I used to say (not sure I do any more) that every programmer has to go through certain rites of passage, such as helloworld.c, a sprite engine, an overly complex abstract datatype system, and a few others.
Well, in a similar vein, I imagine that all wannabe woodsmiths build certain things. My latest project was to build a router table. I've used other peoples routers and always felt that for the things I wanted them for (mainly straight lines) they were a bit hard to control. So I've built myself a router table:
The table itself is a simple affair made from the cruftiest wood available - It was warped in every way imaginable, and I had picked through the bits (the guy at the shop asked if I wanted them for firewood...). I put a simple dovetail join in the corners, and invented an interesting new leg join idea.
You can see that the wood is so warped that I've had to put little spacers (up to 12mm!) to make the table top flat).
The top surface is made from a piece of MDF (yuck) with a piece of hardboard glued on top. The holes form a nice sort of inlay thingo to allow the router to be precisely positioned.
You can see in this picture how the router is attached to the underside of the removable board.
I decided to test the table using the fence clamped against the table. I used a small 15mmx15mm offcut as my sacraficial element. I called Lynne in to watch. I pushed the the piece in - nice shavings flying off, then suddenly! groink-pfwizz-clang. The router had bitten into the wood and accellerated it towards the garage door at an estimated 36km/hr. A few more trials, and much laughing later, I realised that I was using the router bit the wrong way:
The correct way is to have the blade inside the fence (with the added advantage of protecting you from the blade a bit more). That way the workpiece is pushed against the fence, and back towards the user - which is much easier to control.
To come: building the fence.