We continue with the multifunction homemade table built by Félix Gómez Martín. Previously, we saw how he made the aluminum guides, and now we will see how the table is made and how the router, circular saw, and jigsaw are attached underneath the tabletop.
“My goal with the table is that, living in an apartment and having little space, it should be detachable and transportable to a garage or any other place where I might need it. I chose 1 cm plywood boards because they are resistant to torsion and also lightweight. Consequently, what I did was glue two 1 cm boards, leaving the bench for the machines at 1 cm, thus not losing too much cutting or routing height.
Additionally, the table is reinforced from below with pine strips. I tested it by lying my weight on it, and it held up (I weigh about 90 kg).”
“After considering many options for the legs (remember it had to be detachable), the best and cheapest option I found was to mount it on some cheap pine sawhorses. In one of the photos, you can see how I fixed the table to the sawhorses. I embedded a T-nut in the blocks at the corners of the table and then drilled the sawhorse at the top. Using pieces of abbebay (sapele) wood that I had saved from a broomstick, I cut them and inserted a long screw to which I had previously cut off the head, so once embedded in the stick, they could be screwed to the table by hand in the four corners, thus securing the table to the sawhorses.”
“Regarding adjusting the height of the machines, as the table is not very high and I have enough space to reach my hand underneath, it is not inconvenient at all to handle the height of the circular saw, which in my case is a 1500W Black and Decker. As for the router I have, the 1400W Ryobi (same as mine), it comes with a rod that makes it quite comfortable to adjust the height with the hand under the table.”
“The guide that runs perpendicular, I opted to make it with an aluminum profile because I wanted maximum precision, and wooden strips eventually warp. Even though it has a bit of play, I decided to put two meters embedded in the table and placed two small C-clamps at each end, attached with rivets to both the ruler and the “u” profile, achieving perfect cuts by tightening both clamps with both meters.”
Underneath the table, where the clamps run, I placed flat aluminum profiles because, although the board is resistant to torsion, it is not as resistant to the impacts or pressures from the clamps, and without the profiles, the table would end up damaged underneath from so much tightening and loosening.”
“Regarding the ruler with the angle protractor, I made this one out of wood so I could also use it with the router (it couldn’t be aluminum). To avoid torsion as much as possible, it is also varnished and has a flat aluminum profile screwed on top. Besides having the angle protractor as a “miter saw,” it also has, as seen in the photo, another board, this one made of beech, screwed with rails and knobs to extend it to either side to perform routing.”
“Attaching the machines is very quick; I just have to fit and, as seen in the photos, secure the metal plates (they were from the motorcycle trunk) into the screws embedded in the table with studs and tighten them with knobs. I don’t modify the machines at all, and mounting and dismounting them is quite quick and they are firmly secured to the table.”
“I don’t want to leave the machines fixed because then it would lose its detachable function, and regarding the adjustment, it is resolved because the circular saw fits perfectly into the bench without any play. It took me a while to achieve that fit by, after making the bench, adding small glued wooden wedges (flat toothpicks) until achieving the perfect fit. Consequently, I can remove and replace the saw in less than a minute, always leaving it completely adjusted.”
“For all the machines, the rules are the same. Regarding the jigsaw, it’s the one that convinces me the least. If you cut with the rulers, obviously the cut with the jigsaw comes out well, but the drawbacks I have seen, and which I believe almost all the comments I have read mention, are that the saw pushes the piece up, and you have to be careful, and the second negative point I have seen is that if I set the revolutions to the maximum, it vibrates a lot. At this point, I must say that it works in a pinch, but a bandsaw would be better.”
“It doesn’t wobble or shift at all since the tabletop is screwed to the sawhorses. The profile runs smoothly. It has a bit of play, but more in the grip between the vertical aluminum ruler and the guide, but since there are two clamps, one at each end, it doesn’t affect the cut because it is completely fixed.”
“The switch I added has two sockets, one that always has power in case I need to plug in a drill or something similar, and the other that goes through the cutoff switch to be able to turn the machines on and off from the table. Also, as it will be stored upright, I put plastic feet on one of the edges, like those usually put on chair legs, to avoid having the wood in contact with the floor. Finally, to keep the machine cable from hanging, I added some open eye bolts to wrap the cable.”
As I always say, this type of switch can be accidentally turned on. Try to get a safety switch.
“The entire table has about 10 coats of water-based polyurethane varnish to make the surface scratch-resistant and also to prevent moisture from penetrating and warping it. Plywood boards soak up varnish like crazy.”
“Initially, I made it 51 cm x 80 cm, but then I realized that if I wanted to cut boards wider than 42 cm, which was the distance from the blade to the stop where the ruler hit, it would be impractical. After looking at all the furniture in the house, the narrowest was 50 cm, so I decided to extend it by 30 cm more (as seen in the first photo, it has an extension), which I added using a biscuit joiner system and reinforcing it with a strip underneath. Now it has a width of 110 cm and can cut boards up to 74 cm wide, which covers practically any normal furniture work.”