No drop in plate, no router lift, no storage cabinets, no micrometer fence adjuster. So what does this router table have going for it? It’s simple and it works. You cannot buy this one from a catalog. Really, I have nothing against all those gizmos, and maybe they’re right for you, but I don’t think using them will produce better woodwork from my shop.

Overall dimensions are 28″ wide x 20″ deep x 33″ high. The frame is constructed from straight, dry 2x4s joined with half-laps, glue, and 3″ screws. Steel “L” brackets hold the two casters just a bit above the floor when table is planted, so the wheels can engage when the table is slightly lifted from the opposite side to move it about. One leg has a leveler. An electrical switch is located at the upper left of the frame. Most of my bits are stored in the box which I slide out of its cradle before using the router table.

Looking from underneath, you can see two cross supports half-lapped in place to form additional support for the top. After constructing the frame, I used a hand plane, straightedge, winding sticks, and a fair dose of patience to ensure the top edges of the frame composed an accurately flat plane upon which to attach the top.

The top is 3/4″ MDF, toughened with a few coats of oil-varnish mix, screwed to the base. An extra Bosch 1617EVS base always stays screwed underneath. In this decade I haven’t found use for a bit too big for the 1 5/8″ hole which is centered in the top. (Maybe I’m just boring.) The top is ridiculously flat and never sags. (Which keeps me happy.) There is a small hole near the bit opening for a rarely used starter pin.

Yes, I must squat to put the router motor in the base – it’s ok. While down there, it is easy get a good angle of view to set the bit height with a rule, a reference block, or most likely, a previously made part of a project. The Bosch base has a simple micro-adjuster with 1/256″ (about .004″) gradations allowing precise readjustments after running/measuring a test piece. The same Bosch motor is used in a second base for hand held work.

So far we’ve got an inexpensive, extremely stable, accurate table. I credit router expert Pat Warner for this general philosophy of the router table, with modifications. My fence, however, is much simpler than his and will be discussed in an upcoming post.

Shooting has no equal for producing an accurately square (or angled) end on a board while incrementally removing minute thicknesses of wood to make a component fit just right. This shooting board has seen many years of use because it meets my preference for jigs to be simple and adjustable for tolerance.

It is easily constructed using a 9″ x 26″ x 3/4″ piece of MDF for the base. Plane the working side of a dressed quartersawn mahogany board, 6″ x 3/4″, straight and square. Attach it to the MDF with screws, leaving a 3″ track on which the side of the plane will ride.

The track is covered with adhesive-backed 1/32″ thick UHMW slick plastic which makes the plane ride like a sled on ice. Screw a short grain fence, about 7/8″ thick, a few inches in from the end. To attach the fence, use oversize clearance holes and adjust the squareness until you’re satisfied.

Break in the new jig by taking a few shavings off the side of the mahogany to create a miniscule rabbet. The outermost part of the plane’s sole will ride on the uncut straight edge while the tiny blade projection will nest in the rabbet.

In use, don’t worry if the woodworking gremlins confound your attempts to produce a square end on a board even though the fence is “perfectly” set. Just use a piece of tape or a shaving judiciously placed on the face of the fence to produce the squareness you seek. The same goes for squareness across the end of the board – use shims logically placed on the shooting board surface to get the desired result. This is microadjustability under your control!

A thicker fence can be attached for thicker workpieces or to stack workpieces to distribute blade wear. I seem never to use miters in my work but a fence could be attached at any angle. The scale of this shooting board is more for drawer making but I have used it to shoot carcase boards by using an adjustable support alongside the workbench. Remember, the shooting board also works great for long grain edges on small pieces.

A low angle, bevel up plane is ideal for shooting. I like the compact mass of the Lie-Nielsen “iron miter plane”. Don’t even think about shooting without a very sharp blade.

It is almost impossible to do good woodworking if the work piece is not properly held. Securing partly assembled work poses more challenges; drawers are a good example. After the drawer is glued up but before the bottom is installed, the joints must be cleaned up and the assembly incrementally fitted to its opening in the case.

Some drawers can be maneuvered into some workbench front vises, perhaps gaining additional support with a board. However, I find it is awkward to get the drawer in and out of the vise. Furthermore, to grip the back piece in the vise, as when planing the sides toward the rear of the drawer, a shim is required since the back is shorter than the front

I use the drawer board pictured here, hardly original, made in a few minutes. The notches allow the drawer to slip in and rest on its front, back, or side with nearly 100% support of the surface being planed. The leading face of the drawer butts against the stop while the front edge of the bench provides lateral control. The work is repositioned quickly and easily, an important feature for me. A drawer board without notches would catch the drawer on a trailing surface which doesn’t give me a good feel for planing, and the front and back are not afforded the same length of support as the sides.

