How to make a milling table. Tips for making a do-it-yourself milling table Drawings of a milling table for a manual router

A milling table will make your work easier and help to increase the accuracy of workpieces.

You can buy a ready-made one, or you can make a milling table for a hand router with your own hands, using the skills of working with wood. We have prepared for you a fairly detailed step-by-step instruction on how to make a table.

The essence of all designs of a horizontal milling table is the same, the idea is clear - you need to think it over for yourself and execute it, taking into account your capabilities. And as a result, get a machine that allows you to process workpieces much more accurately and perform operations that previously seemed difficult for a hand mill.

Decide on the size of the work surface, starting from the dimensions of the workpieces to be processed and the free space in the workshop. Start small - build a simple countertop with upgrade options. Work on it and refine it little by little.

Make a countertop

The simplest table for a router is a separate work plate placed on the joinery gantries or between the pedestals. The device costs pennies and is manufactured in a few hours, but it will allow you to perform a significant proportion of the same operations as a multifunctional machine. All you need is MDF or birch plywood 19–25 mm thick. A plastic-coated panel is better suited, which provides less frictional resistance, and a plate laminated on both sides will not warp during operation.

Set the exact right angle of the cut on the circular saw, cut the parts to size and grind the ends.

Cutting scheme: 1 - base plate; 2 - stop base; 3 - front wall of the stop; 4 - kerchief (4 pieces, dimensions for 19 mm plywood); 5 - tsar (2 pcs.); 6 - side bar; 7 - connecting strip (4 pcs.)

Advice. Before cutting, measure the thickness of the sheet material, which often differs from the standard. Make corrections to the drawings, eliminating problems in the assembly of the structure.

Remove the plastic pad from the sole of the router.

Draw a line in the middle of the slab and place a mark 235 mm from the edge.

Position the overlay so that the router's main adjusters are then closer to the edge of the table. Visually align the center of the lining with the marked point and mark the locations for drilling the holes for the fastening screws.

Determine the center position for the outsole with equidistant screws.

For a base with asymmetrically spaced screws, measure the diameter of the pad and the distance from the outer circumference to the edge of the sole.

Draw a line with a pencil in the middle of the beveled side, calculate the distance from it to the center:

S = D / 2 - (D - H)

Position the cut perpendicular to the midline and mark the center of the sole.

Mark the locations of the mounting screws.

Drill the mounting holes and for the cutter, countersink the recesses. Mark semicircular cutouts in the base and front wall of the stop.

Saw out the bends with a jigsaw. Make frequent auxiliary cuts perpendicular to the edge of the part, just below the scribe line. Then move the file a little closer to the contour line - the pieces will fall out without interfering with the movement of the canvas. Sand the cutout with a sandpaper wrapped around the pipe.

Attach the connecting strips to the bottom of the worktop.

Glue all the blanks and fasten them with additional screws. Select the screws longer than the standard ones by the thickness of the plywood and install the router from the bottom of the plate.

1 - side plate for fastening with clamps on the gantry; 2 - king; 3 - countersunk guide holes; 4 - front wall of the stop; 5 - self-tapping screw with a countersunk head 4.5x42; 6 - kerchief; 7 - the base of the stop

Fix the table on the trestle with clamps, fix the position of the stop with clamps and get to work.

Make a solid base

The worktop can be installed on a frame that is low enough to accommodate the router. The portable table is stored on a rack, and for work is fixed on a workbench. If you milling a lot and there is a lot of free space in the workshop, add support stands to the worktop and you have a complete machine.

Saw out the cabinet elements according to the dimensions given for a table height of 820 mm, or modify them so that the level of the table top is on par with other equipment.

Frame details: 1 - outer side panel; 2 - inner panel; 3 - back panel; 4 - base

Place the countertop with the back facing up. Install the side panels in sequence and fasten them with screws, pre-drilling the pilot holes. Secure the base, fold the frame with the front side down, line up the square corners and install the two rear panels.

Finally, attach the wheel supports to the bottom of the body using roofing screws. Place the wheel mounting pads at least 20 mm from the edges.

1 - side stand; 2 - wheel support; 3 - bottom; 4 - inner rack; 5 - back panel

Use the free space in the drawer units to solve the problem of storing tools and supplies.

Embed the mounting plate

Get more overhang by placing the tool on a 4–6 mm thick duralumin, getinax or monolithic polycarbonate plate.

Cut a square with a side of 300 mm from a sheet, put it on a workbench. Glue the plastic sole of the router on top with double-sided tape, placing it face up in the middle. Using a drill of the same diameter as the mounting screws, drill holes in the plate using the plastic pad as a template. Remove the sole, make a recess for the caps with a countersink or a large drill.

Screw the plate to the disconnected router, insert an 8mm drill into the collet. Lower the tool body until the drill touches the surface and rotate the chuck, marking the center. Unscrew the plate and make a hole at the mark with a hole saw.

