Another project over Christmas vacation that I wanted to tackle was a rolling router cabinet. Currently, I have a router table mounted on the wall with some large strap hinges. It used to fold up against the wall, but with the wall cabinet it no longer can.
Quick picture of current router table. It seems to be in the way now and I want to get it out of this location.
My goals for this new cabinet are:
- 37″ tall overall to match my table saw height
- Using mobile base Delta 50-345 with ripped down 2x4s for base
- Dual dust collection for base and for fence
- Router storage and place for bits
The plan
The tricky part is the overall height being 37″ tall and the height of the mobile base. So, I had to build the base first and take some measurements. Here is a picture of it fully assembled with 3/4″ plywood added. The height including the plywood is a little under 1 5/8″ tall. I am planning on adding some hardwood edging to the bottom, so I need to know that size as well. It will also be the thing I trim down to get exactly 37″
Edgeing
I jointed, planed, and ripped down some birch. I had some burn marks, so I planed it off.
Before
The edging is 5/8″ thick and 13/16″ wide.
Cutting Down Plywood
My current router table is also about 1 5/8″ thick, so I have to account for the base and table thickness in my 37″ height. I started by cutting the sheets of plywood down with a guide and ciruclar saw. I picked up some 3/4″ and 1/2″ Purebond Birch Plywood from HD.
Next step was to cut cut the sides and horizontal pieces on the table saw. I also cut down the back of the cabinet at this time, probably should have waited on that.
Dadoes and Rabbets
Next step was to cut the dadoes and rabbets.
- The lowest horizontal piece is 3 3/4″ off the bottom for the toe kick space
- The middle horizontal piece is 16″ from the the top
- This deterimes how much space I have to drop the router motor out of the base. I use the motor in a plunge base as well.
- The top horizontal piece is flush (rabbet) to the top
- The back of the sides will get get a rabbet for the cabinet back
- I kinda screwed up here and should have made the lower and upper horiztontal pieces longer to cut a rabbet in them. That way the back would have been fully rabbeted into the carcass.
Dry Fit, Trim, Clamp
Next up was the cabinet dry fit and trimming the back down. During my dry fit I noticed my back was not quite wide enough, so I cut down the horizontal pieces by about a half kerf. I am not going to glue the very top in place yet, because I need to work on the small side drawers and dust collection. Here is a pic of gluing up the vertical sides, two horizontal pieces, and back. The back is brad nailed into place.
Dividers and Dust Collection
After the glue dried overnight, I started on the vertical dividers and dust collection. The plan was to have about 10-12 inches of horizontal space for teh router, but I don’t want to limit the size of the router in case I buy a much larger one. So I decided on 16″ horizontal opening for the router, whihch left about 5 inches of width for each side drawer.
I cut the vertical dividers, the dust collection “tunnel” pieces as well as some spacers to keep everything square. Here is a couple shots of the dust collection tunnel during a dry fit. Much easier to show than explain.
I did the dust collection this way, so I could have the table up against a wall if I wanted. I don’t like the wasted space that is caused by having it exit throught the back.
Due to limited access after gluing everything in, I need to attach the drawer slides now. I cut down some oak pieces to act as runners and drilled and countersunk a bunch of holes. Down the road, the bottom of the drawers will be edged in oak. I will have hardwood to hardwood contact there. The right side will have two drawers, one 10 1/2″ tall, the other about 5 inches tall. Lower drawer will have my router bits, top drawer, collets, wrenches, misc. The left side will only have one large drawer with a stepped bottom to get over the dust collection tunnel. It will contain the dust collection stuff when not in use (hopefully)
As you can see from the above pictures I will be using pocket screws to hold everything in place, with glue. First, I glued up the ‘tunnel’ by itself and then glued that onto the outer LH panel. Second was to place the divider and only glue/screw the back and bottom. The top is still open for access reasons. I used the scrap spacers to keep it square.
Same procedure for the RH side
After getting the dividers in, I wanted to add soem ramps to help with dust collection. I cut some 1/2″ ply with 45 angles in each side and placed one along the back. I also placed one along the RH divider, which is a little tricky to cut. Some trial and error found that 35 degrees was pretty close for the back corner. I hand cut a bevel so the faces would align. Glue and brads hold it in place.
Last step was to glue and screw on the top. I used some clamps to keep everything in place.
*I am writing this post as I work on the cabinet, in stages. I just realized I didn’t cut a hole for the power cord to the router.
