hi there I'm Marie from DIY Montreal
today I'm going to show you how to make
this DIY router table and fence system
the dimensions of the router table I'm
making are 36 inches by 24 inches which
is a bit bigger than most commercially
available tables I cut down one piece of
melamine that I'll use for the top and
one piece of plywood that I'll use to
reinforce the top I'm using the
Pro Lift from Rockler that has
a couple of really cool features it has
a button that allows you to eject the throat
plate so you can easily access the bits
the other cool feature is the lift
itself has one gear allows you to micro
adjust the bit height while the other
allows you to fully lift the router so
you can easily change the bit I started
by measuring the insert plate then
roughly marking it out in order for it
to sit dead center of the top with the
lift positioned upside down on my markings
I traced out the contour the insert
plate needs to be countersunk
so it'll sit on a lip so I've traced out
a smaller box inside the first one I
made sure to leave some room in the
corners where the insert plate will be
screwed down to the table here I'm
making relief holes so I can get my
jigsaw in and cut out the inner box
looks like it turns out I needed bigger
holes there we go to countersink the
router lift I'm using a flush trim bit
with a top bearing that will ride along
a fence
I made these makeshift fences and apply
some double-sided tape so I could stick
it down right up against the lines I
have traced I set the bit to the right
depth then one around in a clockwise
direction and then just cleaned up those
two corners and voila before removing
the fence guides I put it in the router
upside down and remove just one guide to
check that I got the depth right feeling
pretty confident I removed all the
fences and did a test fit in the upright
position it's looking pretty good but
using my ruler I can see that it's just
below the surface which is okay I'll
just add some leveling feet later on to
raise it up a bit
okay so I want to insert a T- track on
the front side of the table a lot of
commercial tables have a miter slot here
but I've never used a miter gauge with
my table and besides I'd rather have a
T-slot for feather boards and such I'm
marking it out so the T-track will be
about one and a half inches in front of
the insert plate I went ahead and
clamped another makeshift fence up
against the line then use the T-track
as a spacer and clamped another fence on
the opposite side making sure not to
over squeeze it so that the track could
still slide out freely once again I set
my flush trim bit to the right depth and
went to town just a little note here
it's not the best idea to use your trim
Rooter like I'm doing here you'll need
something much more powerful to cut a
dado into melamine unfortunately I
learnt the hard way next up I'm marking
out the tracks on the backside that will
hold down my fence and I'm positioning
them about six inches in from each side
I was a little scared to cut the
aluminum track but in the end it cut
really smoothly I repeated the same
process clamping down my fences and use
a piece of tape to mark a stop so I
wouldn't go too far
after doing a dry fit I used some weld
bomb glue to glue down the tracks this
is a glue that's supposed to stick to
both particle board and metal I then use
a dowel to help clamp it down and did
the same for the rest of the tracks and
let it dry my idea here was to laminate
the top with plywood to make it more
solid and dead flat I lined up both
pieces and transferred over the cut onto
the plywood and use my jigsaw to cut out
the hole I flipped over the tabletop and
laid the plywood on top aligning both
holes I then clamp them together and
screw down the plywood
I should have mentioned that my plywood
piece was cut a little oversized so I
could use my router to square off the
edges nice and flush as I mentioned
earlier my inserts it's a little below
the tabletop so I'm using these
furniture glides as leveling screws so I
can get it perfectly flush it's pretty
simple just make holes in the corners
tap in the plastic inserts and screw in
the feet from underneath
now I can just reach down underneath and
adjust the screws as needed they're
perfect
to finish off I decided to add some
hardwood trim around the sides of the
table to protect the fragile edges and
simply to give the table a more polished
look I marked off where the tracks hit
the edges of the table and cut a dado
into the trim to make sure I could still
slide in my tea bolts once the trim was
in place I didn't want any visible nails
so I only used glue and mostly painters
tape to hold the trim in place okay
a lot of painters tape
alright next I moved on to the fence for
the fence you'll need a five inch strip
of plywood a three inch strip of plywood
and you'll also need a five inch strip
of melamine just as I did for the table
I'm inserting a T-track into the fence
so I can easily use feather boards i
spaced the track about one inch from the
top of the melamine strip and just as
before i clamped down one fence and use
the track as a spacer so I could clamp
down the second fence this time around I
use my more powerful router which made
the job much easier and I didn't get any
tear out like with my trim router after
a dry fit and checking that the track
was below the surface I used some weld
bond glue to secure the track you could
also use epoxy or screws which would
probably be faster since you wouldn't
need to wait for it to dry but in any
case I use my dowel trick to help clamp
down the track and let it dry for 24
hours okay the basic fence assembly will
look something like this I'm using this
dust port made specifically for router
table fences so I need to make a hole in
the fence to allow the dust that pass
through both the upright fence and the
piece that's flat against the table I
just use a hole saw for this and then
finished off the cut with my table saw
I'm assembling the fence with some glue
and some Brad nails my main goal here is
to make the front of the fence perfectly
flat and square for that reason I added
these little triangles and check for
square as I went I secured the dust port
using well bond glue which is supposed
to adhere to both plastic and wood you
could always make this dust port using
wood but I found this one for only a few
dollars on Amazon so I skipped that step
I carried over the hole to the melamine
fence then took it all over to my table
saw and use the sauce fence to make sure
my fence was both flat and squared of
the table
I added some screws in from the back
careful not to hit the T track with any
screws
and after a quick chick with a level it
looks like that worked out perfectly
alright the last step is to mount the
fence on to the table with the fence in
position I made a mark in line with the
tracks so I could drill the holes and I
made the hole slightly larger than the
bolts I'm going to use so it could have
a little wiggle room I'm actually using
toilet bolts just because you can pick
up a pack at pretty much any hardware
store you can use the washer they come
along with and just get some star knobs
just make sure they have the same
threading which in my case was 5/16 ok
so that completes part 1 of this build
be sure to watch out for part 2 in which
I'll build the base cabinet address dust
collection and we'll get to see this
router table in action and don't forget
to hit that thumbs up button if you like
this video until next time thanks for
watching
you