Starting a Router Table

In the post titled "New Shelves for the IMC Office" in November, I showed the provisional router setup we have used for the past 5 years.

The "temporary" or "provisional" router table arrangement we have been using for about 5 years now.

This setup has served its purpose, but is cumbersome, very limited, and located at an inconvenient height.  I have wanted to make a proper, better router table for some time.

So, after the kids began their long vacation away from the farm at the end of November, I began building the new table.  I used many of the ideas and instructions from the book Woodworking with the Router by Bill Hylton.

The first step I took was to build a frame for the table top intended to keep the top surface perfectly flat.  For building the frame, I used a hardwood called sapan, which is not found outside South America.

The table top frame glued and clamped on the top of our table saw, the most certainly FLAT surface we have available.

Next, I glued up the sheet materials that we had available for building the table top itself.  Although after reading Bill Hylton's book, I would rather have used MDF as the substrate (because it's more reliably flat), I had previously purchased 3/4" plywood and some 1/8" hardboard, so I used those materials instead.  Then I glued and nailed on some 3/4" thick hardwood edge banding around the table top, and after drying, trimmed the edge banding to be flat with the plywood.

Trimming the hardwood edge banding down to be perfectly flat with the plywood surface, using a trimming jig and the router.

Once both the top and bottom surfaces of the table top were flat, I glued a Formica on the bottom surface and trimmed it to the edge of the table top, before attaching the table top frame to the table top.

Bottom surface of the table top, covered with low quality (ie. much cheaper) laminate, which seals well, but isn't as abrasion resistant as the top quality Formica I used for the top surface.

The finished frame, complete with holes and countersinks drilled to attach the frame to the table top.

Sorry I don't have any action shots here, but this was a one-person effort - and you probably wouldn't be too excited to see my puzzled face, anyway....  I say puzzled, because I spent a lot of time reading the instructions from the book!

The table top is secured to the frame using 1/4" machine bolts - but with no nuts!  Rather the bolts are tightened into threads cut in the plywood/hardboard table top.  This was my first experience drilling and tapping threads into wood, but it worked great.  Of course, I had to use care in selecting the length of the bolts - and the depth of the countersink, so as to not have bolts sticking out of the holes in the table top...

After bolting the frame to the top, then I proceeded to glue on the good quality Formica laminate to the top surface of the table top.  I trimmed the laminate flush using the router with a flush trim bit, then made another pass with a bevel bit, leaving about a 1/4" bevel around the top.

The table top with the frame attached underneath, ready to begin making the opening in the top for mounting the router and insert plate.

The process for making an opening in the table top using templates and template guides is interesting, but rather complex, so I won't try to  explain it here.  I ended up having a special template guide made at a machine shop in Bogotá to make the process work properly.  You also need a plunge router for this process, so the Porter Cable 690 that I bought used through Ebay got a nice workout this day.

Using a template to guide the router in opening a hole into the table top.

 Once the opening for the insert plate was excavated down to the thickness of the insert plate, then I used a jig saw to cut out the blue (Formica covered) material still left inside the routed channel, leaving a shelf to support the insert plate.

The completed table top, with the router and inert plate mounted in the top.

This is a side view of the router table top and frame, with the router mounted.

Now, all that's left to this project is building a cabinet to support the table top, and a fence to guide boards across the table.  Simple, right!

I didn't have time this vacation, but I'm looking forward to the next opportunity to finish the job!

Ministry Fair at Granja Peniel

The IMC ministry held a ministry fair at the farm on November 28, 2011 in order to raise funds to help meet end of year expenses, which is always a challenge, primarily because, in Colombia, employees receive special bonus payments in December.

The Lord greatly blessed the fair this year, both through a large turnout - and by giving us truly lovely weather that day.

The main attraction was a barbeque, featuring meat and all the trappings from a cow that had been raised at the farm

The newly refurbished ping-pong table got a workout, as did the children's park

Andres Castro helping manage the barbeque

Alejandra Guzman selling fresh, organic vegetables from the greenhouse at Granja Peniel

Also for sale were yogurt, cheese, and eggs produced at the farm

Here the products from the workshop were offered for sale, including the house-shaped plaques, Christmas trees, and wooden cars

Unfortunately, the only shop product that sold that day was one of the wooden cars.  The other products were shipped to the UK for sale there.

An auction was held for several items, including the rocking chair that we refurbished in the workshop, which sold for $80,000 pesos (about $44 US).

Products for the ministry fair

Armed with two new drill presses, we got busy in November producing products to sell at the ministry fair on November 28th.  For the fair, we decided to make some nice wooden cars from hardwood, finish up some Christmas trees that we started last year, and mostly focus on producing cute house-shaped plaques.


Below is a shot of the finished Christmas trees and nearly finished cars and plaques.

If you'd like to see more of the process of the kids making these products, continue scrolling down.

Wooden Cars

William Gomez (left) and Kevin Garcia sanding components for wooden cars

Sebastian Arce cutting out wheels for the cars

Kevin Garcia clamping the car body components together

Yordan Muñoz gluing up the car bodies

William Cruz (left) and Anderson Mora assembling car bodies

Anderson Mora sanding a hardwood wheel on the lathe

What a difference the finish makes!  