Place the plate on the countertop and outline the outline. Draw and cut a cutout by inserting the jigsaw blade through the drilled hole. Trim the ends with a file and sand them.

Fix the thin planks around the marked contour with clamps.

Clamp a copying cutter with a bearing in the collet, set the milling depth according to the thickness of the mounting plate. Route in several passes, then add 0.5 mm with the router micrometer and complete the final pass.

Drill the through holes for the screws and expand them on the back of the tabletop with an 11 mm drill for the self-locking nuts. Clean the surfaces and install the nuts on the epoxy, aligning with the screwed in bolts.

Fit the mounting plate to the cutout, place it in place, drill the mounting holes and countersink from the front. Attach the part to the base of the router, insert the tool into the table top and tighten the screws. Check that the plate is flush with the plane of the table top, if necessary, compensate for any errors with washers.

Improve the emphasis

For a faster and more convenient machine set-up, modify the parallel side stop and complement the machine with a pivot stop to help machine the ends of narrow parts. The latter can be taken from a stationary circular saw. Cut aluminum T-rails into the surface of the plate. Use a router or a circular saw with a slotted disc to make cutouts in the worktop.

Lightly round off the top corners of the grooves with sandpaper. Cut the profile to size, drill holes according to the diameter of the screws, process them with a countersink. Insert the parts into the grooves, make thin holes and tighten the countersunk screws.

Drill 7mm holes in the base of the stop, pick up the hex head bolts and plastic handwheels with nuts.

Install the guide profile in the front plate of the stop to secure the clamps, auxiliary pads and guards.

Cut out a cover from plywood with a hole in the center, fix it on the gussets located near the cutout of the longitudinal stop. Connect the adapter nipple and connect the vacuum cleaner when working on the milling table.

Add a guard made of plywood trim and a strip of plexiglass to the stop.

To make oblong cuts, drill 7mm holes at the indicated points, connect them with tangents, and make cuts with a jigsaw.

Make homemade clamps and clamps required for milling small items.

The press-comb can be made from maple wood by selecting a straight grain section. Perform the slots between the ridges on a circular machine:

Set the cutting height to 50 mm.
Set the cutting width to 2 mm.
Make a cut.
Push the workpiece back with the hand pusher.
Flip the board 180 °, saw through on the other side.
Move the stop by 5 mm, repeat the operations.
Move the stop again and make cuts throughout the workpiece.

Secure the clips to the rail with bolts and wing nuts.

1 - stopper; 2 - clamp-comb; 3 - protective shield; 4 - aluminum guide; 5 - a branch pipe for a vacuum cleaner

Sand the surfaces of the parts, especially where the workpieces will pass during the milling process. Clean the machine from dust and coat with oil.

1 - a drawer for cutters; 2 - trapezoidal groove for an emphasis

Let's summarize the project

Materials needed:

Plywood 19x1525x1525 mm - 2 sheets.
Plastic 4x30x30 mm.
Several dozen screws.
Aluminum rails - 2.3 m.
Wheel support with brake - 4 pcs.
Carpentry and epoxy glue.
M6 bolts with nuts.

The ability to take your time and think over every step came in handy, to accurately mark and cut out the blanks, or the desire to learn this. The result is a solid milling table for little money. In the future, you should think about equipping the machine with a switch and a mechanism for adjusting the milling height.

Professional carpenters have great respect for their router tables. And it is no coincidence. After all, a convenient and properly arranged workbench is a guarantee of high productivity and an increase in the efficiency of the work process. On sale you can find models of tables for every taste, but often their cost is so high that not every craftsman can afford such a purchase.

However, everyone can make a suitable milling table on their own, adjusting it to their personal needs and habits. And you don't have to buy expensive branded products or their Chinese counterparts. With a little work, you will not only save a lot, but the main thing is that in the end you will get your own table, working at which you will be able to make exactly the joinery you require faster and much better.

The manufacturer cannot anticipate the needs of every potential buyer and incorporates basic capabilities into his products. Many of them may simply never be necessary for you, and some, which are necessary for you, may not be in the design of the table.

To make a milling table yourself, you do not need anything supernatural and too expensive. All that is needed is an electric motor, a guide structure and the table itself, a stable frame on which equipment and accessories will be fixed. And, of course, your own milling table drawing.

What is a milling machine for and what is its purpose

The principle of working with a hand-held milling tool is that the router moves along the surface of a securely fixed workpiece that needs to be processed in a certain way. The problem is that this is often not very convenient. Therefore, they resort to tricks: they attach the router itself, and move the part. The resulting structure is called the "milling table".

With the help of milling tables, you can easily make shaped holes, cut grooves, reliably connect parts, for example, drawer walls, etc., perform edge profiling and many other operations that are available only in specialized carpentry workshops where there are milling machines.

