SIMPLE, CHEAP and EFFECTIVE.

After making a couple of speaker enclosures I figured out that it will be a very good step to purchase a trim router or palm router to have some basic work done fast and more precisely and after purchasing a trim router I realized that it will be very convenient to have a small table dedicated to routing. My main priority was to avoid any extra purchase for just this specific project like a mounting plate, glass sheet or acrylic sheet and also the countersink drill bit. In this instructable I have also shown how to make countersink hole without a countersink drill bit by just using your ordinary bits. In images you will see hinges and that is because I had planned to make it a folding table but later I simply glued the legs to tabletop.For fence I simply cut and made a thick flat block of MDF that will just sit with clamps to keep it in place. Its a very small table that can take up to 5 kgs and is perfect for any palm router. In total this project would have cost me around 150 INR which is worth considering and the time spent in making was no more than 1 hour excluding glue drying time.

THINGS REQUIRED -

Straight saw blade (with assembly)

Carpenter's square

MDF Sheet

Wood glue

Power drill , one bit around 2mm and one bit around 8mm

Hole saw 32mm

Any trim router (here I am using DCA AMP02-6 Trimmer 6.35mm 350W)

Begin....

Step 1: Preparing Wood (MDF Here)

My board thickness is 7mm which sounds less for a table but worked just fine for this project. Table top is of 16X12 inches and the two legs are of 12X12 inches. For cutting I simply used a saw blade and then flush trimmed all the edges with trim router. I also made 2 support blocks for table top of 12X2.5 inches and 2 support blocks of 12x1inches one for each leg.

Step 2: Assembling.

First I glued the support blocks to their respective places and after glue had hardened I glued up legs to table top to as shown in picture with legs on sides of table top.

Step 3: Base Plate.

Like the title says, my main aim was to keep it simple and cheap, so for the base plate I have not purchased any ready made base plate nor have I made one myself by purchasing & cutting clear acrylic sheet or just another piece of wood by routing in the tabletop. Since the thickness of my table top is just 7mm, it was just a couple of millimeters thicker than the complete base plate of my router. So I just planned to use my table top as the base plate itself. For this I removed the base plate of my router which is of rectangle shape by unscrewing 4 countersunk nuts and bolts. After that I used base plate as template for marking nut holes and collet hole on my table top as shown in first image. Then I drilled a hole using hole saw of suitable size.

Step 4: Countersinking.

Another good reason to spend some money was to purchase a countersink drill bit to make holes with wider opening that will sink in the nut which will otherwise come in the way of our work piece. Good reason but not good enough for me especially when I can't see myself using it again in near future. So just by using ordinary drill bits first I drilled very small mounting holes and after that I took a much thicker drill bit(see first image) and manually carved holes for countersinking till all 4 nuts were bottomed down nicely. This idea did work well as its visible in images but I don't think this will work on hardwood. 5th image shows bottom of the table with base plate mounted to the table precisely.

Step 5: Fence.

For fence I simply cutout a straight flat block of MDF that is almost 12 inches long and 2 inches wide with thickness of 11.5 mm. Then I drilled a hole in center of it. In second image you will see 4 lines on right side of base plate, these are to be used as guide for clamping down my fence absolutely straight.

Step 6: Testing.

Now the table is ready with router mounted and fence prepared for some quick basic work. Right now I only have one straight trimming bit so I am posting a small video to show how well this table works. Work piece in the video is just of 2.3 mm MDF.

This table looks amateur and just not right to be honest all credits to the warped legs but as I started working on it I was very pleased and happy. Any person who is just starting out with a trim router or with the bigger ones, starting on a table will make it much easier, safe and enjoyable. When not routing at all this can also be used as a laptop table or small table which will remain stationery.

This was my attempt to make the simplest and inexpensive trim router table which turned out to be very effective even with warped legs, minimal setup for hardly 150INR.

Hope this helps someone!!