- Hey, I'm Matt. Today I wanna show you how
to build this router table that's mobile, has tons of storage, and is just flat out awesome. Let me show you how I did it. First thing you wanna
do is cut out the top that you're gonna be using, because you're gonna glue
two pieces of MDF together. You want this glue to have time to dry. I use a ton of this glue and I'm using Titebond III for this. I decided to put down some
paper to protect the work bench, because I figured it would
drip off the sides like that. (upbeat music) I coated the entire surface, then laid the other piece up there. And then I'll weighted
it down with my weights or whatever you got. Just put a lot of weight on there, so that it compresses everything together. You see I got a lot of
glue squeeze-out here and it's exactly what I wanted. I'm gonna let that dry for several hours. The build plans for this project, including all the cut lists, easy to follow step-by-step instructions linked in the description below. Next thing we do is take my circular saw with this awesome little fence square that Tate Tools sells. I'll drop a link in the description. You're able to use your (mumbling) square just to cut a straight line. And that's what I did
breaking down this plywood into smaller pieces so I
could get it on the table saw. Once I got the plywood
into manageable sizes, I cut all the pieces I was
gonna need for the cabinet. Then I realized that I
was out of space here. I couldn't fit between the
plywood and the garage door. So I moved the saw around
to give me some more space and that's why I love that
mobile based on that saw. I was able to finish the cuts
on that side of the table. Then I broke out my
Massca M2 pocket hole jig. It's pocket hole time. Make sure to set that
bit for 3/4 inch stock. Set the Massca M2 jig at 3/4 of an inch and drill pocket holes. Pocket hole joinery is extremely strong, especially for cabinet work
like this it'll work perfect and it'll last a very long time. Then I sanded it to 120 grit just to knock the rough
edges off everything. Now it's time to start
assembling the frame. Just put a little glue on each edge where it's gonna be assembled. It will stay right there, right? It'll be fine, it'll be fine. Oh. I used these clamps to help
hold everything in place while I was able to
drive the pocket screws and I'm using an inch and
1/4 pocket hole screws here. This is the bottom that
you're seeing here. I'm just using the mallet
to flush everything up, make sure everything is nice and flush. Tighten those clamps down, then you can drive the screws without anything moving on you. Once that done, I started
working on the top. These are just braces that's gonna go on each edge of the top. That way it leaves the center
open for your router to live. Next, I inserted the center shelf. And I used my uprights that
will be used later as spacers. Same thing here, just
a little bit of glue, slide it into place, use pocket
hole screws to attach it. Going up. Then I unboxed this Bosch router, so I could make sure everything
was gonna fit correctly. I'll drop a link to this router and all the tools and
supplies used in this build in the description below. Next thing I did was cut the
back out of 1/4 inch plywood. I cut it to fit. Then I just used glue on everywhere it was gonna be touching the back. Set it in place. And then I use 18 gauge brad
nails to nail it in place. This gives a cabinet a lot of strength. And then I decided to put a
center divider in on the bottom, because I didn't want two
large drawers on the bottom, I wanted four equal sides,
so that's what I did. Next, started cutting
out the drawer pieces. And you just cut a lot of plywood here, because you're gonna need
a lot of drawer pieces. Everybody always asks how
I keep my shop so clean. Well, it's regularly cleaning it. I'm always vacuuming up the dust as I go. Then I cut the drawer pieces to length. I have a detailed video
on how to build drawers linked in the description below. But here I'm gonna be setting my cut depth at 1/4 of an inch, and then also 1/4 inch
away from the saw blade. Then I'll make these dados in there, move the fence over, make another dado until
that 1/4 inch plywood fits in the bottom. Now I'm just using 1/4 inch plywood for the bottom of the drawers, then I sand everything to 120 grit. These are the slide-out trays. I'm just using glue and
brad nails to attach them. The glue will be plenty
strong for these trays. And for each end of the tray I use these little pieces
with 30 degree dog ears on. And I had one that didn't go all the way, so I had to hammer it in. Now it's time to assemble all the drawers. So I've got about six
hours in this build so far. This is how far I was able to get. I got four drawers built
