Milling table for the home workshop. Do-it-yourself elevator for a milling cutter drawings

When using a manual router installed in a stationary table, two questions arise:

1. How to adjust the depth of immersion (departure) of the cutter.
2. How to quickly change replacement tips.

Every time unscrewing the tool from the plate is too troublesome. In addition, a statically fixed router only works at a fixed depth in the workpiece.

This problem is solved by installing a suspension with adjustable height on the router. And as soon as you were able to make a full-fledged milling table, installing an elevator of your own design is not difficult at all. In addition, a self-made device is developed taking into account all the requirements of the master, even those that are not provided for by the factory device.

Why do you need a lift on the milling table, and can you do without it?

This useful device is called the third hand of the master. Those who have tried a milling cutter with a microlift find more and more new applications for it:

• Maintenance of the power tool does not cause difficulties, as well as the operational change of milling cutters.
• You can change the height of the milling cutter in a matter of seconds, and most importantly - safely.
• You can change the immersion depth "in dynamics", simultaneously with the movement of the workpiece on the table. This expands the possibilities of creativity.
• Due to the fact that you stop regularly dismantling the tool for maintenance, the plate and its fasteners are subject to less wear.

Buy or make your own?

There is a wide choice of offers in the power tool market. Industrial microlifts look solid, work without failures, but their cost is like that of a new milling cutter. True, the device is quite well equipped. The kit includes rings for copy sleeves, and a very high quality mounting plate.

Industrial microlift for a router with a set of copying rings

It remains to electrify the device - and you can get it with CNC. There is only one drawback, but it outweighs all the advantages - the price itself. Therefore, for a periodic home use it is an unaffordable luxury. So our kulibins are making, who is into what much. However, they have a lot to learn.

The milling table allows you to significantly increase the efficiency and productivity of work. Many models are available for sale for a wide variety of hand routers. However, the price finished products very overpriced. It is much more profitable and more interesting to assemble a table with your own hands. No expensive materials and difficult-to-handle tools are needed for this.

General information about the design of the milling table

The milling table can be installed on a workbench 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 consider the fact that the installation of the router will be done from the bottom of the countertop and absolutely nothing should interfere with it. None additional elements are not installed there.

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

On top of the tabletop, a sample is created for the plate. The plate is fixed directly with self-tapping screws with a hidden head. The milling cutter is fixed with screws with the same hidden head. Additional fixation of the plate can be performed using clamps.

For convenient inclusion of a milling cutter the button is fixed on a table. Additionally, it is recommended to install an emergency shutdown button of the fungus type. If you have to work with large workpieces, equip the table with upper clamping devices. For even greater convenience and precision, the table is equipped with a ruler.

For self assembly milling table you will need the following tools:

1. Electric jigsaw. If not, you can get by with a hacksaw.
2. Plane. Preferably electric.
3. Chisel.
4. Grinder. In the absence, you can get by with a bar with sandpaper, but processing with their help will require more time and effort.
5. Screwdriver or drill with screwdriver function.
6. Electric drill with a set of drills.

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The initial stage of the assembly of the table

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

1. Aggregate. At their core, they are a side extension of a standard saw table.
2. Portable. Very convenient and ergonomic desktop option.
3. Stationary. Installed separately and assembled specifically for the router.

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

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

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

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Preparing the bed and worktop

The bed is a stationary part of any milling table. At its core, it is a frame on supports with a tabletop 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 frame are also not critical. Choose them according to the size of materials you most often have to process.

The lower part of the bed should be deepened by 10-20 cm in relation to the front overhang of the tabletop. 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.

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

To make a homemade table, you can take an ordinary kitchen worktop from 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 slide well on the countertop, and the chipboard will take on the task of dampening vibration. In extreme cases, you can use chipboard or MDF with a thickness of at least 16 mm.

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What you need to know about the mounting plate?

A mounting plate is necessarily fixed near the place of attachment of the sole of the router. The best is durable and at the same time thin material. Most commonly used sheet metal. A more convenient and no less durable option is textolite (glass fiber). Usually it is a rectangular plate with a thickness of 4-8 mm. In the center of such a plate, it is necessary to prepare a hole. Its diameter should be the same as the diameter of the hole in the sole of the router.

