CNC Manual Router Table

When I was designing my "Ultimate Workbench" I had initially wanted to build in a router table - but then I got to thinking that I already have a router table in my CNC machine! I just needed a way to manually run boards if I wanted to - and here's how I built the manual router table for my CNC machine

First - I wanted something that would be quick to set up and take down, so I  came up with these "mounts" for lack of a better word... basically I took a piece of steel and bolted it to a piece of the same extrusion I built the machine from, and then I bolted two pieces of support MDF on to those. Basically what I ended up with was a assembly that I could lay on the CNC machine and slide it into place - doesn't get much easier than that :)

After that I took a piece of white melamine and screwed it (from underneath) onto the mount assemblies - I used the white melamine because I figured it would give me a nice sliding surface

I then routed a channel for the fence - I figure that since I did that using the CNC then it HAD to be perfectly parallel to the machine - so I am pretty sure that my fence is perfectly parallel to the machine... I used a 1/2 router bit and nibbled away at it until it was a nice and tight 3/4"- I will glue and clamp the fence in the slot perfectly perpendicular to the table - future plans are to maybe rout a slot and have another sliding fence onto of this one...

I am clamping the mounts for now - just to be safe, but without the clamps it doesn't move because all the pressure is against the fence, which pushes the mounts into the machine... There is a small chance of movement though so I may build in some quick knobs or something that I can completely secure the thing quickly - but for now clamps work :)

One thing to note - I will probably use the back side of the fence to use as a straight edge to clamp boards to for jointing :) BONUS! :) I haven't tried it yet but I don't see why I can't clamp a board to the parallel fence and run the router in one direction to rout the edge to be perfectly straight - better than a jointer if you ask me!

Ok so that's it for this one - I'll probably be making some upgrades - maybe a sliding fence attachment or t-track miter slot, etc so keep an eye on this one :)

I'll also set up the camera and take some video of me running a few boards through so stay tuned ;)