Mini Router Table With the Simplest Router Lift Ever

This mini router table use only the stuff, which came with every router, and a little bit of scrap wood and it has the simplest router lift you can imagine.

It works great for small work pieces, especially with router bits which have a bearing.

For bigger parts you can disassemble it in 2 minutes and use it in a normal way.

It is very easy to make and the costs, when you need to buy wood, are under $5.

For a better overview, please watch the video.

If you like it, I am glad if you vote for it in the Build a Tool Contest 2017.

The idea is to use the router base itself as a table and the parallel guide as a router fence.

Therefor there is a need for building two things:

1. a supporting board for the router
2. a router lift

So all you need is:

Router with a parallel guide

Tools:

• table saw
• scroll saw
• clamps
• sandpaper
• wood glue

Wood:

• 3/4" Plywood for the supporting board
• a rest piece of a 2x4
• 6 mm MDF for the surface
• a rope

I screwed a rest of plywood onto my workbench

The dimensions of all these parts depend from the dimension of the router you use.

I cut strips from a 2x4, which have the exact thickness of the iron rods of the parallel guide. In my case it was 8mm. The length is not important but it should be the width of the surface board

Therefor the width for the surface board is also not important, use what ever you have. In my case it was 20cm.

The length is the same as the length of the supporting board or longer.

The thickness is the distance from the iron rods to the surface of the router.

First I clamped the parallel guide with mounted rods anywhere in the middle on my supporting board.

So I got the exact distance between them.

Then I glued one strip left and one on the right side on the board. To secure them in place I screwed them on. Later I removed all the screws.

Then I glued one strip next to one of the rods and a second one tight on the other side. I repeated this for the second iron rod. At last I glued two strips anywhere in the gaps.

I put the router with mounted parallel guide on the 4 mm MDF and made a pencil line and cut it out with my scroll saw.

First I put wood glue on the middle layer and a lot of glue in the gaps of the iron rods.

Then I put the iron rods, mounted on the router, in their gaps and added more glue on top of them.

Finally I placed the surface board in position and fixed it with some clamps. For a better handling, I removed the router and with a lot of clamps I let the glue dry.

After the glue was dry, with a large forceps I loosened the bars.

And then I used a cordless drill to remove them.

The result are perfect tight fitting holes!

The router lift consists of only 4 parts.

• one wooden block, made of a 2x4
• one axis
• a handle
• a rope

First I drilled a hole half through the wooden block, this hole fits on one column of the router.

Somewhere beside it, I drilled a second hole, all the way through, with the same diameter.

Perpendicular to this second hole I drilled a hole for the axis, not to tight.

The axis got two holes. One on the end, here I put a tooth pick in, and one in the center for the rope.

The wooden block got a little hole for one end of the rope.

Then I put a little wooden spacer on the axis and finally a handle. You can make this handle with a hole saw on a drill press but this is not necessary. You can use any wooden block and it have any shape, even square.

Then I threw one end of the thread through the hole in the axis and tied it firmly. The other end I attached to the wooden block

The place under my mini router table is very small and its difficult to put on a regular vacuum hose.

Therefore I used a small piece of plastic tube and with a fan I bent it in shape

• the table
• two rods
• the router in place
• mounting the router lift
• the left hand fix the router in place with the original locking screw
• The parallel guide on his place