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

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Step by step instructions for assembling the table

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

At seat should have slightly rounded corners. You can round them off with a file. After adding the mounting plate, take a cutter with a thickness slightly greater than the thickness of the tabletop, and make through holes in the tabletop exactly in the shape of the router's sole. 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 selection for the dust collector housing and other accessories that you plan to equip your router table with.

The work is almost completed, you just need to assemble everything into a single product. Start the router from below and screw it to the plate. Fix the plate to the tabletop with self-tapping screws. Self-tapping screws need to be drowned, otherwise they will interfere with the work process. 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. Such an addition will be especially useful when processing large-sized workpieces, such as door linings. 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 can be used as a roller right size. The bearing is installed in the holding fixture. The device itself must be rigidly fixed at the required distance from the surface of your countertop. So you will ensure a constant tight pressing of the workpiece to the surface of the countertop at the moment the product passes under the roller. This will improve the accuracy and safety of the work performed.

The elevator for the router, which can be purchased in a serial version or made by yourself, is a device that allows you to improve both the quality and accuracy of the processing performed by hand-held power tools. The results of the latter strongly depend on how accurately and confidently the user manipulates such a device. In order to minimize the influence of the human factor on the results of processing performed by a manual router, special devices have been developed.

Homemade elevator for a manual router, made of plywood and timber

One of them is mechanized lifting device for a milling power tool, which, in full accordance with its functionality, is called an elevator. As mentioned above, such a device can be purchased in series, but it will not be cheap, so many home craftsmen successfully make it with their own hands.

Why is such a device necessary?

Elevator for the router, with the help of which the exact movement of the fixed on it hand power tools in a vertical plane, necessary in many situations. Such situations, in which the quality and accuracy of processing wood products are of great importance, include the decorative finish of furniture panels, the execution of technological grooves and lugs on the elements of furniture structures. The quality of processing in such cases will not depend on the experience of the master performing it and the hardness of his hands, but only on the accuracy of the settings of the device and the degree of its stability.

Even a person with good physical fitness, when working with a manual router, the weight of which can be 5 kg or even more, gets tired hands. This directly affects the accuracy and quality of work. In addition, such processing accuracy, which is capable of providing a hand mill mounted on an elevator, cannot be obtained when manipulating a power tool manually.

To the necessity of inventing such useful device, what is the elevator for the milling cutter, led to the fact that the variety of types of decorative finishes for wood products has expanded significantly, technological methods of processing have become more complicated this material, as well as increased requirements for the accuracy of its implementation. All of the above factors require that manual milling electrical equipment combines the high mobility of its working body, as well as the accuracy of its movements. It is precisely these requirements that the elevator for the router fully meets, with the help of which the used power tool quickly rises and falls to the required height above the desktop, and is also held at a given level for the required amount of time.

The convenience of using a milling lift also lies in the fact that each time you do not need to install a power tool on such a device. This contributes to both simplifying the production process and increasing its productivity.

On what principle does the elevator for the milling cutter work?

To raise or lower the router using the router lift, you can use a crank, lever, or any other suitable lifting mechanism. Such functionality, which the elevator for the router has, is provided by:

• fast and accurate dimensioning of grooves and other relief elements cut into the surface wooden blank;
• the ability to quickly change the tool in the milling chuck.

If we summarize the design options for the most used models of milling elevators, then the principle of operation of such a device can be described as follows:

1. A base plate for a router is mounted on a desktop or workbench, which is made of a sheet of metal or textolite.
2. Two racks are fixed on the base plate, arranged in parallel.
3. The hand mill itself is installed on a special carriage, which has the ability to move freely up and down along the racks installed on the base plate.
4. The carriage with the milling power tool installed on it and the entire elevator move to the required distance due to the fact that they are affected by a special pushing device.

Consider the basic requirements that should be followed when planning to upgrade the router with your own hands using an elevator.

• The frame for placing the router and all other structural elements of such a device must have high rigidity. Compliance with this requirement will not only improve the accuracy of processing, but also make the user's work safer.
• The lifting system with which such a device is equipped must be designed in such a way that it can ensure not only the quick removal and installation of the used router, but also the prompt replacement of the milling heads on it.
• The working stroke of the milling lift should not be made too large, it is enough if the working head of the power tool moves within 50 mm. This is quite enough for the high-quality performance of most technological operations.
• When developing drawings, it should be provided that the working head of the power tool used can be rigidly fixed in a given spatial position.

