Blue View – A Router Table Enclosure
/Guest blog by Paul Lynn
The Lynn Bros are still busy building the backyard deck … a project which has significantly expanded to exceed all expectations. I was pretty positive that between the two brothers, they owned every tool known to man … all of which are now situated in the backyard. I was wrong ... they do not have a band saw ... a fact of which I am reminded daily. Paul took a break from building to contribute this project post.
Though Marcie’s convinced we have every tool known to man, we don’t (there’s that band saw and so many more). We do, however, have a table-mounted router which we’ve been using pretty much everyday. Though it works well, it had two undesirable features. First, the work table area was too small; and second, it has to be the messiest tool in the workshop. It spews out sawdust and wood chips in copious amounts as it's doing its job which ends up covering everything. We got sick of inhaling the sawdust and doing the messy clean-up every night and decided a little tool modification was in order. While David and Marcie enjoyed their Sunday stroll through Springs Preserve last weekend, I went to work and came up with a router table enclosure design and built it.
The basic design had these criteria:
Enlarge the work table area
Confine and contain the sawdust and debris
Allow easy access for bit changes and adjustments
Maintain lightweight portability
Since pictures speak louder than words, here's the step-by-step process.
I relocated the on-off switch to the outside of the box for easy access.