We applied 3 coats of tung oil to bring out the natural beauty of the oak and sapan hardwoods used  to make the cars

William Cruz applying the finish

House Plaques

The plaques are cut out from a sheet of 3mm thick medium density fiberboard (MDF) using the scrolling saw.  Then the exterior shape is sanded and the tile roof texture and window frames are added using a wood burning pen fitted with various tips.  Somehow I managed not to capture these steps in the photos....

Then Anderson Mora applied stain to the area of the simulated roof tile

Jerson Espinosa blowing off dust before we applied another coat of sanding sealer

House plaques after applying a coat of tinted lacquer

Sebastian Arce drilling pilot holes while Kevin Garcia (left) and Arley Rocha (right) install hooks for keys

Christmas Trees

Johan Fonseca cutting slots in the tree shapes using a dado stack on the table saw

Jerson Espinosa showing the tree shape now mounted on a round base

We then burned an emblem onto the tree shape which we colored before  applying sanding sealer and clear lacquer

Refinishing school desktops

You know how sometimes projects come out of left field, just at the most inopportune moments?

Well, that's how it was with this project.  Nearing the end of the school year, the teachers at our neighborhood school, where the kids from the farm attend up through grade 5, asked if we could refinish the desktops for 30 or so of the desks at the school.  They are accountable for the desks - and were concerned that they were in poor shape.  They offered that the parents would pay for the work.

So, in an effort to help out the school and teachers that educate the boys at the farm, we undertook the job on November 17th.  Before school, the kids removed the desktops and in the afternoon, they spent hours sanding them down.  That same day, we applied a coat of sanding sealer.

The next day, we began applying the lacquer top coats.

Felix Pinson preparing to apply the tinted lacquer.  This was his first time with the spray gun.

The tinted lacquer is unforgiving - because it leaves uneven color if the spray is applied unevenly.  We had some of those problems.

To even out the color, we applied another couple of coats, so the desktops ended up  rather dark.  We would have been happier with two coats evenly applied, but live and learn....

We did get the desktops finished in two days of work, so the interference with our main priority of preparing products for the ministry fair was not much delayed, and the teachers were appreciative for the help.

New shelves for the IMC office

In early September, we were asked to make three, big (60 cm x 93 cm) shelves for the ministry office.  Knowing that I would be away travelling for the first half of October, I responded that we could - but not until the end of October.

A couple of the older boys helped rip up two blocks of fir (called pino cipress here) into 4 cm thick slabs during September so that it could dry by the time I returned from my trip.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this process.

After my return, we planed the slabs down to 3 cm thickness and trimmed them up to make them into finished lumber.  After that, we formed the tongue and groove pattern on the edges using multiple passes with a rabbit bit and then a slot cutter on our provisional router table.

The shop-made tongue and groove pine lumber.

Our provisional router table, which consists of a piece of 1/2" particle board clamped to an set of table legs from an old table saw, supporting a 2.2 Hp Milwaukee router.  It works, but leaves a lot to be desired, so in December I began making a REAL router table - which you can read about in a later post...

We then glued up the shelves and after they dried, the boys began sanding them flat.

The shelves now glued and clamped together.

We then trimmed the shelves to finished size and beveled the upper surface of the front side of each shelf using the hand-held router.  Sorry, no pictures of this step....

Andres Castro using the belt sander while Arley Rocha observes.

Camilo Castro trying his hand with the Dewalt belt sander, which can be a challenge to control, especially on the far side of the shelf.

Arley Rocha taking his turn sanding.

The boys spent a good bit of two afternoons sanding, it was surprising how long it took to sand both sides of the three shelves, going down t through the various grit sizes to 120 grit with the belt sander and then to 320 grit with an orbital sander.

Preparing to hang the shelves for painting

Finally, it was time to begin applying finish.  We applied three coats of sanding sealer and then two coats of tinted lacquer to make a nice, smooth finish.  Of course, we sanded the surfaces again lightly between coats.

William Gomez applying sanding sealer to the shelves.

The shelves before the tinted lacquer was applied.

We completed the shelves on November 3rd, a few days later than promised, but they turned out very nice.

The completed shelves as installed at the IMC office

Nancy Centeno, the IMC Director in Colombia, liked the shelves so much that she has asked us to make three more for her office...

Fixing the Ping-Pong table

Back in September, we began working to refurbish the ping-pong table, which had suffered some abuse and needed some minor repairs.

The main damage to the table was that the flat bar knee braces on the legs were terribly bent up and really weren't strong enough for the job.  So, we bought some small (3/4" x 3/4") angle and made new knee braces.

Anderson Mora cut the angle to length and here is rounding off the corners with a small grinder.

Anderson drilling holes in each end of the new knee braces.

Johan Egson Fonseca painting the new braces.

In addition to making the new braces, we added hardwood reinforcements under the table top where the particle board had cracked.

We didn't actually put everything together until after I returned from England in late October.

Here are a couple shots of the renovated ping pong table before it left the shop: