# My overkill version of a workbench and router table



## Garrett_brown (Mar 3, 2020)

I have been dealing with depression that’s bad enough to keep me from being able to work. I have always been creative so I decided to get into woodwork as a form of therapy. As part of my learning process I decided to overhaul my 20-year-old Craftsman workbench. I ended up building a new top, cutting the legs down and adding casters, adding T Track and finally including a small slot where I mounted a finish router for smaller projects. I have just enough room left to add a shop vac and dust deputy. I’m limited on space so I had to be creative. I had a great time learning and working with a buddy who taught me a lot. I’m now helping him finish his shop that he started 20 years ago but never finished due to family and life. I would say it’s therapeutic for both of us. Hope you enjoy the pics.


----------



## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

that's not overkill...
it's a functional work of art...

can you elaborate more on your plans for the DC???
inquiring minds want to know...

thanks...


----------



## Garrett_brown (Mar 3, 2020)

Stick486 said:


> that's not overkill...
> it's a functional work of art...
> 
> can you elaborate more on your plans for the DC???
> ...


 Sure! Right now my thought is to pick up the compact 5 gallon wet/dry shop vac with 6.5 hp. I believe those are the specs. It will sit on the bottom shelf to the right of the toolbox. On the right side, below my router I have a small craftsman storage container I will attach a dust deputy to. It takes up less horizontal space than a bucket. 
I also mounted a powerstrip discretely under the bench on the rear of the table. I have an external on/off switch I may mount on the front side. I can get another switch that will turn the vacuum on when the router is turned on. This is a little way down the line, I have to get to some other stuff first. I will post pics when I wrap it up.


----------



## Nickp (Dec 4, 2012)

Very nice...


----------



## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

Fantastic looking router table Garrett


----------



## sreilly (May 22, 2018)

Very creative and functional. Should prove to be a big help in future projects.


----------



## Multiwood (Feb 24, 2013)

Good looking build Garrett


----------



## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

Really clean and functional layout, Garrett - good job! Shop furniture can be good eye candy. :wink:

David


----------



## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Nice job and that`s not overkill at all. I laminated 2 x 4s together for my bench.


----------



## Ed3443 (Jul 7, 2013)

Cherryville Chuck said:


> Nice job and that`s not overkill at all. I laminated 2 x 4s together for my bench.


Chuck can you post a picture of your work bench? Would love to see it.


----------



## honesttjohn (Feb 17, 2015)

Great start!! Now we need some pics with dust on it ------ and I mean sawdust!!


----------



## roxanne562001 (Feb 5, 2012)

Very nice


----------



## MoHawk (Dec 8, 2013)

Here is what I use for my cnc router. Rigid 6.5 Vac with Rockler Vortex Separator, works great. Since this picture, I've made some adapters from 2" pvc and connected the vac intake to the vortex with long sweep elbows for better air flow. I also have another one with a Dust Deputy on top.

Nice work on the bench top!


----------



## JFPNCM (Dec 13, 2009)

Very nice project. One I need to consider for an old tool cart as well. 
Keep up the good work and posts.


----------



## TenGees (Sep 12, 2012)

Garrett, that looks far too nice to work on... lend it to me for a while and I'll break it in for you.


----------



## MEBCWD (Jan 14, 2012)

Garrett that is a nice workbench top you built there. Incorporating the router into the table does save you a lot of space in your shop and the T-tracks let you do all kinds of creative clamping plus they give you a way to hold a fence for your router.

Depression is a hard thing to overcome but it looks like you are doing a good job now of overcoming it. It also helps to interact with your friend with your common interest in woodworking. 

When you get up and running I'd like to see some more of your projects, especially shop projects that save space in your small shop, they may help other people that have limited space.


----------



## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Garrett; superb job on the bench top! Not a 'newbie' then?


----------



## Danman1957 (Mar 14, 2009)

Garrett,

That's a solid good looking set up.

Chuck,
That's how I built my workbench also, then covered it with a sheet of 1/4'' hardboard that I am almost due to change.


----------



## bhethcote (Mar 1, 2020)

Garrett_brown said:


> I can get another switch that will turn the vacuum on when the router is turned on.


Hey Garrett,

Really nice-looking work on that top - I really like it. You could also try one of those little remote activators for the vacuum as well. I've been thinking about picking one and seeing how I like it.

BH


----------



## Marco (Feb 21, 2009)

Looks great! Is that a shop-made router plate?


----------



## Danman1957 (Mar 14, 2009)

Bruce,

I have a King 1HP DC and I use a remote for outoor Christmas lights and it does the job. I'm not sure if it would work on a more powerful unit.