Using milling tables for a hand router, you get the opportunity to process not only wood products, but also chipboard, plastic, MDF, make joints on tenons and tongues, make grooves and splines, chamfer and decorate profiles.

In addition, milling tables can be used as woodworking machines. To do this, a tool is fixed in a drill stand or on a workbench - and the machine is ready. Therefore, many companies began to produce a wide range of milling tables with a lot of additional accessories for them. However, a well-made do-it-yourself router table is in no way inferior to the branded ones, and sometimes even surpasses them.

How milling tables are arranged

To work with a hand router on a table, you can use an ordinary workbench or build a special table. Such a table is distinguished by a rigid structure with good stability. This is necessary in view of the strong vibrations caused by the running router. Since the tool is mounted from below, there should be nothing under the table top that interferes with the work. Only the milling cutter itself for the milling table and, if necessary, a lift device that provides accurate and smooth adjustment of the cutter lift.

The router is attached to the table with a mounting plate. The material for it must be of high quality and durable. It is best to use PCB, metal or plywood. The fastening of the plastic strip on the base of the router usually has threaded connections that can be used to attach the router to the table top of the router table. On the surface of the future table, you should choose a groove for the mounting plate so that the base of the router is flush. It is necessary to fasten the plate with self-tapping screws with countersunk heads so that they do not interfere with the future movement of the workpieces being processed.

The router itself is also attached to the table using countersunk screws, attaching it to the mounting plate. If there are no such holes in the sole of the tool, they must be drilled by yourself. Alternatively, it is possible to use pressure devices if there is no desire to drill the milling cutter base.

On the milling table, be sure to install the on and off button of the router. It is also highly desirable to equip the table with an emergency mushroom button for the safety of the person working behind it. In order for the fastening of the workpieces to be reliable, hold down devices are arranged. Convenient to use a milling rotary table. For measurement, a ruler is usually built into the table surface.

Types of milling tables

When starting to make a milling table, you should first of all decide on a place for it in your workshop. It depends on what features you plan to use. This can be the lateral extension of the sawing machine, that is, the aggregate table.

If you only plan to work on a milling table occasionally and use it outside the workshop, build a portable table. It can always be removed or hung on the wall, thus saving space.

If there is enough space in the workshop, then a stationary table for a milling machine will be most convenient. It can be equipped with wheels and moved as needed.

Both the portable and the stationary table can be removed for a while, but at the same time you can keep them constantly ready for certain operations. To do this, they are pre-configured.

Simple table design

If you want a device of a simple design, you can make it a small height, then fix it on an ordinary table. To do this, take a chipboard sheet and a simple board, which should be fixed on the sheet as a guide. The board should be thin and bolted.

After that, you need to make a hole for the cutter. In a simple design, this can be finished - the resulting design will allow you to perform simple milling operations. However, if you want to make a milling table for a more thorough work, then you will have to spend a little more time and effort.

Manufacturing the bed

For any milling machine, the bed is its frame, on which the table top is attached from above. The base can be made of any material, the main thing is that it is strong and stable. The size of the bed is selected individually, based on the dimensions of the parts that are planned to be processed on the machine.

When making the machine, it is advisable to make its lower part in such a way that the person standing in front of it does not rest their feet on the frame. To do this, the lowermost part of the bed is deepened (like ordinary furniture) by about 10-20 centimeters.

If you plan to process door linings, then it will be appropriate to make a table with a height of 85-90 cm, a depth of 50-55 cm and a width of 150 cm.

For convenience, when working while standing, the height of the table is taken to be about 85-90 cm. In this case, it is advisable to use adjustable supports in the table design, which allow you to align milling tables for a hand router in the presence of unevenness in the floor or, if necessary, change the height.

Homemade table top

Since the workpieces slide well on plastic, a good option would be to use a kitchen panel made of chipboard 26-26 cm thick as a tabletop for a milling table.Its depth of 60 cm will also be convenient during operation, and the chipboard material itself will perfectly dampen the vibrations produced by the router during operation. ...

As a last resort, when making tables of milling machines, you can use laminated chipboard or MDF plates with a thickness of 1.6 cm or more.

Mounting plate

Since the kitchen worktop is quite thick, in order to maintain the amplitude of the cutter protrusion, the router should be attached to the table using a mounting plate. With its small thickness, it is highly durable and reliably holds the tool without losing the cutter's working stroke.

Using a mounting plate made of textolite (fiberglass), cut out a rectangular workpiece 5-8 mm thick and sides from 15 to 30 cm. In the center of the plate, cut a hole corresponding to the hole in the base of the milling tool. The plate is attached to the table surface, and the router is already installed on it.

We assemble a table for a router

After the frame is made, the table top is temporarily attached to it. A mounting plate is installed on a previously prepared place and its outline is drawn with a pencil. Then, using a hand router with a cutter with a diameter of 5-9 mm in the worktop, you should select a seat for it. The plate should fit flush and without distortions.