What is required for the manufacture of a milling elevator

In order to make your own milling lift, you must prepare the following set Supplies, tools and technical devices:

1. directly the manual milling cutter itself, from which it is necessary to dismantle the handles;
2. electric drill;
3. standard car jack (if lifting mechanism fixtures will be of a jacking type);
4. sheet of metal or textolite;
5. wooden blocks square section;
6. aluminum profile;
7. sheets of plywood and chipboard;
8. guides made of metal;
9. threaded stud;
10. screwdriwer set various types and size spanners and pliers;
11. drills of various diameters;
12. bolts, screws, nuts and washers various sizes;
13. epoxy adhesive;
14. square, ruler, measuring tape.

Possible options for the design of the device

To date, home craftsmen have developed many designs of milling elevators, but the most popular and, accordingly, noteworthy are two options for manufacturing such a device:

• an elevator for a manual milling cutter, driven by a car jack;
• a device whose structural elements are a support disk, a threaded stud and a flywheel disk.

Option one. Jack lift

The principle of operation of the jack milling lift is based on the fact that the working head of the hand mill, fixed on the base plate, is raised and lowered by controlling the jack built into the structure.

Do-it-yourself jack milling cutter is made as follows:

• A box made of 15 mm plywood or chipboard is attached to the bottom of the desktop, which will simultaneously act as a support device and a protective casing for the entire fixture.
• In the inner part of such a box, the dimensions of which should be preliminarily calculated, both a jack and a hand mill connected to its moving part are placed. The jack, when placed in the box, is screwed with its sole to the underside of the casing-support, and the hand mill through a special metal sole is connected to its top with the inner surface of the table top of the workbench. At the same time, a through hole is made in the tabletop, through which the working head of the router with the tool fixed in it must pass freely.
• As a base plate for installing a router, which, under the influence of a force from a jack, moves in a vertical direction along two fixed racks, a sheet of textolite or metal of the appropriate size is used.

Option two. Elevator with threaded rod

The scheme for manufacturing a fixture using a support disk, a threaded stud and a flywheel is as follows:

• A circle is cut out of a board with a thickness of 18–20 mm, which will act as a support platform for a manual milling cutter.
• A hole with a diameter of 10 mm is drilled in the central part of the platter, into which a threaded stud of the same diameter is inserted. The length of the stud, which is connected to the support platform with two nuts and washers, must be selected in such a way as to provide the router with a working stroke of at least 50 mm.
• The lower part of the stud, passed through the plywood bottom, fixed between the legs of the desktop, is connected to the disk flywheel. Note that a flange nut must be inserted into the hole in the bottom through which the lower part of the stud will pass. It will ensure the operability of the lifting mechanism.

Using milling lifts in conjunction with mechanisms that will additionally provide lateral movement of the power tool, you can make an even more functional device that will turn your manual equipment into a full-fledged 3D milling machine.

Option three. Elevator with chain drive

This milling lift will take much longer to make, but the result is a well-functioning system for raising and lowering the tool.

Having received garden plot, I started carpentry. After 10-15 years, I have accumulated a collection of power tools in my workshop, numbering 27 items. A special place in it is occupied by a manual milling machine, which allows an amateur carpenter to make professional objects from wood. good quality. With its help, it is possible to quickly and accurately profile edges and make connections. However, soon to work with a milling machine as hand tool I became uncomfortable.

I first felt the need to have a milling machine when I was making a wooden grate for a bath: I had to make 40 oval planks. I had to build a simple milling table. I installed a chipboard sheet with a hole in the middle on a metal frame, attached an old one to a 10 mm plywood sheet. milling machine and fixed it on the chipboard - the milling table is ready. It was convenient to work with him, but soon I wanted better.

Having studied a dozen and a half homemade sites, I realized that it is possible to make a very good milling machine, moreover, in budget option. Started with project development.

The main dimensions of the machine were determined by two products I have: a metal frame picked up at a landfill and a 2050 W SPARKY X 205CE hand mill.

Do-it-yourself milling table for a router: drawings

The classic milling machine, based on a hand router, consists of six main elements: a bed 1, a table top 2, a mounting plate 3, a hand router 4, a lift 5 that allows you to adjust the reach of the cutter, and longitudinal stop 6.

Milling table top

A mounting plate is used to mount the router on a tabletop. Attaching the router to the insert plate has two advantages over attaching it directly to the underside of the table top. Firstly, the plate saves 6-10 mm of cutting depth compared to mounting the router to a cover with a thickness of 20 mm or more. Secondly, the plate makes it easy to remove the router for changing tools.