Dan


----------



## neville9999 (Jul 22, 2010)

I like your table it's nice work, there are two things, one is that the smaller router cannot to bigger jobs, I like them I have three, you do need a router with more horsepower. I don't mind the small router where it is but there's not a lot of lead in bench and with longer items having a lead in table space is needed. N


----------



## mbrun (Jan 12, 2020)

Nice work Garrett! Perhaps I missed it, what mixture of wood did you use to laminate the new top. The contrasting mixture is cool.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## ranman (Oct 27, 2017)

TenGees said:


> Garrett, that looks far too nice to work on... lend it to me for a while and I'll break it in for you. <a href="http://www.routerforums.com/images/smilies/wink.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Wink" ></a>


Exactly my thoughts. 😄


----------



## ranman (Oct 27, 2017)

I like your story Garret and your motivation to do such an elaborate project. I really like your playing it forward method of therapy. It feels so good inside when you can help someone else in one way or another. I've always felt better after accomplishing a task that felt important. Heck, I'm 40 percent of the way into my own router table. Another year and I might just get there. 🙂


----------



## Garrett_brown (Mar 3, 2020)

neville9999 said:


> I like your table it's nice work, there are two things, one is that the smaller router cannot to bigger jobs, I like them I have three, you do need a router with more horsepower. I don't mind the small router where it is but there's not a lot of lead in bench and with longer items having a lead in table space is needed. N


I have a larger routing table and router I can use for my larger projects. I put the trim router in there for small quick projects. I also have casters so I can roll this to the middle of the garage for longer pieces.


----------



## Garrett_brown (Mar 3, 2020)

MoHawk, that’s a great setup.


----------



## Garrett_brown (Mar 3, 2020)

mbrun said:


> Nice work Garrett! Perhaps I missed it, what mixture of wood did you use to laminate the new top. The contrasting mixture is cool.


I found scraps from various places. There’s walnut, maple, birch, sapele. I was told the darkest wood is an african mahogany, it’s my favorite.


----------



## Garrett_brown (Mar 3, 2020)

Marco said:


> Looks great! Is that a shop-made router plate?


Yup, my buddy has a bunch of acrylic so we used that.


----------



## Garrett_brown (Mar 3, 2020)

DaninVan said:


> Garrett; superb job on the bench top! Not a 'newbie' then? <a href="http://www.routerforums.com/images/smilies/smile.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Smile" ></a>


I have done little things here and there but usually repairing or building things around my house or yard because I don’t want to pay for it.


----------



## Garrett_brown (Mar 3, 2020)

TenGees said:


> Garrett, that looks far too nice to work on... lend it to me for a while and I'll break it in for you. <a href="http://www.routerforums.com/images/smilies/wink.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Wink" ></a>


Haha. I decided to use some linseed oil and now it looks like a dinner table. I guess I can use it to eat if I drive my wife crazy during quarantine.


----------



## mtnwalton (Feb 10, 2020)

Garrett:

Nice work and I'm sure very therapeutic. You'll be glad you added casters. Enjoy


----------



## Raja (Apr 9, 2020)

Hi. I have Triton TRB 001 2000watt router and mounted on Triton Tra300 table. I can’t figure out installation of height winder as I can’t find where it will go into the router. 
Can anyone please help. Thanks in advance.


----------



## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

Raja said:


> Hi. I have Triton TRB 001 2000watt router and mounted on Triton Tra300 table. I can’t figure out installation of height winder as I can’t find where it will go into the router.
> Can anyone please help. Thanks in advance.


hello and welcome to forums...

if you restart this post as a new thread you will get a far better response...
a little bit of information such as where you hail from would be helpful to us..
a name that you would like to go by would be nice too...


----------



## neville9999 (Jul 22, 2010)

I am not picking on you work, I quite like it. I can see now it was an existing metal table you had and you made the top for it, so that refit likely required the small router to be at the outside so its quite neat, I just was thinking that there is not a lot of work space around the router, no photo of the fence you use is there so that would be interesting to see. N


----------



## Garrett_brown (Mar 3, 2020)

neville9999 said:


> I am not picking on you work, I quite like it. I can see now it was an existing metal table you had and you made the top for it, so that refit likely required the small router to be at the outside so its quite neat, I just was thinking that there is not a lot of work space around the router, no photo of the fence you use is there so that would be interesting to see. N


I haven’t set the fence up yet. I built a rack for my power tools and charging station and hung it below my cabinets. I also built new doors that I am painting so unfortunately I haven’t had any router projects yet.


----------



## Garrett_brown (Mar 3, 2020)

Marco said:


> Looks great! Is that a shop-made router plate?


Yes it is. My buddy owns a glass company and was able to get me quality plexiglass.


----------



## Garrett_brown (Mar 3, 2020)

Garrett_brown said:


> I haven’t set the fence up yet. I built a rack for my power tools and charging station and hung it below my cabinets. I also built new doors that I am painting so unfortunately I haven’t had any router projects yet.


Update. 😁
You’re correct about not a lot of space. Do have a larger router table but it’s crammed away due to lack of room and I only use it with bigger objects. 
i ended up picking up a Rockler router fence which has worked great for my purposes.


----------



## Garrett_brown (Mar 3, 2020)

neville9999 said:


> I like your table it's nice work, there are two things, one is that the smaller router cannot to bigger jobs, I like them I have three, you do need a router with more horsepower. I don't mind the small router where it is but there's not a lot of lead in bench and with longer items having a lead in table space is needed. N


Totally agree on all counts. I have 4 routers and a bigger router table. I only pull it out when I have a big project. It’s a pain to get out due to where I have to store it


----------