The corners of the seat must be rounded off with a file. The same operation must be carried out with the mounting plate - process its corners with the same radius as in the mounting place.

After that, you should make a through milling of the table top along the contours of the router sole. This does not require special accuracy, but you will probably still need to select additional material from the bottom of the countertop for a dust collector and some other additional devices.

It remains to connect all the parts together. Having started the router from the bottom, we fix it on the mounting plate, then we attach the plate to the table top. We screw the tabletop to the bed already completely.

We arrange the upper clamp

As an additional safety measure and for convenience, the milling table is equipped with an upper clamp - a roller-based device made according to the drawings. When working with door linings, this is especially true, as well as when manufacturing dimensional parts. The design of the upper clamp is simple.

A properly sized ball bearing will fulfill the roller task. The bearing must be rigidly fixed at a certain distance from the table top so that it provides a secure hold on the workpiece from above.

Milling machine drive

If your choice has settled on making a simple machine, pay attention to an electric motor for it. Power is the main factor of choice. If the sampling of the tree is planned to be shallow, then the power of 500 W will be enough for you. So that the machine does not constantly stop and meet your expectations, choose a motor with a power of 1100 watts or more. Such a drive will allow not only to calmly process any wood, but also to use various milling cutters.

A homemade milling table can be improved indefinitely, depending on your requirements and desires. But the most important thing in this case is not to forget about safety and be sure to equip your machine with means of ensuring it.

The question of how to make a milling table on your own is asked by many home craftsmen. This is understandable: the equipment on which the router is fixed motionless, and the workpiece moves on a specially equipped working table, in many cases is much more convenient to use. Often, when working with a hand mill, the workpiece is fixed on an ordinary table, and all manipulations are carried out by the tool itself, which does not allow observing the accuracy of processing.

The milling table greatly improves the productivity and efficiency of the hand router. It is often unprofitable to purchase a serial model of such a table for your home. It is much more economical to make a do-it-yourself milling table. It will not take much time and will require very little financial costs. Any home master can cope with such a task, if desired.

Using a homemade hand router table when processing wood products, you can achieve the results that professional milling machines can get. With the help of such a simple device, a whole list of technological operations is qualitatively performed: cutting shaped holes and making various slots and grooves in the workpiece, manufacturing connecting elements, processing and profiling edges.

The device of a factory-made milling table can be found in the video below. We will try to do not worse, but in some ways even better and, which is very important, cheaper.

A homemade milling table, which you equip your home machine with, will give you the opportunity to process not only wooden blanks, but also products that are made of chipboard, MDF, plastic, etc. tongue and groove elements, chamfer and decorative profiles.

A homemade router table, the manufacture of which does not require large financial costs, will allow you to equip your home workshop with a real woodworking machine. It will only be necessary to fix the tool itself - a hand router, for which you can use a drill stand or a workbench. It is no coincidence that many manufacturing companies are engaged in the manufacture of milling tables and accessories for them, but a decent amount of money will have to be paid for such a device. A homemade table for equipping a milling machine, if made in accordance with the drawings that we will analyze in this article, is in no way inferior in functionality to models released in production conditions, and it will cost much less.

Milling table drawings: option number 1

Drawings of the milling table with a detailed analysis of the design of the main units and their dimensions.

Drawings of a homemade table for a hand router (click to enlarge)

Part Dimensions Sectional Table Double Layer Table Top Cutout in the First Layer of the Table
Marking the cut of the second layer of the table Gluing both layers Sawing the cut according to the markings of the second layer Drawing of the rip fence
End plate of the stop Dust extraction pipe Plexiglass safety guard Comb clamp and locking block

Milling table design

If you wish, you can make a homemade milling table from an ordinary workbench, but it is better to make a special design. This is explained by the fact that the machine with the cutter creates strong vibration during operation, therefore the bed used to fix the cutter must be highly stable and reliable. It should also be borne in mind that the milling device itself is attached to the bottom of the milling table top, so there should be enough free space under it.

When attaching the device to the tabletop of a home-made table for a hand router, a mounting plate is used, which must have high strength and rigidity, or special clamps for a milling machine. Such a plate can be made of metal sheet, PCB or durable plywood. The soles of most router models already have threaded holes, and they are needed to connect such a device to the tabletop and mounting plate. If there are no such holes, you can drill them yourself and cut threads in them, or use special clamps for a milling machine.

The clamps for the milling machine or the mounting plate must be flush with the worktop, for this, a selection of the corresponding dimensions is made in the latter. Several holes must be drilled in the plate, some of which are necessary to connect it to the tabletop using self-tapping screws, and others so that such a plate can be fixed on the router base. The screws and self-tapping screws that you will use must be countersunk.

To make turning on your own more convenient, you can place a regular button on the tabletop, as well as a mushroom button, which will make your device even safer to use. To increase the convenience of your home machine, you can fix a long metal ruler on the surface of a milling table made for a do-it-yourself hand router.

