I've been pondering a router table for some time as I can imagine it could be useful for some jobs that are hard to do 'freehand'. I should probably build one myself but have never found the time. I see Aldi have one for under 30 squids on Sunday, but wonder if it's worth a punt or a waste of 30 quid that could do toward a decent one: Has anyone bought one of these and found it good/bad?
In message , GMM writes
I bought one for my son last time it reached the remainder bin. I can't remember how much I paid.
He assembled it and has used it quite a bit making radiator covers and other bits and pieces, and has said to me that it is good, but some of the bolts were made of cheese, and he had to replace them.
I've helped feed some long pieces of wood through and it seemed to me to work well, but I am no expert.
In message , GMM writes
I have one similar to give away.
Westish Herts.
Some way from me unfortunately, but thanks for the offer Tim.
Does the fact you'd like to dispose of it mean it's no use or that you have moved on to greater things in that area?
Not well up on these things, but I'd guess it's too small for a lot of stuff likely to be needed DIY wise.
In article , GMM writes
If it's the same as mine then it has plastic guides that are bit floppy making repeatability a bit of an issue but I found it ok for a bit of rough use, certainly better than nothing and ok for the price.
Points to watch:
Plenty of clearance on the base fixings & fish plates so you need to crank em up to make the whole thing rigid.
There is a 13A extension socket on the front for the router that goes through an emergency stop button. On mine it does not pass the earth so plugging any earthed (class 1) equipment in would be unsafe. Not sure if anyone makes class 1 power tools these days but it could be an issue if you plug in an extension to power off router, shop vac and anything else at the same time. I was amazed it passed electrical regs.
That sounds nasty. BTW how did you find out the earth was not passed through?
I bought one years ago and, at the price, it's very good for light work. B it of time and faffing needed to set it up and make sure all is plumb but a fter that not a bad little workhorse. Best if you've got a router you can leave in it rather than constantly taking in and out.
Not the hard way :-)
Can't really remember but suspect it was labelled class 2 which aroused my curiosity as being a glorified extension lead it should have a through earth so in my mind couldn't be class 2. Removed plug top and found 2 core cable.
Didn't involve trading standards but prob should have.
Indeed. I have an old router that has an alignment problem between the spindle and the base plate (off by a few mm, so a variable offset) that there doesn't seem to be any way to adjust, so not much use for following a guide bush but potentially fine when mounted in a table.
I bought one last time, along with their cheap plunge router so I could leave it on full-time. Maybe I've assembled it wrong but I find it very awkward getting the plunge locking lever to latch, as it fouls the underside of the table. Also you have to set the bits high into the collet to get enough depth on the cut, which isn't ideal.
The fence isn't very rigid or square to the base either.
I bought one a while ago - along with a cheap Aldi router which I use with it, and leave permanently attached.
I seem to remember having to do a bit of re-engineering to make it work to my satisfaction. Whilst the main table is an aluminium casting with a machined face, the fences etc. are plastic, and I think I had to file off some bits of flashing to make them sit square.
Also, I changed the clamping arrangements for the fence and central feather board. As supplied, these bolts come up from underneath the table, with their heads located in hex sockets on the underside, and with wing nuts on top. This made adjustment difficult, because the bolts didn't stay exactly upright when the fence was moved. It also meant that if you wanted to remove the central feather board altogether to accommodate a wider work-piece, you couldn't because the router clamps on the underside covered the bolt-heads and prevented the bolts from being removed. In both cases, I glued captive nuts into the hex sockets, and used bolts going down from the top instead of up from the bottom.
I have a better table on a fixed stand.
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