Quarterflash Designs

A very nice day today for a change. Well, really it’s not been all that bad here, we didn’t get the deep cold that a lot of the rest of the country did. Still, today was warm enough to get outside without a coat or even, for that matter, a sweater. Since it was that warm I headed out to work on my router table.

I’ve had the base done for a while now. It was made by trimming 2x4s to square up the edges, notching the legs to put supports acrss and then screwing the two sides together with some other supports. It’s pretty sturdy. I had started a top before, but used plywood and 1/4″ hardboard. That combination ended up warping on me. In one of the other magazines there was a plan for a much fancier router table and his top was made of two glued up 3/4″ MDF pieces. I’m sticking with my original plan, but using the MDF as the base for the top.

I wrestle the MDF sheet (and wrestle is the word – 3/4″ MDF is a heavy item to move around) and get my measurements done, grab a straight edge and some clamps, cut them out. Still enough left over to make some jigs and it’s much easier to handle now.

I grab my can of contact cement, which isn’t as full as I thought it was. I was pretty sure I had already bought another can, but you can only spend so much daylight trying to find that stuff. Off to Lowes it is to buy more cement and some cheap paintbrushes for spreading it. Back home again, finish getting it glued up and stuck together. A bit harder to put the pieces together than other contact cement work I’ve done as the pieces are so stiff. Because of that I’m off just a little, so it’s clamp and saw time again to straighten it all out.

I’m back inside now to get cleaned up and do some web work as we’re going out later this afternoon. Now I just need to put the hardwood edge on it and stick the formica on top and bottom. After that it’s the slots for the t-track and the opening for the router.

Since I’ve two pieces of MDF glued together I don’t think I’ll be having the warp issue this time.

Hmmm, since all I cut today was MDF, is it more proper to say I made some sawdust or that I redistributed some sawdust?

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 17th, 2009 at 1427 and is filed under Woodworking. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.