Purchased a craftsman 272350 table saw last Jan. The saw was upgraded with a cast router table extension and router fence and movable casters on the base, so i thought it was a good deal. Problem is i cant find a current router to fit the mounting holes in the cast table. Has anyone put a none craftsman router on this saw? Has anyone redrilled the cast table so another brand can be mounted on it? Your help is appreciated. Ivan
No, but no reason you can't.
I have. I mounted a 3hp Makita plunge router to one of the cast iron wings of my Rockwell Beaver table saw. Quite the chore actually. There weren't any predrilled holes and I had to grind down the supporting cast iron ribs on the underside of the wing so I'd have a flat surface to mount the router to. I used a flexible grinding/cutting disk in a drill to grind most of it. After that, I cut a 3 inch hole for router bit usage and then drilled mounting holes to attach the router. Worked fine for making rail and stile doors for my mother's kitchen cabinets.
Hardest part of the whole process was properly adjusting the upside down router for proper bit height. *AFTER* I'd finished making the doors, I found out about removing the springs from the router making height adjustment much easier. Live and learn.
You can drill most cast iron easy enough. But you might not need or want to. You can make an adapter ring to mount most any router you need. Make a ring the same size as the router base plate. Or just buy a second base plate, they are sometimes cheap. Drill and countersink holes to fit your new router, and drill and tap holes to fit your TS wing. Such a thing would be best of aluminum, but micarta or phenolic would work. The only down side is that you will lose height adjustment equal to the thickness of the adapter ring. Probably 1/4" thick, 3/8 at the most.
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******** Bill Pounds
I assume that they still make it but several years ago I had the same type problem. Sears makes a Universal Adapter plate that will allow almost any router to attach to their equipment. It's basically a round plastic piece with many holes and slots pedrilled.
HTH
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