A few months ago, I showed you how I built a cheap, inexpensive router table using plywood, 2×4 lumber, and acrylic. In my latest project, I replaced the simple 2×4 base of my router table with a plywood cabinet, without using a table saw!
Nearly the entire cabinet is made from 1/2-inch plywood, and most of the plywood is cabinet-grade red oak. The exception is the bottom, which is a lower grade 1/2-inch plywood (the same plywood I used to make the shelves of my workbench). And I also used some pieces of solid red oak for the lips of the shelves and as supports for the shelves inside the cabinet.
Since I don’t own a table saw, I used my circular saw to cut all of the plywood. To get straight, accurate cuts, I ran the saw against a straight-edge for all cuts. I carefully measured the position of the straight-edge and used clamps to make sure the straight-edge stayed in place.
There are still a few more features I eventually want to add to the router table. First, I want to add drawers to the empty space at the bottom of the cabinet. Second, I want to add a dust port to the back of the cabinet, so I can connect my shop-vac to the cabinet while I’m using it as a router. And third, I want to add cabinet doors to the shelf areas of the cabinet. It would have been nice to add all of those features during this project, but I spent more time than I expected just making the cabinet, so I am happy stopping for now without those extra features.
To learn more about how I built the cabinet, watch the YouTube video!