,Project - "Building the Sommerfeld Router Table Cabinet"

	If you are regular readers to this site, you know that I regard Marc Sommerfeld as a great cabinet maker, teacher, and creator of products. One such product is his solid phenolic router table. As he says, "...it takes the form of a shaper." What makes that possible is that there is no router plate insert. The table is a smooth, uninterrupted surface that is extremely level — just what you would expect from a shaper table.    [Note: picture is from the catalog.]
Here is what I am going to do — I will be constructing this handsome and practical router table cabinet from Marc's plans and his video. Yes, he has a very complete video that takes you through the step-by-step of this table project, as well as raised panel construction.
	Then, after I get the cabinet assembled, Maureen and I will attack Marc's latest project: a Junior Grandfather Clock.    I would say that this is a project that is more than Maureen and I should take on, but Marc has made it seem very easy (would you believe, possible?) by offering a very complete set of full size plans.    We have everything we need to make it, but first things first — I need to make the new Sommerfeld Router Table.
I said that Marc's video comes with a four page, printed instructions with great materials list. Last week, I ordered red oak, so I am ready to start cutting.   There are a lot of individual pieces to cut. First, I will rip all the pieces per Marc's plans.
	After looking over my lumberyard's stock, I decided that their 1 X 8's looked best. Since the plans call for raised panels, I had to glue up some stock for the panels.    I have to admit that I ran these boards through the jointer since the router table was set up for a project Beth and I are doing — otherwise I would have used the router for edge jointing. Both ways work equally well.
Since these panels are "non-structural", I decided to just glue them and not to bother with biscuits. They will be plenty strong.
	I let them set overnight.  The next day, I used a hand scraper to remove the glue squeeze out and am now passing them through the thickness sander.    This is one of the few times that I have used it to sand boards wider than the 16" sanding width. The open end allows me to turn the board and pass it through for the other side. It worked very well.