Best Router Tables of 2022

1. What are the benefits of a router table?

Chances are, if you’re in the market for a router table, you already own a wood router. Those are used to make cuts or designs in wood, including everything from joints and rabbeting to decorative patterns.

Router tables take things a step further for the serious woodworker by allowing for greater versatility, precision, stability, and safety. They’re not just surfaces: you actually mount the router to the table. The aforementioned qualities are key to a good router table:

Hands-free control

With handheld operation, you only have one hand free to turn and feed the wood. When you mount your router to the table, you no longer move the router by hand. Instead, you have both hands free to manipulate the wood itself, allowing for far greater control and more project options.

Precision

Speaking of control, having both hands free makes precision-oriented wood router tasks much easier: namely, edging, cutting designs, doing groove and trim work, and other intricate tasks.

Stability

Of course, you could argue that any surface can be cut upon, and you wouldn’t be wrong. But a well-crafted router table allows for a level of stability that can’t be obtained using an everyday table.

Other surfaces allow for irregularity, movement, and uneven surfaces; these risk errors, imperfections, or outright danger in your work.

Safety

Working on a large piece of wood for simple cuts without a router table is fine. However, some wood routing tasks can’t be completed safely without a high-quality surface to cut on.

If you’re working on small or narrow pieces, making slots, making joinery cuts, or creating panels in a door, however, there’s a lot of room for slippage that could both ruin your project, destroy your machine, or harm the operator (you) if you’re not careful. A routing table reduces or completely eliminates these risks and allows you to work with peace of mind.

2. When to use a router table

In a nutshell, router tables can be used for anything a free-standing router can, but with more safety and accuracy. They’re especially useful for projects involving:

• Stopped cuts
• Creation of molding or intricate design work
• Slots and grooves
• Joinery work
• Small, thin, or narrow wood
• Edging
• Box joints

3. What to look for in a routing table’s surface

The foundation of a router table isn’t actually the foundation. It’s the top of the table. You need two main elements for a tabletop conducive to precise woodworking: a perfectly flat top and a perfectly firm top.

Flat-top router tables

If you’re doing anything other than cutting a straight line, the slightest irregularities in the top of your router table can lead to irregularities in your wood. Unnecessary grooves, imperfections in the material, bumps, and similar flaws in the tabletop can easily affect the quality of your cuts.

Imagine you’re drawing on your kitchen table. Your pencil encounters a crumb under the paper and jolts to the side, creating a tiny “bump” in the line you drew. That’s what happens when the bit of your router encounters an imperfection in the table.

Choose a firm-top router table

A firm tabletop is similarly important. You must apply pressure to feed wood into your wood router. If the material upon which you’re pressing gives under pressure, if will affect your cut—because both the wood and the router will move as the table does.

Imagine you’re drawing on a soft-cover book. The book is thick, but it bends slightly as you press down with your pencil. Is it possible to get a perfectly accurate line? No. The same is true of the firmness of your router table.

Firmness—as well as flatness, stability, and a range of other crucial features—are also affected by what the routing table is made of, we have listed the best materials in the next section.

4. Best tabletop materials

Router tables can be made from a range of different materials. The material you need, in part, will depend on the types of projects you’re doing and how much you’re willing to spend. Three main materials have moved to the forefront of router table construction:

1. Cast iron router tables

Iron router tables, just like many cabinet table saws are typically made of cast iron, an alloy of iron and carbon. It’s a top of the line material in many operations because of its firmness, stability, and superior flatness.

As a bonus, it’s also the best router table material for absorbing vibrations from your router, which reduces the possibility of those vibrations affecting your cuts.

Note that, while less high-end, other metals (like aluminum) are also solid, reliable choices.

2. MDF router tables

MDF (medium-density fiberboard) is the most cost-effective option for your router table material. That doesn’t mean it’s poor-quality; however, on its own, cutting wood on wood would leave too much room for bending and instability.

That’s why MDF tables must be finished with something—typically a laminate or melamine. Budget options typically use melamine, which provides basic protection and a functionally smooth surface.

Higher-end MDF tables will use a high-pressure laminate, or HPL, which is stronger and more resistant to damage than melamine-coated tables. HPL is a resin-based coating coated in melamine, so it provides an extra layer of protection and durability.

3. Resin router tables

If your budget is somewhere in the middle of MDF and cast-iron, resin router tables are an excellent choice. They are extremely rigid, offer more stability than MDF, and are highly resistant to impact, damage, and moisture.

5. A stable router table base is crucial

The slightest movement or unexpected jerk can ruin an entire woodworking project. Fluidity and control are key to getting a good cut. But, no matter how experienced a woodworker you are, it’s impossible to achieve this if your base moves. A stable routing table has a few basic qualities.

The base is attached securely to the tabletop:

Make sure there’s no give between the two when wiggled or pressed. They should feel inseparable, as movement between the two can cause vibrations and ruin your project.

