keep my hand down on the stuff when I drill the holes with a holesaw and the bits like to wedge themselvs inbetween my fingers… Like you said, it burns like hell! Makes it itchy too!
Yeah man. Lexan/Makrolon are definately a lot better in all regards to work with. They smell kind of funny too, but nothing like acrylic. And you don’t get the red hot chunks of molten death spewing off the bit into your arms.
I have no plans of adding anything at this point. It serves me as is for everything I use it for. If I ever have a need to add stuff I suppose I can. But, no plans.
I do have a question - how do you hold down your wood piece as it goes through the router without any type of feather board? Seems like the wood wants to blow up without anything holding it down.
Well, the fence is bolted on one side, so it can swivel, and clamped on the other. I just apply light pressure on the box in the direction of the fence/table as I slide it through. Never had a problem so far.
Also, for some things, like rounded corners, I remove the fence completely. I like to freehand stuff like that because its faster and it doesn’t burn the wood as a result.
Thanks ecks, that really give us noobs some deep insight. round corners = pure skills. I see that you are using butt joints. In discussion with Michael, he recommends screws. In your joystick builds do you use any screw plugs to hide any?
118lb? You are in top shape, and far from over-weight. Long live ghaleon!
On the other hand, I’m just a yogi-bear… taking my family’s pie when they are not looking
So that was oak… but which types are trees that accept tite-bond well? Michael speaks of oily wood that won’t glue well?
I don’t really have an assembly line thing going though lol. I can hammer them out pretty fast but I usaually like to make just a few completes here and there with color shcemes and woods that I tend to think go together well and look asthetically pleasing.
So most of my time is actually spent planning on what wood/buttons/art to use rather than actually working with the wood. I’ve done that so many times now it just becomes second nature. I can turn my brain off and the pieces just seem to put themselves together It’s really not safe though so I need to get out of that habit…
I’m starting a new project though in the next couple of months so I’ll have to start looking into some more wood working tools and techniques since it involves things that I haven’t actually done yet…
Yeah I hear you though… I’ve got class in the morning, I should really hit the hay