and I got the carcass built. And then I just used the planer to mill these down to the same thickness. Now set my table saw fence
the exact distance away from the blade as a piece of the plywood. That way when I cut this piece it'll be the exact
thickness of the plywood. We can put that on the plywood edge. Now, I just used glue and pin nails here. So having a pin nailer like this is perfect for this situation, because you can barely
see those pin nails. And if I don't show them to
you, you'd never see them. That just holds everything in
place while the glue dries. I used face clamps to
hold everything flush while I pin nailed it into place. And I just sanded everything to 120 grit. After sanding, I got this
little handy dandy dude here. It accepts any hook and
loop five inch disc. It fits perfectly on there. And then I just hand-sanded
everything 220 grit. I'm gonna approach it a
little different this time. On the workbench I used
some Kreg drawer slide jigs. They work perfectly fine, I like them. But I see a lot of people
doing this spacer method and I'm going with that,
I think it will be faster. This video is brought to
you by 731woodworks.com. Go check out our online store where we have full build
plans for this project that includes the cut
list and easy to follow step-by-step instructions
on how to build it. Also available are the digital
files for these insert trays if you have a CNC. And if you don't have a CNC, I'll have these physical trays
available for you to purchase that'll fit inside this router table. On the top two slide-out trays I put the door slides on the same side. That way I would just have a tray with an open face towards me, like that. Timber. That's heavy. Heavy, heavy, heavy. Next time I installed the casters. I just cut a block of plywood and then glue and brad nailed it in place. Then I screwed the
casters into that block. I put the two locking
casters on the front. Then I used this old trick
with the painter's tape to keep the plywood base from splintering, but this is gonna be the drawer faces. Then I just cut the drawer
faces to size with the miter saw and then ripped them to
the width on the table saw. Now it's time to work on the top. So I unstacked all these weights and then I started
cutting it down to size. I want my tabletop to be 24 by 36 inches after the edge banding's on. And disaster strikes in 3, 2, 1. Oh no. Cut it too narrow. Dang it, who's gonna see that? Everybody. Dang it, shoot. Adapt and overcome, people. Next I secured the top on
with screws from underneath. And then I worked on the
edge banding around the top. Now, again, I'm just using walnut. This is 3/4 inch stock and I just attached with
glue and brad nails. So in my haste to put this thing together I actually cut this too narrow and I don't wanna have to glue it back up on another piece. So what I did was just ripped this to the same thickness as that and then we're gonna put, I was gonna put this on the back anyway, but it's just not gonna
have as much overhang. The plans will not have this, so you ain't gotta worry about that. I'm a big dummy and messed
it up, so there we have it. Then I gave everything a light sand. Now for the power switch. I got this on Amazon, I'll
link it in the description. I went ahead and mounted
a block of walnut, so I could have a place to screw this too. I'll deal with the wires later. So the most challenging part and what I was most apprehensive about was actually mounting this plate. And I just centered it up, drew around it. I took a forstner bit and
made some starter holes. And then I used the jigsaw
to cut it out the inside. Be careful that you leave enough space. You're gonna route a
recess on the outer edges, so that the router plate
has somewhere to sit. I'm just making sure that it fits. I measure over an inch and 3/4, because that's the distance from my bit until the edge of my router. Use double stick tape and
kind of made me a template. Then I used the router lift itself to set the depth of the bit. Then slow goes it. I used a block of wood to
keep me from going too far, so that I didn't get
too close to that edge, because I wanted to make sure and get that radius just right. I just took my time here. This actually took quite a bit of time and I just kept routing
and routing and routing until I got most of the material gone. And I found a forstner bit
that was the exact radius of my router lift. And so the piece that was
left, I took the forstner bit and drilled down until
I got to the same depth as of what the router had routed out. Then I took a chisel and
straighten everything up, as well as sandpaper. This took quite a while, because I just kind of worked
my way 'til it actually fit. Next thing to do was route
the grooves for the T-track. I used my Kreg set up box here and set the depth at 3/8 of an inch. And then also use some
