How To Use A Router Table

How to use a router table. But before we commence work, remember to always wear your safety equipment. I'm not going to be wearing mine's today for camera purposes.

Basically, a router table is an under-mounted router, underneath, within a table. There are many different types on the market. This is a very good one and probably one of the most expensive you can buy.

If you go for bigger ones, it's called a "spindle moulder" which is another machine altogether. I wouldn't recommend you go for a cheap one, because it's not got the added bits that this will have, but we'll go into that in a minute. Basically, you'd use a router table for a number of reasons.

You wouldn't use this size cutter in a router, overhand. It's extremely dangerous. This is a panel cutter and it cuts the panels within a door.

Extremely good cutter, extremely powerful and you have to wind the pace right down on the router, otherwise it goes too fast and it could burn out. That's a very good cutter and very good in the router. There's also another range of cutters on the market.

We make all our cabinets and our doors on this router table. There's various cabinet making sets on the market as well. As well as big dado mouldings and various mouldings for skirtings, etc.

We also use it for rebating large areas of doors and windows, etc. Today, we're just going to run an MDF piece, just with a small cutter in it. But mainly, we'd use this for big cutters, making decorative mouldings, etc.

There are also box sets on the market which are extremely good and we use these here too. Let me tell you a bit more about the router. If you're looking for a router table, the things you need to look for.

Don't go for the bench mounted ones because you've got to screw them to the bench and they're just a waste of time. You want to get one with a good pair of legs on it and ones that have got adjustable legs, so you can move it to the raise and tilt of the floor. Also, rather than messing about underneath to get the height of the cutter, get one with a top guided, so it can wind the table up and down.

Basically, you need a sturdy fence and a sturdy bed. Again, there are laminate ones out there, which are okay, but they're not as good as these. Also invest in a good extraction kit.

You can see here, we're linked up to a good extraction. You'd be surprised how much debris comes out of these cutters. Not so much here in our test piece, because this is a small cutter, but when we use the bigger cutters, there's a lot of wastage that needs to be got away.

If you don't use an extraction kit, this tends to clot up the bed and make the cutter judder and jump. So now, I'm going to run a piece and show you how to use it. Basically as I turn on here, the hoover will automatically come on the extraction.

So there you have it, a perfect groove just run with the router table. As I say, you can use this for decorative mouldings, or anything you like. An extremely useful piece of kit, but take care with it, because it's extremely dangerous.

That's how you use a router table. .