MOTHER'S ROUTER/SHAPER TABLE

Enlarge Image Image Gallery LEFT TO RIGHT: Mounting the router . . . using a miter gauge to form square joints . . . installing the shaping pin . . . and shaping.

Every well-equipped wood shop needs a router to form the various joints, moldings, and inlays common to all quality cabinetmaking. These versatile groovers are most often used freehand, or with a guide which attaches directly to the tool itself . . . but there are some jobs-such as the lengthy straight-line cuts that are required when making window molding-which demand the steadiness of a solidly mounted power-head and the proper guiding mechanisms to control the delivery of the wood.

MOTHER's router table is designed to turn your hand-held power groovemaker into a versatile and precise molding tool . . . one that can handle most of the jobs normally done on a shaper, without giving up the router's freehand capabilities. (By removing a couple of screws, you can easily turn your tool back into the mobile molder you had before.) Better yet, you can assemble the table in a couple of short evenings . . . for a fraction of the cost of a high-speed shaper.

THE WORKING SURFACE

Begin the construction of your router bench by cutting the frame pieces from 2 X 4 lumber. You'll need two 14-1/2" sections and two more that are each 60" long. Fasten these four boards together with a combination of rabbet (in the 14-1/2" pieces) and dado (in the 60" lengths) joints.

For those folks unfamiliar with the technique, the rabbeting needed here involves nothing more than trimming away a 3/4"-deep by 3/4"-long piece from the 3-5/8" widths of each of the 14-1/2" boards . . . leaving 3/4" X 3/4" X 3-5/8" tongues, as in the drawing, at each end. Then, to make the dado portion of these unions, simply move 3/4 inch in from each end of the two 60" sections and cut a 3/4" X 3/4" groove across the 3-5/8" surface. The tongues on the short pieces of lumber will slide right into the slots in the long boards.

Next-to secure the joints-drill two 7/64" lead holes . . . through the back of the dadoes in the long planks and into the rabbeted portions of the short ones. Countersink holes for No. 12 X 1-1/2" flathead wood screws, and insert two of the fasteners into each of the four unions.

With that done, form the table's top by cutting out a 16" X 60" piece of 3/4" plywood . . . which will ride atop the frame. You can use the same lead-hole bit that was required to secure the joints to drill five lead bores on each long side of the working surface. Then countersink every one of the holes 1/4" deep . . . so that ten more No. 12 X 1-1/2" flathead wood screws can be sunk below the surface level, and the gaps filled in with either putty or wooden plugs.

Now you can complete your router's working surface by facing the plywood's edges with appropriate lengths of 1/2" X 3/4" S4S stock . . . mitered 45° so the pieces will fit snugly together at the corners. Apply quick-setting white glue and 17-gauge X 1" nails-at about 4" intervals-to bind the protective edge molding to the tabletop.