For making mounting plate (Fig. 2) I used a 10 mm lavsan textolite sheet. The location of the mounting holes from the sole of the router was transferred to paper, and from paper to the plate. I made a hole d61 mm in the center of the plate and milled a fold in it for installing interchangeable liners for a specific cutter.

Cut the table top to size. Marked according to the drawing required holes, grooves and opening under mounting plate. Cut out the opening with a jigsaw.

Prepared guide bars for the copy cutter. The height of the bars should be such that the copy cutter with the upper bearing is in constant contact with them when processing the rebate.

I installed the mounting plate on the tabletop, secured two long bars with clamps and attached two short ones to them using a stapler (photo 7). To ensure a guaranteed gap between the fold and the mounting plate, I used thin spacers 0.2 mm thick on each side.

For reliability, I attached the short guide bars to the long ones using small squares.

Removed the plate and gaskets. I installed a copy cutter with an upper bearing in the collet of the router. Leaning the sole of the router on the guide bars, set the milling depth of 2 mm in the table top. I made several shallow cuts, increasing the overhang of the cutter until it reached a depth of 0.5 mm more than the thickness of the mounting plate.

He took off the copy bars. I cleaned the edges of the fold and opening with the help of a skin.

Using the mounting plate as a template, I drilled mounting holes in the corners. On the reverse side of the tabletop, I installed mortise furniture nuts into the mounting holes.

I milled three grooves for aluminum guides using a 19 mm cutter, which I fixed in the grooves with self-tapping screws. table top milling machine ready.

Elevator for milling table

The next milling machine assembly that deserves special attention, - mechanism for feeding the cutter into the cutting zone, or an elevator. The cost of a professional elevator sold in stores reaches 50-60 thousand rubles. This is a high-precision and convenient mechanism, but for the purposes of amateur carpenters, it is, of course, redundant.

When developing my own elevator design, I set myself the goal of using maximum amount purchased parts. The easiest way to solve the problem of the translational movement of the milling spindle is with the help of a pair of screw / nut: when the nut is fixed from axial movements, the screw performs translational movement.

The design of the elevator is shown in figure 4. As a moving element, I used a M16 bolt 200 mm long. For support, I used a long M16 nut, which I welded to a steel plate. The bolt is driven by a handwheel attached to it through a welded support washer.

Any master will tell you that the quality of the final product depends not only on the fidelity of the hand, but also on the accuracy of the tool.

The elevator is designed for lifting and lowering the working cutter.

The hand router is particularly vulnerable in this regard. To ensure a clearly oriented fixation of the work item in relation to the workpiece being processed, different variants stationary devices with movable blades. But factory milling tables are not cheap. Therefore, many private craftsmen prefer to make an elevator for the router with their own hands.

Why does a router need a lift?

A device for raising and lowering the working cutting head (milling cutter) on a woodworking machine is not some nice optional gadget, but an absolutely necessary element. Moreover, on the milling table, it is the main element. The accuracy of its settings and the degree of stability depend, for example, on the production of such popular today decorative finishes furniture panels or various technological grooves and eyes on wooden products.

When using a manual milling cutter without an appropriate stationary device, the worker's hands quickly get tired. And this is quite understandable, since the weight of not the heaviest of these devices reaches 5 kg. But another problem associated with the operation of this unit manually is even more serious. No matter how firm the hand of the performer is, it cannot be compared with the precision of a milling cutter mounted on a special table.

The presence of a wide range of manufactured items, types of decorative finishes and technological treatments for wood products has led to the need to ensure the mobility of the cutting element. So, the idea of ​​​​a special elevator was added to the milling cutter turned upside down, which is able to quickly raise or lower the milling head, as well as hold it above the table surface at a given level.

Moreover, thanks to the specified device, there is no need to remove and then reinstall the hand mill on the table each time. There is probably no need to say how much this speeds up and simplifies the production process.

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Elevator for a router: principle of operation and technical requirements

The elevator for the milling cutter is convenient in operation because the movement of the working cutting part is carried out without direct contact with the power tool by a person. To set the device in motion, either a crank, or a lever, or another method is used. This technology allows not only to smoothly and accurately set the dimensions of cut grooves and other relief recesses on wood blanks, but also quickly and without problems to change the cutters.

