Router Table, Part 1

This started as a rabbit hutch for my daughter.  I built it, my daughter loved it, the rabbit loved it.  A month or so latter, the rabbit died.  My daughter didn't want another rabbit (yet), so the hutch sat empty.  Instead of selling it (for a loss more than likely), I decided to turn it into a router table.

This is the Sketchup model for the rabbit hutch.

This what I hope to turn it into.  It will have a router lift of my own design, 4 large bottom drawers, 3 smaller drawers for router bits and a large fence.

This is the router lift.  I made one similar to this for a CNC router a couple of years ago and it worked pretty good.  It has bronze bushings that ride on 3/4" drill rod.  The lead screw is a leftover piece of 1/2-10 ACME threaded rod from a previous CNC build along with a Dumpster anti-backlash nut.  All of the pieces were cut on my CNC router.

Starting the reconstruction.

Dividers installed and ready for the top to be installed.

The base of the top is installed and the router lift is installed.  The top will get a piece of laminated particle board glued on.

A view of the router lift.  After I cut the hole for accessing the router to change bits, I checked to see how square the bit was to the table.  Looks pretty good to me.

more to come....