If I had a bigger piece of MDF handy, I might have made the board wide enough to be clamped at the back of the bench, but the metal bench dogs adequately hold this version. In this situation, I wish I had a Bob Lang style bench with a space in the middle of the top.

By the way, planing a drawer to fit the case rates, for me, as one of the fine quality experiences in woodworking. A simple jig like this makes the work even more of a pleasure.

I like Einstein’s saying, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

Marking out dovetails goes much easier with these handy helpers. Held in place hooked over the end of the board, they allow penciling a squared line across the end grain and the tail slope line down the side grain with one setting. By contrast, it is tedious and less accurate to mark the tail slopes by setting a sliding bevel and aligning it with lines that you’ve squared across the end grain with a square. If you do pins first, a similar dilemma arises.

There are commercially available versions of these markers. Lie-Nielsen sells an excellent one with 6:1 and 7:1 slopes on opposite sides of a single tool. This may lead to errors. Lee Valley sells separate aluminum gauges with 8:1, 6:1, and 14 degree slopes. The problem with the Lee Valley gauges, in my opinion, is the relief machined in the inside corner of the tool which is supposed to allow clearance for saw whiskers on the corner of the board. This feature causes an annoying discontinuity in the penciled line, right where you need a clean line to start the saw cut. Furthermore, it is unnecessary since boards that are being prepared for dovetail joinery have ends that are sawed or shot clean and square.

I made these markers from riftsawn bubinga. Outside dimensions are 1 ½” tall, 1 3/8″ deep, and 1 1/4″ wide. The rabbet inside extends 1″ from the inside corner in each direction allowing use on boards up to 1″ thick. These dimensions are really larger than necessary but I was thinking that I wanted to make them only once and cover every conceivable use.

Here is a suggested construction method. This will yield markers with a 3/4″ capacity. Please use your judgement as to what you feel is safe for you. On the side edge of a dry, stable, dressed board without internal stresses, at least 18″ long, about 1 1/8″ thick, and at least several inches wide, make a 3/4″ x 3/4″ rabbet on the router table with a 1″ straight bit, proceeding incrementally since the rabbet is too large to make in one pass. At the table saw, rip away a 1 1/4″ strip containing the rabbet.

Now use the miter gauge to create the angled edges by holding the long length of the piece against the miter fence and crosscutting away a short length, about 1 1/2″, which will become the dovetail marker. (Please do not risk your fingers by holding a short piece against the miter fence and crosscutting it. Work by cutting short pieces off a long piece.) The angles could be created with one miter gauge setting, say 8.1 degrees for a 1:7 slope, by rotating the workpiece after each miter cut. Alternatively, the miter gauge could be reset after each cut to the same angle on the opposite side of 90 degrees. Test the accuracy of your creation with a square and sliding bevel.

Simple, works beautifully. (Yes, that is getting to be a theme here.)

The workbench gets my vote for the most important tool in the shop. Beyond its obvious function of holding the workpiece, it establishes a reference surface to work against and really forms the basis of a woodworker’s approach to hand tool woodworking. For this reason, a craftsmen personalizes his bench even after taking great care in selecting its style and features. This refinement is bound to continue as a worker’s repertoire evolves.

The beautiful board of curly red oak, above, is held both in the front vise and, with a supplementary device, at its right end. This system works for me far better than the traditional “deadman” supports because the right side of the board is not only supported from below but also secured laterally. This is done with a vertical support piece, held in the tail vise, inlaid with T-track which holds a sliding toggle clamp. I’ve detailed this workbench upgrade and many others in an article in the November 2007 issue of Popular Woodworking magazine. (Back issues are available in sets on CD or as individual downloads.) Each of the workbench add-ons in the article has stood the tests of time and practicality in my shop. Click here to view a short video demonstration of a few of the upgrades. I hope other woodworkers will benefit from them.

There are lots of ways to do this, written on seemingly everywhere. Here’s mine.

The jig is constructed from ½” MDF slabs with UHMW plastic runners snugly fitted in the miter slots and screwed from the top face. The left side carries the workpiece while the stationary right side prevents the cutoff from dropping. The fence is made from stable quartersawn mahogany with a handplaned straight working edge. It is secured with four flathead bolts inserted from the bottom, hand tightened with knob nuts. This allows the fence to be squared leisurely, after the initial cut of the MDF on its right side. I can get it very precisely square because it allows for retesting and readjusting. The three finger holes assist in retracting and carrying the jig.

Simple, easy, and works beautifully. That’s the way I like woodworking jigs to be.