Figure 1. From below, a support base is attached to the tabletop of the milling table, which is a box made of plywood or chipboard.

Schematically, without detailing the design of an elevator, the principle of its operation is as follows. On the lower plane of the tabletop, a metal or textolite support plate of appropriate size is mounted, to which two parallel racks are attached. A mobile carriage moves freely up and down along them. A manual milling cutter is attached to the carriage. Translational motion to the carriage and to the entire elevator is transmitted from the pushing device.

When taking up the manufacture of this device, the requirements for milling elevators should be taken into account.

First of all, the entire design of such a device must be sufficiently rigid, which is extremely necessary not only for the accuracy of processing materials, the absence of errors in calculations, but also for the safety of the operator.

The lifting system should be designed in such a way that it guarantees the quick removal and installation of the milling power tool and the replacement of milling heads. It is also worth designing a mechanism with a relatively small lift stroke (usually, moving the router within 50 mm is enough to perform most milling operations). Finally, in the manufacture of the fixture, it must be ensured that the milling cutter is rigidly fixed in a predetermined position during operation.

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Materials and tools for the production of a lift

• manual milling cutter (without handles);
• electric drill;
• standard car jack (for an elevator structure based on a jack);
• square wooden bars;
• metal plate (textolite);
• plywood sheets and chipboard;
• aluminum profile;
• a set of metal guides;
• threaded stud;
• a set of flat and Phillips screwdrivers;
• wrenches;
• pliers;
• drill;
• epoxy adhesive;
• nuts, bolts, washers;
• measuring tape (ruler, square).

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Do-it-yourself router lift: product examples

Home craftsmen regularly engaged in milling wooden surfaces, have developed a lot of milling elevators of different sizes, weights and features of functioning. However, it is almost impossible to describe them all, so we will focus on two examples based on the most commonly used principles of operation.

The first option is a milling lift using a car jack. Its action is based on the fact that the miller raises or lowers the tip of the milling cutter with the cutting head by tightening the collar (pumping with the lever) on the jack.

Schematically, the process of manufacturing a lift for a manual router with your own hands (Fig. 1) is as follows. From below, an additional support base is attached to the tabletop of the milling table, which is a kind of box, in the manufacture of which fragments of 15 mm plywood or chipboard are used.

Figure 2. Router elevator device

Two long fragments, parallel to each other, are fastened with their ends to the lower surface of the tabletop by means of metal corners and screws. From below, a horizontal base is rigidly attached between them, to which the supporting heel of the jack will subsequently be screwed. The dimensions of the specified box are determined in such a way that, as a result, a manual milling cutter and a car jack, selected in advance, fit in height inside it.

Then the hand mill with its working (front) side through a special metal sole with the help of bolts is attached to the inner surface of the tabletop. This fastening is done in such a way that the router can move freely up and down.

With its lower (rear) part, the router rests on a metal (or textolite) carriage base plate, which moves up and down along two side metal racks. Racks-guides are installed in place of the previously removed handles of the router. For more reliable stability of the unit during operation, it is recommended to install thrust springs on the racks.

The second version of the milling lift is based on the use of a support disk, an axial threaded stud and a flywheel disk (Fig. 2).

To create this design, you first need to cut out a wooden circle, which later will rest against the manual milling cutter from below. A workpiece with a thickness of 18-20 mm will be used for its manufacture. in the center of the disk with furniture drill Forstner with a diameter of 20 mm, countersinking (partial drilling) is performed with a depth of 12 mm. After that, a through central hole is drilled, the diameter of which is 10 mm.

When the preparation of the platter is completed, a threaded stud of the same diameter as the hole is inserted into its central hole and secured with a pair of nuts and washers. It is worth noting that the stud should have a length that will provide the router with a free play of at least 50 mm.

After that, a flywheel disk is attached to the stud using a flange and an ordinary nut with a washer. Moreover, it should be located just above the middle of the axial stud.

From below, the hairpin will rest on a plywood bottom, which should be mounted between the legs of the table at a height of 75-80 mm from the floor. A flange nut built into the plywood will serve as a retainer for the lower end of the stud. With respect to this nut, subsequently, when the flywheel is rotated in one direction or another, the stud will move up or down, moving the hand mill.

Using the above, as well as other options for the elevator, you can start almost serial production of wood products, decorated with various relief cutouts.