Photo 8- The second step in cutting the joints on the drawer fronts is to shorten one of the tongues.

Make drawers with dovetails with your favorite jig, or use a locking groove joint as shown in photos 6,7 and 8. Note that final dimensions for the drawer parts you use will depend upon your choice of joinery for the drawers. The dimensions given are for drawers with through dovetails, as pictured. Be sure to leave enough clearance for the drawers, both in width and height, so that they slide easily and will still do so after expanding from humidity increases. Leave 1/16" gap in height for the upper and 1/8" for the lower drawer. Cut grooves in the drawer sides, fronts and rears for the drawer bottoms, and leave ½" from the drawer bottom to the lower edge of these parts for the drawer guide. Make a groove in the drawer guide 1" wide to fit the guides in the frames. Install the drawer guide in the drawer bottoms with a mortise cut into the bottom edges of both the drawer front and drawer rear. The mortise in the drawer rear goes through the whole thickness of the part, but in the front it only goes half way so it isn’t visible.

I installed fixed rollers on the bottom of the cabinet, rather than the swivel type, because the latter will move as you push work through the table. Fixed rollers will move too, but in one direction only, and their movement can be halted altogether by wedging a scrap of plywood under them before you start using the table. Or, put the rear rollers at 90o to the front ones. Then, to move the table, tilt it onto either the front or rear rollers depending on which way you want to move the unit. When sitting on all four it won’t roll.

For the table itself you can make a laminated top as described in the Benchtop Router Table project on this site, or use 3/4" surfaced particleboard as I did. Particleboard is very flat and stable making it a good choice here, but it chips and flakes easily so you need to make provisions for this. Melamine is a brand name for a particleboard used by cabinetmakers that is surfaced with thin white laminate. Call a cabinet shop and ask if they'll sell you a piece so you don't have to buy a whole sheet. A second alternative is to use unsurfaced particleboard and glue laminate to it with contact cement.

Photo 9- Glue and screw a wood border to the particleboard top. Miter the ends, and cut a shallow rabbet in the border to help locate it flush with the top of the table.

Cut out the top and border it with solid wood as in photo 9. Cut a rabbet in the border stock to locate it flush with the table top, miter the ends and screw it to the edge with long screws that will go deep in the particleboard. Follow the instructions in the project on this site titled Mounting A Router In A Table for installing your router in the top, with one addition; screw pieces of solid wood on the under side of the top around the hole for the router. Screw the clear plastic plates through the particleboard and into the solid wood. Particleboard is a joke for taking screws that will be occasionally replaced or stressed very much. But particleboard is stable and inexpensive.

Attach the top to the rear rail of the cabinet with hinges so that you can lift the top to adjust the router depth setting. Again, screw solid wood to the particleboard for the hinges to mount to.

Resources for building a Floor Standing Router Table