If you’re a serious woodworker, then you cannot work without a good router table. A router table allows you to turn your woodworking projects into art.
By using different router bits, you can create a wide range of shapes, grooves and designs.
However, there are a few things that you need to consider before you buy your first router table.
1. Compatibility:
You need to make sure that the router you have is compatible with the router table that you’re interested in.
It’s not something you need to worry about if you haven’t bought the router yet, or you’re going to buy them together.
2. A Sturdy Top:
It’s really important to have the top as sturdy and as flat as possible. This ensures that the cuts are clean and even throughout the work piece. A good top plate is at least 1” thick and the material used should be naturally rigid and tough.
3. A Good Base Plate:
Just like the top, the base plate too, should be rigid, flat and carry a sturdy build. The quality and the design of the base plate makes a huge impact on the quality of your work. A commonly preferred material that makes for a sturdy base plate is Machined Aluminum.
And again, the base plate needs to be compatible with the router that you’re planning to work with.
4. Miter and T Slots
You need to have these slots in place. Even if you’re not planning to buy any accessories now, you will need them to support your feather boards and accessories in the future.
5. A Good Fence
The fence should be easy to position and accurate to make sure that you can get clean, high quality cuts, just the way you want them to be. There’s a wide range of features and designs that you can get when choosing fences. They vary from the very basic blocks of wood clamped to the table surface to complex fences with various adjustment features.
Commonly, there are two categories of fences i.e. one piece and two-piece.
The key benefit of a one-piece fence is that you do not have to worry about alignment issues. It’s a single piece and remains steady.
Now with a two-piece fence, you’ll have to take care of alignment but it gives you the flexibility to work with bits of larger diameter.
6. A Strong Base
With router tables, it’s all about keeping the work-piece steady and locked in at the location you want them to be and that’s why all the key components need to be strong and sturdy in build and design and the base is no different.
Getting clean cuts with a wobbly base is hard, frustrating and actually beat the purpose of getting a router table.
These are the 5 key aspects that you need to consider while buying your next router table.
You can read some recent Router table reviews here.
If you’re still confused then you can have a look at the Best router tables from Kreg.