I have a Jessem router lift used in the Powermatic TS, but alas no template to help make the hole in the table. I'm betting there is someone out there who has one and no longer needs it. I live in Los Angeles and am willing to fetch if local.
Thanks, Larry
Pat Barber and I have this funny little story we could tell you about shipping the template cross country (and back again) to try and save a few bucks (and beat the man at his own game) but we won't onna 'count of the em-bare-ass-ment.
If you don't find one local. buy the template from JessEm. Don't Ask Me How I Know This.
'Sides, you may want/need it later when you build your An Ultimate Router Table and 'sides (again), I like how the templates all stack up around the shoppe.
UA100
Larry,
Place your new router plate on the table, where you want it. Butt pieces of MDF against all sides and clamp down. Remove the router plate from the table. Get a flush trim bit and router you opening.
You don't need a template.
Actually your method, while normally sound/a good one, will leave you with corners the same radius as your bit. The inserts have corners much larger.
UA100, who says, buy the template, if you can't find a free one from a local wooddorker...
WoodChuck34 wrote: : Larry,
: Place your new router plate on the table, where you want it. Butt : pieces of MDF against all sides and clamp down. Remove the router : plate from the table. Get a flush trim bit and router you opening.
That'll make a hole exactly the size of the router plate, won't it? Making it fall right through.
What you'd need instead is two bits. One with a bearing near the shaft, where the bearing is larger than the diameter of the cutting portion by some amount, say 1". Rout a hole through the table with that. Then use a rabbeting bit with a cutter the same amount bigger in diameter that its bearing; use this to rout a rabbet around the hole, at a depth equal to the thickness of the routr plate.
Then hope the corners fit.
-- Andy Barss
nah. do it the other way around, but forget the rabbet bit.
position the plate where you want it on the table and surround it with your sheet goods template stuff. if you are using a bushing instead of a top bearing bit space your template stock off of your base plate with rippings whose width is the difference of radius of the bit compared to the bushing.
remove the base plate and whatever spacers you used to account for the bushing and set the router depth to equal the thickness of your template stock plus the thickness of your base plate. note that this doesn't cut all of the way through the table top- it makes a "mortise" in which the base plate will sit, top flush with the table top.
if you want the corners to fit tightly, the cutter should have the same radius as the corners of the base plate. I make the base plates square cornered and chisel out the corners of the "mortise"
you only need to route out the width of the ledge you want to have supporting the base plate plus the kerf of your jigsaw or whatever you're gonna cut out the center with. no point in going further- you'll just be reducing the support for the jigsaw and making unnecessary sawdust.
Some times this can save a bunch of grief. After cutting the hole, flip the top on a flat bench, insert the router plate, then tack four strips in place to support the plate. Fast and easy.
You didn't ask for the how to but .... I just got done mouting my Mast-r-Lift in a PM66 36" extension table. Easy enuf to make the template by placing the lift with the top down on say 3/"8 MDF then trace the outside of the top plate. Carefully cutout with jigsaw. Of course prior to this you need to cut the thru hole in the table. I laid the template on the table, traced the inside then measured in 7/8" on two sides and 3/4" in on the other two sides(check your lift demensions) then cut out with jigsaw. Once the lift sits in the hole so the top plate sits nicely on top of the table, place the template over it with double sided carpet tape to hold it to the table, remove the lift and route away with a top beaing template bit to grate the lip. Route slightly deeper than the thickness of the lifts topplate this will allow the lifts leveling screws to be effective. You need to drill seperate holes for to access the leveling screws to do this I backed out the screws a ways, set the lift in place and gave a good tap to each of the
4 corners this will give a nice mark where to drill the holes BTW I bought the template, this is the second table I've needed it and there will be atleast one more so its a keeper. Rockler inTorrance has the template for like $12Turns out I bought one at a local Rockler for $9.99 and picked up the router bit; I had a store credit burning a hole in my pocket. Router lift is now installed.
Larry
I didn't mean to cut all the way through the table, just the thickness of the plate. That's just an easy way to do it.
I used the method described by Bill Hylton in Router Magic. Basically you use a certain combination of template bushings and bit to make your own template. The advantage is you get a template that is exactly the same are your router plate, including any rounded corners.
Fasten your plate to a scrap piece of material. Make sure both the plate and the template material is clamped down. Using a 1/2" guide bushing and a 1/4" bit, router a grove around the plate. This is now your template.
Put the template on your router table. Using a 1 1/4" guide bushing and a 1/2" bit, carefully router a grove in your table that is the same depth as the height of the plate (I put the plate between the depth rod and the stop on the router to set the plunge depth more precisely). Following the inside lines of the grooves in the table, cut a hole in through the table to make the window.
You now have an exact match of your router plate with a 1/2" rabbet to hold the plate.
Chuck
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