Gidday internet, My name's Kris Mac I'm a software architect by day and woodworker by night (well, on the weekend) Follow me on my woodworking journey as I build projects for around the house, friends and most importantly, for the workshop!
I have a set of spade bit drills with that same "screw-type" point - and they also are way too aggressive (can even cause loss of control). So, I pre-drill the holes with one of several sized regular drill bits - choosing the bit depending upon how much "encouragement" I want from the screw-point. This works very well. It still works as a centering device but reduces or eliminates any tendency for the bit to pull itself into the wood.
Great ideas. But a question I have is why you didn’t use hinges across the bottom of the outfeed table and the table saw. Seems like you could have eliminated the folding gap that way.
Too much time wasted. I made mine by lasering an acrylic template. Drew one 3/4 hole on the screen and copied it using 3" spacing and the snap line feature. Copied ths hole and had a 12x12 template of perfectly sized and spaced holes. Took all of 15 min to design and cut. Squared it to my bench and taped it down
Nice job. I don't think I'd be drilling a hole in my workbench leg. Did you watch this video after you filmed it? Almost every time you drilled with your 4mm drill bit, it wasn't completely vertical. Maybe try slowing down the speed when you drill with the forstner bits and raise it a few times whilst drilling each hole, that might minimise the overheating. Thanks for the 3-4-5 tip.
It’s been great, especially for a small shop where I can’t really fit two separate machines. I highly recommend the helical cutter head, I’ve had it around 3 years now and it still cuts perfectly, I haven’t even had to rotate the cutter blades
I have the exact same router and installed in much the same way as you have. My problem is when adjusting the height of the router bit, I lock the bit height in place. I rout a scrap piece to ensure the height is exactly where I want it. If I have to adjust the height I unlock it and the router drops thus dropping the bit height! Evidently the router vibrates the adjusting mechanism. So when I try to adjust the bit to snug it up against the bit height before unlocking it, sometimes the bit height increases slightly. It is so frustrating. Anyone have any advice on how to keep the bit height exactly where it was before making slight adjustments?
That’s annoying, I haven’t had that issue yet but I will keep an eye out, I don’t even lock the height, I just adjust it with the handle thing that goes thru the table
You fed it in the wrong direction, I've done that myself and my piece of stock stayed there spinning for a split second, it was a 1/2'' shank flush trim bit, and I bent the router shaft. Ruined a good router. Learned a good lesson though
Looks flash and you’ve done a lovely job, but like so many of these drill tables shown on RU-vid, definitely not perfect sorry to say. Another drill fence where one hasn’t thought through its use. Obviously you will get a ton of debris blocking the T Track channels as you have put them on the top. This will get old real quick. Why didn’t you put them on the ends on their side? Won’t clog anywhere near as much. Still simple to work and make, just make the fence a U shape to slide in the end channels.. Need a version 2 model…You will thank me once you’ve altered it.
I did look into the side mounted fence, in particular I liked the Hooked on Wood one. I opted not to go for that approach for a few reasons: 1. Its a little more technical and I thought that I didn't need the extra benefits that it gives in a small shop like mine 2. I need to put t-track on the table anyway to I can use hold downs (something I forgot to demo in my video), so I may as well use the same t-track for the fence. As for your concern about the t-track getting debris in it, I haven't noticed that yet and I have a similar setup with my router table.
Nice build. Congrats. I would have offset the sacrificial disk from the drill axis, so that it can be used longer by simply rotating it a bit until it's completely ruined.
Man, what a fantastic job on this project! It looks so clean and efficient, it gave me so many ideas! You explained everything so well, too. Thanks for sharing! It was so good, I'm subscribing! 😊
Yes it’s for repeatable drill holes but not just from the stop blocks but just sliding a piece along the fence will ensure holes are all of equal distance to the edge of the work piece.
Nice bench, how have you found the durability of the bench? I’m looking at building one but some have advised against using Mac as the tabletop. Any advice?
When you add the magnets, if they are all countersunk... how do you get them to stick to each other? Do half of them stick together the countersunk way and the other half don't? Just wondering how you alternate the magnets and still have them all countersunk. Thanks. Love the video. In the process of starting a batch
When I purchased them, I made sure to buy half with north facing out and the other half with south facing out, I then alternate them when putting them on the hex, so each hex has 3 north out and 3 south out
Awesome. One more quick question if you don't mind. My hexagons have a bit of wiggle. Like the tiniest amount. Will that matter or will the magnets solve that?
Great build, im slightly confused as to why you did the first sheets corners with the drill press and didn't just use a 12mm flush cut with bearing, it would have followed the corner curve just fine and you could have avoided the drill completely. Your precision is on point im very impressed👍
Hey there I used the drill press for the corners because the forstner bit I used was the same radius as the corners of the insert plate, if I just used the slush trim bit, I would need a really big one to get the same radius corners (which I don’t have)
Great video - lots of practical tips. What I don't get is why you have tracks on either side of the router running between the router and edge of table. Will you ever place the fence between router and edge of table?
The two side ones are for the fence and no they don’t need to be as long as they are as I will never mover the fence past the router bit, but it was just easier to do them like I did 😆 The one running along the front is for a feather board… which I do t own and have never used, but one day I may buy one 😊
I'm a total noob with routers but one useful tip i picked up for a regular plunge router is to make an L with your thumb and forefinger of your right hand. Point the thumb in toward the workpiece and cut in the direction of your forefinger. Works for both inside cuts and outside cuts. Presumably the same rule would apply for a router table but using your left hand instead. As i said, total noob here, so I'm open to correction.
Hi. I found dog holes of 20mm and 19 mm... Please i don't know if i have to drill a 20mm hole for a 19 tool, to have a small tolerance, or the hole should be equal to tool one