sacrificial blocks on each side, so that it doesn't tear out your wood. Because if you don't, you'll get tear-out. That's what that block is
there for, just like that. Once that was done, I made
sure everything was gonna fit and then I cleaned up
all the routing dust. Use a 1/8 inch roundover bit just to kind of knock the edge
off of everything on the top. Then I used shellac on the top. This is supposed to seal this MDF and it actually worked extremely well. I put three coats of shellac and I sanded 120 grit between each coat. This dries really fast, less than an hour and
then each coat is dry. I actually put shellac on everything, although I would live to regret this. So full disclosure, I put on
that amber colored shellac. And while it worked
phenomenal up here on the top, it sealed it, it's slick as owl snot. You hear me, it's just. The color come out amber and I hate it. I hate the way this looks. It looks like it belongs
in 1980 something. So I'm gonna sand this
back off as much as I can without trying to get into the veneer and try to take away some of that ugly. After the final coat was dry and sanded, I used a coat of Odie's Oil
to really slick this thing up. Then I buffed it off with a clean rag. Cut the T-track with your miter saw. It's aluminum, it'll cut. I don't like it, but you can do it. Then I just took a sander and kind of rounded over the edges, so that I didn't cut myself on the ends. I used a little CA glue and screws to attach it to the table. Then I mounted my drawer pulls and inserted all the drawers
and mounted the door. Then I mounted the router into the lift, put it in place, and used
a little Outlaw English to make sure it's set just right. Then I routed those cables
with some cable ties, drill a hole in the back for
the power to come through. I got help. Help is here. Power on. I got this fence from tatetools.com. I think it runs about $100. I'll drop a link in the description. This is actually a really
good fence for the money. You can actually have an
offset fence on each side. It's got a bit guard, dust
collection, the whole nine. Next it was time to organize the routers and everything into the router table. So I just use a forstner
bit and drilled the hole, then stuck a rare earth
magnet in there with CA glue. So now my adjustment wrench
has a place to be vertical out of the way and it's
quick and easy access. I've been very apprehensive
about starting this project, because I was nervous and fear was stopping me from starting. And that's a big problem
with a lot of people, myself included. But once I started, I just
figured it out as I went and it come out fantastic. And I'm extremely proud and happy to have this in the shop now. So a couple of things that I would change if I had to do this again. Number one would be the shellac. While it sealed the MDF great. And this thing is, it's slick as owl snot. It is smooth, it doesn't catch. That's what I was worried
about with the MDF, that it would be kind of rough,
stuff wouldn't slide on it. I'm telling you it is slick. Now I did sand it to 800 grit sandpaper, so I could get it really smooth. I would try to probably
figure out a better way to cut this insert out, so that it fits extremely perfect. It's really close, really close, but it's not perfect fit. Without a proper template it would be hard for me to get it perfect, so I'm happy with it. It'll fill up with
sawdust and be just fine. I'm gonna add a four inch
dust portal in the back when my dust collection gets here. Until then I'm just gonna
cut a two inch hole, so that there, or 2 1/4, so
the shop vac can fit in there. And a quick reminder, we've got build plans
available for this project if you're interested, as well as several other
projects on the online store, 731woodworks.com/store. And those organization trays, which makes this a fantastic router table, will be available for you
either as a digital file or a physical product
if you want to buy them and put them in your router
table if you build this one. A huge shout out and thank
you to Mr. Mark Puente, who owns Work in the Grain Hardwoods where I buy all my hardwood from. He donated the Kreg precision router lift, as well as the Bosch router
to go inside this cabinet for me to build this router
table for the channel. So thank you, Mark. I sanded everything but the back, it's still got that 1980s
yellow to match the top. If you liked this video, click that box right there to check out this
ultimate workbench build. It has a YouTube silver play
button embedded in epoxy. I think you'll like it. It has a lot of storage, T-tracks, it's just an awesome
workbench I use all the time. If you have to click that box you get that big old virtual fist pump. Also another one of my
favorite videos right there.
