Creat Wood working

Router table dust extraction

My regular Mere Mortals video will be Sunday this week. So it gave me some time to shoot an update to the router table and lift, now that Ive had over a week to work on it.

Missing an opportunity

Ive spoken to Shop Notes (August Home Publishing) and they have no desire or interest in offering project plans online. Its kind of odd, but their reasoning is that putting plans online would cheapen them because people would be distributing them willy-nilly all over the place. (I guess people wanting to sell pirated versions havent thought of just scanning the magazine?)

Even stranger is that they have no plans for any online presence for Shop Notes. (Other than the "brochure" that now exists.) You cant even buy the last issue (with the router lift) anywhere. Shop Notes is not even on Facebook! Is it possible for any business to survive without some sort of online component? Especially a business whose sole means of income is printed material through snail mail. Weird.

A good router lift drawing

At any rate, Bruce Beatty took the time to design and offer this SketchUp drawing of a router lift that is quite similar to the one I made for my table. If you are interested in making that lift, check it out. If you have these plans and follow along with my video, it should be pretty simple. Thanks a bunch Bruce!

Dust extraction tests


I ran a few very unsophisticated tests on the dust extraction on my router table. (And yes, every time I look at this picture I think of cookies!)

Mainly what I discovered is that most of the sawdust produced by my router lands on top of the table rather than falling below. My conclusion is that having dust extraction on the fence is very useful, but does little in the cabinet.

Of course, the cabinet could be redesigned in a way that would direct sawdust to the port. An extractor with more power than my ShopVac might also be better. As it is now, Ill just hand vacuum the inside of the cabinet.

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