Before you start designing a do-it-yourself milling coordinate table, you need to determine the place where it will be located, as well as decide what type of milling equipment you want to make. So, you can make an aggregate milling cutter with your own hands (the table will be located on the side of the sawing equipment, serve as its extension), a compact desktop machine, free-standing stationary equipment.

You can opt for a compact desktop equipment for working with wood and other materials if you use it irregularly or often use it outside your workshop. Such an installation, which is distinguished by its small size, takes up very little space, and if desired, it can be hung on the wall.

If the size of your workshop allows, then it is better to adapt the base of a stationary milling machine to the router, which is much more convenient to work on than on desktop equipment. To make such a device more mobile, it can be put on wheels, with which you can easily change its location.

A simple homemade milling table. There are questions about the overall strength, but cheap and cheerful.

The simplest milling table or drilling machine table can be made very quickly. For the manufacture of such a structure, which is easily located on a regular desktop, you will need a chipboard sheet, on which the guiding elements are fixed. As such a guide, which can be used as a parallel stop for a milling table, a regular board of small thickness is suitable, which is attached to the tabletop using bolted connections. If necessary, you can attach a second such board in parallel, which will serve as a limit stop.

To insert the router into the table in a chipboard sheet, it will be necessary to make a hole for its placement, and it will be fixed on the tabletop using two clamps. After that, the manufacture of the milling table can be considered complete. To make the use of such a design more convenient, you can place the simplest clamps for a milling machine on the tabletop.

Bed and table top manufacturing

The bed of a home-made milling machine must be highly stable and reliable, since it will bear the main loads. Structurally, it is a frame with supports, on which the table top is fixed. As a material for the manufacture of the frame of the bed, you can use welded metal profiles, chipboard, MDF, wood. It is advisable to first prepare drawings of such a device. On them, it is necessary to designate all structural elements and their dimensions, depending on the dimensions of the parts that are planned to be processed on such milling equipment.

The lower part of the bed from the side of its front must be deepened by 100-200 mm so that nothing interferes with the feet of the milling machine operator. If you are going to process door linings and front ends for them on your homemade machine, then the dimensions of the bed can be as follows: 900x500x1500 (height, depth, width).

One of the significant characteristics of the bed for a homemade milling machine is its height, on which the convenience of working on such equipment depends. According to ergonomic requirements, the most suitable height for equipment to be used while standing is 850–900 mm. It is desirable to make the lower parts of the bed supports adjustable. This will make it possible not only to compensate for unevenness in the floor, but also, if necessary, to change the height of the milling table. To make a turntable with your own hands, it is enough to fix special wheels on its legs.

The assembly of approximately such a table is considered in option No. 2

You can make a milling table, characterized by a low price, high reliability, from the tabletop of an old kitchen table. Such countertops are usually made of a 26 or 36 mm thick chipboard sheet covered with wear-resistant plastic. Their surface provides good sliding of the workpiece, and the chipboard base perfectly dampens vibrations arising during the operation of the equipment. If you make a desktop for the machine with your own hands, then for these purposes, plates made of MDF and chipboard (laminated chipboard) with a thickness of 16 mm or more are suitable.

Milling table drawings: option number 2

Detailed drawings of a milling table with additional pull-out drawers, which can be made from timber and plywood (or MDF). A list of parts with dimensions and recommended material of manufacture is presented in the table.

Table of table parts and their sizes Frame Top corner of frame Bottom corner of frame
Drawer slide Slide guide
Large drawer Small drawer Front of small drawer Table side panels

How to make a mounting plate

Since the tabletop of a homemade milling machine is quite thick, the mounting plate for attaching the router should have a minimum thickness. This will maximize the overhang of the cutting tool. It is clear that such a plate with a minimum thickness should be characterized by high strength and rigidity.

The plate can be made of metal or of a material that is not inferior to it in its strength - PCB. The thickness of the PCB sheet should be within 4–8 mm. Using the previously prepared drawings, a rectangular part is cut out of such a sheet, in the center of which a hole is made. The dimensions of the latter correspond to the diameter of the hole in the base of the router.

The connection of the plate with the base of the router and the table itself, as already mentioned above, is ensured by the holes made in it and the corresponding threaded holes in the base of the router. Holes for fixing the plates to the table surface, which are used as clamps for the milling machine, are made at their four corners.

The dimensions and location of the holes for connecting the insert to the router must fully correspond to the holes located on the base of the tool. In order not to be mistaken in the manufacture of the plate, it is necessary to first prepare its drawing, on which it is necessary to indicate the overall dimensions of this part, the diameters and the location of all holes on it. If desired, you can fix it on the table surface using clamps.

A video with a detailed story about the construction of a milling table, the functionality and convenience of which are very high, but the complexity of manufacturing is also very serious. For most craftsmen, such a table will be unnecessarily complicated, but perhaps someone will get useful ideas when creating their own equipment.

