SawStop Router Table Addition

As if I wasn't already excited enough to be getting a massive upgrade to my table saw, the SawStop installation provided me the perfect opportunity to get serious about my router setup.

For the last several years I've had a Bosch RA1171 Benchtop Router Table in my shop where my DeWalt 618 would live most of the time. This worked OK, but it did present a few problems.

• The Bosch table isn't that big, but to make it usable it really needs to be up on something. I made a semi-permanent rolling stand for it out of some 2x4s. It wasn't anything fancy, but it did get it up to a nice working height and still allowed me to move it around. The problem was that this took up a decent amount of floor space, and floor space is always at a premium in the shop.
• The Bosch table has its deficiencies. It isn't built for dust collection at all, the fence adjustment is pretty sloppy, and the fence overall just isn't big enough to accommodate a lot of work pieces safely.
• I had been toying with the idea of getting a second DW618 because taking my original one out of the router table if I needed to do some freehand work was tedious, and getting it back in was even worse.

It seemed like this was a good time to get rid of the Bosch and think about building something into the extension of the SawStop. This isn't a radical idea - you can find plenty of examples out there of people doing something similar. I found people taking two basic approaches - one, don't bother putting in the extension piece from SawStop and just install a pre-made router table between the rails. The other approach I saw people take was to use the extension piece and just cut an opening for a router plate. The problem I saw with installing an existing table was that the Bosch wasn't big enough, nor did I want to continue to mess with that fence, so I would have to buy a router table, cut it down and figure out how to suspend it between the rails. It seemed to me that it would be easier to just take the existing piece and make that my router table top.

My goal was to have the router table setup in the extension wing with a lift, dust collection at the fence and using a dust box, and with the router fence attached in some way to the table saw fence.

Since I wanted to use the saw fence as the reference point for the router fence it made sense to use that to square up the router lift - a Bench Dog Pro Lift - before making my cuts.

Here I have cut out the opening along the interior lines, but I have
not routed out the lip for the lift to sit in, so it is still above the
table surface.

The Bench Dog lift fits perfectly between the braces under the extension piece of the table. I will use those pieces later to attach my dust box.

You can see here how nicely the lift fits between the braces

The instructions on the Bench Dog web site for installing the lift in a custom table are pretty good. Basically you trace the outline of the lift top, then you copy that outline in 1/2". Cut along the interior line, then route out to the outer line to create a recess for the lift to sit in.

I used some scrap plywood with nice straight edges as guides
while I ran the router. The Bench Dog instructions describe this
process really well.

With the opening sized for the lift, I'm ready to start putting the dust box together. The router will be installed in the lift and then the whole unit will be lowered into the table, so I don't have to worry too much about the box being big enough to wrestle the router in and out. The Bench Dog lift is natively sized to accept Porter Cable's Production Routers. I decided to add the 7518 for my purposes, thereby allowing the DeWalt to become my go-to for any freehand work. The 7518 will live in the router lift.

 

 

The box itself is just scrap plywood from some previous
cabinet projects. You can see here I also added some additional
bracing where the lift rests on the lip I routed. It seemed like a
good idea to add a little extra support to that MDF, especially
now that the edge where the lift would sit was not as thick as the
rest of the top.

The lift and the router dropped in without a problem. I mounted my outlet box (previous post) to the back of the dust box, and also mounted the router power switch there.

I have a little magnetic latch as well as a window sash lock on the dust box door.
This gives me a pretty tight seal around the door.

 I'll add another entry on dust collection overall once it's done, but a major goal in this project for me was to make dust collection at the router as effective as possible, so it merits a mention here. I run a Dust Right hose to my tools as needed, so they each have the quick disconnect ports for the Dust Right Handle. I added a port to the face of the dust box (at the front of the saw) so I could hook my 4" hose up easily. That creates excellent suction within the dust box itself. I also wanted to collect dust at the fence, so I put a 2.5" port on the back of the dust box and ran a small section of hose up to the port on the fence.

The 2.5" dust port on the back of the dust box with the hose
running to the fence.

You can see the 4" port on the front of the dust box. I will add
another for the table saw dust collection once the storage under
the saw is straightened out.

 The fence isn't attached to anything yet - I've been working on a couple different ideas for how I want to make that happen. I was going to build a fence from scratch, but I went in to Rockler to get the pieces and they had their fence setup on clearance. I was able to get the 32" fence and the accessory kit - dust collection port, featherboards, etc. - for less than what I was going to get the retro-fit faces for, so I had to do it.

I'm really happy with the setup so far. It's clean, organized and
makes great use of the space. The Bench Dog lift is absolutely
amazing, and the Porter Cable 7518 is a beast. I can't wait to
start making great use of both.

 More to come on this project - stay tuned!