The base itself should be immovable:

Even if it’s portable, it can’t move when you’re working. So, it either needs to be heavy and sturdy enough not to move with the pressure of you and your machine, or it needs to have a mechanism that allows you to fasten it down. If it moves unexpectedly, the sharp bit of your router could ruin your project, your router, or even your fingers!

6. Which router fence system to choose

The “fence” isn’t just the border to the main attraction in this case. The fence acts as a guide or a support for cutting straight. You’ll keep your wood pressed against the fence as you push it into the bit to avoid shaky lines that might otherwise result from movement.

Like router tables, the fence itself comes in a range of types and on a spectrum of quality. Some fences are immovable chunks of material that are just straight and firm enough to get the job done; others incorporate high-quality materials and state-of-the-art measuring systems for the serious, precise woodworker.

Regardless of quality and versatility, there are two main types of router fences:

• Split router table fences, or two-piece fences, (predictably) come in two sections on either side of your router bit. That means that you can position them either offset or in-line with each other. You can also move them closer together or further apart around the bit.

  However, while more sophisticated than one-piece fences, split router table fences come with one challenge: the two pieces must be in near-perfect alignment, or they’ll cause you to create an uneven cut because you’re pressing against an uneven surface.

• One-piece router fences don’t have this problem. However, they can be less sophisticated: because they’re not adjustable, the clearance hole in the fence has to be large enough to accommodate your largest bit.

  They can also be limiting in the kinds of projects they enable: for example, only split router table fences allow for joining two edges together, and one-piece fences don’t support zero-clearance work.

If you don’t want to deal with the alignment issue but do want to joint edges and complete zero-clearance work, some routing tables include (or can have added to them) fence faces that act as shims to offset two sections of a one-piece fence without requiring extensive alignment work.

7. What makes a high-quality base plate?

To use a routing table, you need to fix your wood router to the table. That’s done using the router table’s base plate. Several factors can determine whether the base plate makes your setup and routing experience smooth or nightmarish.

• Material matters: Choose a base plate made of aluminum or resin. They’re the most strong and solid options.
• Alignment is key in all things routing, and the base plate is no exception. Make sure your router table incorporates a leveling system for the base plate (usually, that consists of adjustable screws) to keep the base plate perfectly flush against the table surface.

8. Accessories for your router table

The wood router and the table themselves aren’t the only things that define your woodworking experience. Router tables come with (or can be upgraded with) a variety of awesome accessories to help you tailor your table to your needs.

1. Fences with clamps: Some fences are built with clamps so they can be locked onto your table in exactly the right spot. Bonus points if they include shims, which help you adjust the outfeed portion of the fence for jointing work a two-part fence.
2. Feather boards: These hold your workpiece down and/or against the fence for a firmer grip and more hands-free operation while you work.
3. Dust collection port: Some tables come with these; they can also be installed manually. They connect to your Shop Vac or vacuum system to suck wood chips and dust off your table.
4. Miter gauge: These handy tools hold your wood at an angle of your choosing while you feed it into the bit.
5. Outlets: A self-explanatory must-have, these provide power to your router, a place to plug in any necessary lights, and an easy way to power anything you need nearby. Bonuses include a lock key to keep your tool safe from unauthorized use.
6. Adjustable stand: Some tables are set on a sturdy metal (or wood) stand instead of a solid table. In this case, an adjustable stand is a must-have to get your table at just the right height.
7. Table drawers: If you choose a router table set on cabinet, many come with a handy storage area underneath so you can keep all of your woodworking accessories in one place.
8. Jointing rods: These can be added behind the outfeed fence (or the back end of a single-piece fence) to turn the fence into a jointing tool.
9. Micro-adjust: Some routers come with a built-in (or accessory) micro-adjust tool. It allows you to make tiny adjustments to fence positioning (1/32 of an inch, for example), often from either side of the fence.

9. Router table buying tips

Luckily, there are very few router tables on the market today that don’t “get the job done”. Sometimes that’s all you need to do; but, sometimes, you want a little extra versatility. And, sometimes, you want the best router table around.

We broke down the many router table features into must-haves for a quality budget router table, good-to-haves for a superior experience, and bonus bells and whistles for a router table with ultimate versatility.

Must have features when buying a budget router table

• A flat, firm top is crucial to avoid slippage and inaccuracy in your cuts.
• A good fence is one of the keys to a router table being worthwhile.
• A melamine-coated MDF table will provide the smooth, sturdy surface you need.
• An aluminum or resin base plate is a must-have for any budget.

Good to have features for a great-value router table

• A resin router table is a step up from MDF for stability and strength.
• Choose a split router fence for total versatility.
• Router tables that come with (or are compatible with) feather boards and fence clamps and shims provide for better stability, hands-free operation, and versatility.

Great to have features for a high-end router table

• Cast-iron router tables are the uncontested winner for stability, vibration absorption, and firmness.
• Tables with a one-piece fence and jointing rods provide the best of both worlds.
• A micro-adjust tool is a sophisticated must-have for the scrupulous woodworker.