Assembling the milling table

Universal milling table or start assembling from the tabletop attachment to the finished bed. The mounting plate is applied to the place of the tabletop where it should be placed according to the drawing, its outline is drawn with a pencil. This is necessary in order to select a recess for the plate along the indicated contour, for which a hand-held milling cutter with a tool with a diameter of 6–10 mm is used. The size of this recess must be such that the plate fits into it flush with the surface of the countertop.

It will not work to make a recess with right angles with a round cutter, therefore, on the plate itself, the corners must also be rounded off with a file. After fixing in the worktop, it is necessary to make a hole in the mounting plate with the dimensions corresponding to the diameter of the router base. It is done using a straight cutter, the thickness of which should be greater than that of the countertop itself.

When the requirements for the equipment are small and there is no desire to get involved with homemade products, you can buy something similar to the one shown in the photo below.

PROMA at a price of about 6 thousand rubles is one of the cheapest factory milling tables

To perform such an operation, you do not need a drawing, since it does not require high precision. On the back of the tabletop, it is also necessary to select a certain amount of material, since the dust collector cover and other devices will need to be placed at the bottom of the table. To quickly perform all the above operations, you can focus on the drawings or photos placed in this article.

The final stage in assembling a homemade milling table is to connect all its structural elements. First, a router is started from the bottom of the tabletop, its sole is screwed to the mounting plate. Then the plate itself is attached to the top surface of the countertop using countersunk self-tapping screws, which must be completely recessed into the prepared holes. Only after performing these operations is the tabletop itself securely fixed to the bed.

Milling table drawings: option No. 3

A compact desktop milling table and a detailed analysis of its creation in the photo below.

Computer model Assembled exterior Back view Front view
The cutter is raised, the sashes are open The cutter is down, the leaves are moved Hand router Hose from the vacuum cleaner for removing dust and shavings
Milling cutter attachment and chip evacuation Adjusting the cutter lift The cutter is lifted by turning the screw.
Adjusting the cutter overhang Plexiglass platform before installing the router

Making the upper clamp

Asking the question of how to make a homemade machine safer in operation and to ensure the convenience of processing large workpieces on it, you can equip such equipment with an upper clamp. Drawings must also be prepared to create this roller-based fixture.

A properly sized ball bearing is often used as the roller for the pressure device. Such a roller is mounted on a holding device that allows it to be fixed at any distance from the table top. With the help of this simple universal device, the workpiece of any thickness will be securely fixed while moving along the surface of the working table.

In the video below, a man shows his homemade milling table, which he assembled right on the balcony of his own house.

Drive for a homemade milling machine

In order for your homemade wood router to be distinguished by high performance and functionality, you must equip it with an electric drive of sufficient power. If you plan to use your machine for shallow woodworking, a 500W electric motor will suffice. However, equipment with a low power drive will often shut down, which will negate all the savings from purchasing a weak electric motor.

The best choice for such machines are electric motors, the power of which starts from 1100 W. Such an electric motor with a power varying in the range of 1–2 kW will allow you to use your homemade device as a real milling machine for processing wood products. In addition, you can use any type of cutter on such a machine. To equip the drive of the machine, you can use electric motors that are installed on stationary equipment (for example, on drilling machines), as well as on hand tools (drills, grinders, hand mills).

More serious plant equipment is already significantly more expensive. For example, the price of such a Kreg table starts at 22 thousand rubles.

Pay attention not only to the power, but also to the speed of the electric motor. The higher this indicator, the better the quality of the cut will be. Electric motors, as you know, can be powered from an electrical network with a voltage of 220 and 380 V. There will be no problems with connecting the former, but three-phase asynchronous motors will have to be powered using a special "star-delta" circuit. Connecting according to this scheme will make it possible to use the electric motor at its maximum power and provide it with a smooth start. And if you directly connect such an electric motor to a network with a voltage of 220 V, then you will lose 30-50% of its power.

Milling table drawings: option No. 4

Analysis of another design of a do-it-yourself milling table, supplemented by a video from the author.

The lift is organized with a jack Steel plate for fastening the router

Safety when working on a homemade milling table

When making a wood router with your own hands, ensure the safety of working on such equipment. First of all, you need to equip your homemade machine with a protective screen. How such screens are arranged is illustrated by photos and drawings of professional equipment. An obligatory element of your homemade equipment should be an emergency stop button, the so-called fungus. It should be placed in an easily accessible place, and the start button must be fixed in the place where accidental pressing of it will be excluded.

Make sure that the treatment area is well illuminated, as it is it that is the most dangerous place of any equipment. If in the course of work you need to frequently change the overhang of the cutter, it is worth making a manual or automatic device for raising and lowering the tool (lift). By creating a do-it-yourself router elevator, you can use your homemade milling equipment more efficiently and make working on it comfortable and safe. Various designs of such elevators can also be found on the Internet.