Door
The next item tackled was the door in the center. I want all of the drawers and doors to be flush with the edging I added to the front of the cabinet. All of the cabinet edges are covered with 1/2″ thick edging glued and brad nailed to cover the plywood.
I had some hinges I wanted to use from another cabinet project that I thought would work. So I started to figure out how to make the door flush with the edging. It was more complicated than necessary. Anyhow, I trimmed out a piece of 1/2″ plywood with birch edging that was the correcct thickness above the plywood to be flush with the rest of the edging. I wouldn’t use the same hinges again in this application. Here are a few pictures:
Drawers
Next was to measure all the drawer openings and get a cut list together. I subtracted 3/16″ from opening dimension to get my drawer width, which ended up being too much. I was being conservative since I didn’t know how close I could get the drawers.
For the locking rabbet/drawer lock joint it requires a 1/4″ tongue on the front and back pieces, so that must be accounted for.
The joint looks like this when all done
I cut all my drawer pieces excep the bottoms.
For the small drawers (3), I wanted to use some old harboard from my old workbench as the bottoms. I was able to cut the dado with a regular blade and shift the fence 1/16″ to get the right size.
Drawer Lock Joints
The next step was to cut the lock joints, so I installed 1/4″ dado stack on the saw and my rabbeting fence. I cut my drawer locks a little different. I cut all pieces laying down and nothing on edge, like most do.
First, I start by cutting a samlpe dado through a scrap piece. Next I use another scrap piece and cut the rabbet for the rabbet for the front and rear pieces. I cut and adjust the blade height until my remaining tongue fits nicely into the previously cut dado. I also adjust the fence to remove only the dado stack width. At this point, I have a perfect 1/4 wide tongue 1/4″ from long. I cut all the fronts and backs. Make sure the outside face is down on the table.
The next step is to cut the dado on the drawer sides. Leave the saw height where it is and grab another test piece. Keep adjusting the fence until the dado is in the correct spot, so the front is flush with edge of the sides.
Add some bottoms, glue and clamps
For the large lower drawer I used a 1/4″ thick MDF panel for the bottom, so I cut that groove with the dado stack. The rest of the operations were the same.
False Fronts
The false fronts are all made of 1/2″ plywood and edged in birch. The birch has a rabbet to hug the door and gets mitered corners, just like the door.
To attach the false fronts I use double sided tape and a little glue. I align the false front with the drawer installed and the double stick tape keeps it in place. Lightly pull the drawer out and drive a few screws from the inside.
The bottom drawer was tougher since double stick tape wouldn’t hold the heavy front on. I aligned it the best I could and then had to trim the bottom with a flush trim bit.
Pulls
The handle pulls for the drawers/door are pretty simple. 3/4 stock ripped to 1 1/2″ then routed a recess with a cove bit. The pulls are attached with screws. Lay out the pilot holes in everything carefully and it wors well.
Attaching Cabinet to Mobile Base
The cabinet can slide around a bit on the base, I didn’t like that. So, I attahed the cabinet to the mobile base with some 2X4’s that is the beauty of a 3 1/2″ cavity under the lowest horizontal piece. (toe kick area)
I screwed the 2X4 pieces in from the bottom of the mobile base. I then drove a couple screws down through the lowest horizontal piece into the 2X4. Nice and solid.
At this stage I sanded to 150 grit and finished everything with clear shellac.
Cutting the Hole For the Router
Next step was to cut the opening in the top for the router. I took some measurements of the current insert plate and got out he jig saw.
I forgot about the Kreg leveling feet on the underside of the table. They are larger than the insert plate. I wrote some dimensions on the top, so I would remember the size, but I can’t read the width. 11 1//2″ deep by 13 1/2″ wide, maybe.
Next, I removed the table from the wall and set it in place on the cabinet. Centered it and drove 5 or 6 screws from the cabinet into the table.
Finished Pictures and Final Thoughts
Thoughts:
The mobile base is okay, but not great. The base doesn’t lift quite far enough off the ground and the leveling feet scrape the ground. When the foot pedal pushed downthe piece of wood rotates a bit. I think it would have been better if I did some type of half lap joint in the corners by the pedal.
My dust collector is not strong enough to pull enough air through the 4″ and the 2 1/2″ hoses with much velocity. It could aslo be how large the opeing around the router is doesn’t help. I am going to try to add some divider to help.
After using the router table for a month, I have to say that I really don’t like the L shaped drawer on the left of the router. The way I made the drawer runners was foolish. I pull the drawer out half way and “bang” the back of the drawer falls down.