A sudden flash of the obvious

[Hoyt Weathers]

I have a 1 HP Craftsman and a Craftsman bench-top metal router table - of sorts. Needing some kind of a router table to build a dream router table and cabinet below, a thought struck me. I thought I would try to hang my Bosch 1617 EVS under the crappy metal router table. The sub-base of the Bosch is almost the same diameter as the Crapsman and fits inside the raised molded ring on the bottom for the base of the Bosch. All I need to do, *I think*, is drill and tap 4 new holes since the Crapsman and Bosch do not shake hands there. Those hole locations are now marked with a Sharpie in tiny circles but they are not drilled. I just have to make sure the 4 screws are just shy of the ribbed top of the table so they will not obstruct. I will get it done in the next few days. Some of you may have such a Craftsman router table and may have, or may wish to do the same thing. So far, I see no problems.

Hoyt W.

[dave in fairfax]

Make sure that you mooth the edges of the holes on top of the table so thast they don't mar the wood. DAMHIKT Dave in Fairfax

[Hoyt Weathers]

drill and tap them. Some of the holes make poke through into the bottom of the rib trough and would not need dressing. Any which come through a rib, or part of a rib, on top will get the full attention. Thanks for the advise.

Hoyt W.

[Norman D. Crow]

Hoyt, I have one of their "better" benchtop units, still all metal except the fence, and if I remember correctly, you can get from Sears a universal adapter ring to mate routers other than Crapsman to it.

[Mike Patterson]

Countersink the holes, then use a file to flatten any remaining ridges. If necesssary you can then polish any roughness as required.

I did this with my el cheapo Vermont American phenolic plastic router table and a Milwaukee router.

I took the legs off the VA router table then clamped it down and drilled the holes on the drill press. One of the holes did indeed go through a rib, but I had it stable enough that it was no problem.

Worked well enough until I got around to making a more suitable router table.

HTH Mike Mike Patterson Please remove the spamtrap to email me. "I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific..."

[Hoyt Weathers]

Thanks Norman. I will go to Sears and see what they have. I would probably have to order it. I am not sure I need a universal adapter ring, but I may if my method does not work satisfactorily. I drilled the four holes today. One came up through a rib smack dab in the middle and the other 3 come up in the troughs between the ribs but grooved a rib each time. Now I need to learn the size screws I need, diameter, TPI, metric or English, etc. I will go to Ace Hardware for those. Where I live, Ace is pretty good about such things. That is where I found the right size rubber grommets to go under the 1/2" router shanks to raise them enough to avoid bit release problems.

Hoyt W.

[Hoyt Weathers]

Mike, the holes I drilled today in the present router table are only to *hold* the screws. That aluminum is ribbed but it is very thin in the troughs. During assembly, the screws first go through the base of my Bosch router and then into the holes I just drilled - after I tap them. For that reason, the screws should have a shoulder on them to press against the router base to pull it tight against the bottom of the metal table. I do not want to countersink the holes in the router base because that would shorten the length the screws would need to pull the router base tight to the crappy router table. Obviously, there is no reason I can think of to countersink the holes from the top of the router table. Just smooth the edges.

Hoyt W.