The milling table can significantly increase the efficiency and productivity of work. There are many models available for a wide variety of hand routers. However, the price of finished products is very high. It is much more profitable and more interesting to assemble a table with your own hands. No expensive materials or complicated tools are required for this.

General information about the design of the milling table

The milling table can be installed on a work bench or a specially assembled separate table. The product must have a rigid structure and good stability, because during operation, a very noticeable vibration will be created. Be sure to take into account the fact that the installation of the router will be performed from the bottom of the tabletop and absolutely nothing should interfere with it. No additional elements are installed there.

The design of a homemade table provides for a mounting plate, due to which the router will be attached directly to the table. To create a plate, use high quality durable material: plywood, textolite, sheet of metal, etc.

A sample for the plate is created on top of the tabletop. The plate is directly fixed using self-tapping screws with a hidden head. The router is fixed with screws with the same hidden head. Additional fixation of the plate can be done using the clamps.

For convenient turning on of the router, a button is fixed on the table. Additionally, it is recommended to install an emergency shutdown button of the mushroom type. If you have to work with large workpieces, equip the table with upper hold-down devices. For even greater convenience and accuracy, the table is equipped with a ruler.

To assemble the milling table yourself, you will need the following tools:

Electric jigsaw. If not, you can get by with a hacksaw.
Plane. Electric is desirable.
Chisel.
Grinder. In the absence, you can get by with a bar with sandpaper, but processing with their help will require more time and effort.
Screwdriver or drill with screwdriver function.
Electric drill with a set of drills.

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Initial stage of table assembly

Explore your workshop and choose a place to install the future milling table. Determine the most suitable product design. Tables are:

Aggregate. In essence, they are a side extension of a standard saw table.
Portable. Extremely comfortable and ergonomic desktop option.
Stationary. Installed separately and assembled specifically for the router.

If your milling table will be used infrequently, or if you have to work outside the workshop, opt for a portable option. If you have enough space, make a separate table. For greater convenience, it can be equipped with wheels, which will allow, if necessary, to "move" to another place.

You can assemble a small structure and place it on an ordinary table. You can take a chipboard of a suitable size and install a guide on it. The guide in this case is a board of relatively thin thickness, fixed with bolts.

Take 2 CLAMPS. Make a hole for the cutter. This completes the main work. However, if the machine is your main working tool, you need to approach the process more thoroughly and create a convenient and reliable table at which you will be comfortable spending your time.

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Preparing the bed and table top

The bed is a stationary part of any milling table. In essence, it is a frame on supports with a table top on top. The material of the frame does not really matter. Suitable for wood, metal, chipboard, MDF. The main thing is to ensure the required rigidity and maximum stability. The dimensions of the bed are also not critical. Choose them based on the size of materials you most often need to process.

The lower part of the bed should be 10-20 cm deeper in relation to the front overhang of the table top. Dimensions, as already noted, select according to your needs. For example, for processing the ends of facade blanks and door linings, you can make a bed 150 cm wide, 90 cm high, 50 cm deep.

Height is a very important characteristic in this case. The optimal value is considered to be 85-90 cm. It is good if you can equip the bed with adjustable supports. They will allow you to compensate for unevenness in the floor surface and change the height of the milling table when the need arises.

To make a homemade table, you can take an ordinary kitchen countertop made of chipboard. A plate with a thickness of 26 or 36 mm with a wear-resistant plastic coating is used. Thanks to the plastic, the workpiece will glide well on the tabletop, and the chipboard will take on the task of damping vibration. In extreme cases, you can use chipboard or MDF with a thickness of at least 16 mm.

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What do you need to know about the mounting plate?

A mounting plate must be fixed next to the attachment point of the router sole. The best is considered to be durable and at the same time thin material. The most commonly used sheet metal. A more convenient and no less durable option is textolite (fiberglass). Usually it is a rectangular plate with a thickness of 4-8 mm. A hole must be prepared in the center of such a plate. Its diameter should be the same as the diameter of the hole in the router base.

The sole of the router, as a rule, is equipped with standard threaded holes necessary for fixing the plastic lining. These holes secure the router to the mounting plate. If there are no holes initially, make them yourself. You can use another method of fastening the router, for example, metal clamps. Holes to secure the plate are created closer to the corners of the plate.

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Step-by-step instructions for assembling the table

First you need to fix the table top to the finished bed. A plate is placed in a preselected place on the worktop. A pencil is taken and its contours are outlined. Next, you need to take a hand router with a 6-10 mm cutter and select a seat in the tabletop for the mounting plate. It should lie flush, i.e. make up a perfectly flat surface with a table top, as if a single whole.

The footprint should have slightly rounded corners. You can round them with a file. After adding the mounting plate, take a cutter with a thickness slightly higher than the thickness of the table top and make through holes in the table top exactly according to the shape of the router base. You don't have to try too hard, perfect accuracy is not required at this stage. From the bottom of the tabletop, you need to make an additional sample for the dust collector casing and other devices with which you plan to equip your milling table.

The work is almost complete, you just need to assemble everything into a single product. Start the router from the bottom and screw it to the plate. Fix the plate to the countertop with self-tapping screws. The caps of the self-tapping screws must be drowned, otherwise they will interfere in the process of doing the work. Finally screw the tabletop to the bed.

In order to increase convenience and safety, you can equip the structure with an upper pressure roller device. This addition will be especially useful when machining large workpieces such as door trims. The design of the clamp does not have any complex elements, so you can make and install it yourself without any problems.

A ball bearing of the correct size can be used as a roller. The bearing is installed in the holding device. The device itself must be rigidly fixed at the required distance from the surface of your countertop. This will ensure a constant tight clamping of the workpiece to the worktop surface at the moment the product passes under the roller. This will increase the accuracy and safety of the work performed.

A person who loves to create and do various things on their own will get great pleasure from creating a milling table. This is a tricky but fascinating endeavor. Making a table for a router with your own hands means getting a structure that costs much less than one made at the factory. When manufacturing a milling table, it is imperative to observe safety precautions.

The milling table is designed for processing materials, cutting shaped holes, making connections. A do-it-yourself table will come out more economical and much more convenient than a purchased one.

The work in which it is necessary to perform milling is always associated with the movement of the tool along the surface of a rigidly fixed workpiece. However, when you need to mill a part with small dimensions, some difficulties arise. To solve this problem, you can make a do-it-yourself router table. In this case, the tool will have a stationary fastening, the workpiece itself must move. As a result, it will be possible to quickly finish and remove overhangs.

Standard milling table

The easiest way to create a router table is to mount the router directly to the table top. Fastening takes place through a drilled hole. This attitude has shown itself to be positive in work. In this case, the router is located at an angle of 90 ° to the table top, it is rigidly fixed to the table, which dampens unnecessary vibration.

Such an installation is considered the best if the router has a solid base, if it has the ability to regulate the immersion of the tool. The router base must be secured to the table top so that the router can be lowered to the required depth. This mounting method has some drawbacks that need to be borne in mind.

Firstly, the thickness of the table top affects the working range of the tool, it allows you to work with cutters with long shanks.

Secondly, the performance of work is limited to a single hole diameter for mounting the cutter.

And the last, if there is one router, its constant installation and removal, changing the router, adjusting the height is very inconvenient.

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Bed production

The bed is understood as the main part, without which no milling table can do. To make it, a variety of materials are suitable. You can use metal profiles, MDF boards, wood, etc.

Perhaps the best option would be to use a metal profile. Existing butt joints are bolted only during assembly. Welding work is excluded. The design will receive high reliability, it will be technologically advanced and easily assembled.

The dimensions of the bed do not have fixed dimensions, they are selected by each craftsman purely individually. The main criterion will be the size of the parts that have to be processed. It is best to make a small sketch to accurately determine the dimensions of the bed.

In order to make it convenient to work, the frame must be deepened into the floor by about 15 cm. The most important parameter of the table is its height. Optimum will be 1 m. To get maximum convenience, it is worth equipping the table for the router with adjustable supports.

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Cover device

The best for this part is a kitchen worktop made of chipboard, having a thickness of 40 mm. This material perfectly dampens vibration, it has a hard, absolutely smooth surface on which the workpiece moves perfectly.

For the production of the lid, modern phenolic plastic of high hardness is also suitable. It has an absolutely flat surface and is not afraid of moisture. Plastic does not cause difficulties in processing, which makes it possible to make grooves where aluminum profiles and stops will be installed. The only drawback is its high cost.

To get the router tables more reliable for long-term operation, you can make an aluminum table top. This material never corrodes and is lightweight. But before manufacturing, aluminum must be clad so that there are no dirty marks on the blanks.

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Plates for installing the router into the table

Router tables have inserts required to fit directly into the table. This method has several advantages.

Due to the fact that the insert has a thickness of no more than 10 mm, it becomes possible to easily reach the milling cutter in order to replace the cutter.

Additional insert inserts can be used to be able to use different cutter diameters. Such an insert plate can become a base plate when milling surfaces on large parts. The insert gives the router increased stability, the use of inserts helps to milling wide grooves of parts.

It is quite difficult to insert the plate. It is required to first drill a bore hole in the table to obtain a snug fit for subsequent insert insertion. In the event that there are large gaps, increased vibration occurs. If the insert does not have a reliable tight attachment to the table, the milling accuracy will not be maintained. Too large a hole drilled in the table top of the milling table to be manufactured will weaken it. Therefore, when calculating the diameter of the hole, care must be taken to create a reinforcement of the countertop. It is essential that the worktop with the insert is flush. Additional gaskets, washers and so on will help to cope with such a problem.