Make your own router lift

[RayV]

This seems so simple it just might work.

Modify your plunge router (slightly) to use it under your table.

[J T]

Sun, Jan 6, 2008, 5:57pm (EST-3) [e-mail] (RayV) doth sayeth: This seems so simple it just might work. Modify your plunge router (slightly) to use it under your table.

I quit reading at $100. I don't have a plunge router; but, if I did have one, and it was in a router table, and I wanted a router lift, I could make one for less than $100. A lot less. Probably the easiest would be a screw car jack, easily adjusble too. I've got at least one setting around. If you don't have one you could probably find on for a buck or two, if not free. No, you can't have it, I'll us it for 'something' one day.

JOAT You can't always judge by appearances, the early bird may have been up all night.

[Jim]

table.

Jim

[Andy]

Then you might have missed the fact that this $100 includes the router. I think it's a pretty nice setup - and if you already have a plunge router, and if you wanted to make/scrounge your own router plate, you could make this for just a few dollars worth of hardware. A car jack could probably work, but with its relatively low thread count, would be more difficult for fine adjustments.

Ray - thanks for sharing! Andy

[J T]

Mon, Jan 7, 2008, 12:08am (EST-3) [e-mail] (Andy) doth sayeth: A car jack could probably work, but with its relatively low thread count, would be more difficult for fine adjustments.

More difficult? Maybe in your world, not in mine. I 'am' talking about a screw jack. Useful for accurately rehanding car doors too.

JOAT You can't always judge by appearances, the early bird may have been up all night.

[FoggyTown]

not in mine. =EF=BF=BDI 'am' talking

Not sure we're talking about the same thing. I call it a scissors jack.

have one and it works very well. It isn't as big as it looks and what it lacks in "fine tuning" ability isn't worth worrying about, at least for me.

FoggyTown

[Hoosierpopi]

fantastic - I've got thirty windows open!

Hovercraft! Retro Routers Doll Houses all that creative energy - amazing Great Site

[Hoosierpopi]

Is this likely to be the one I got when I bought the "kit" with two bases and one 690?

And, if anyone here tried this approach - please share how well (or not) it woks

[rverne44]

If you use a PC 890, you will drive the cost of the router/lift system to around $300. The whole point of the offered router lift design was to provide an effective, *low-cost* solution, which I think it did very well.

Actually, I suppose JOAT's solution would be cheaper, IF you already had a router AND a router table AND a screw jack, AND some baling wire...

Bob in NC

[DJ Delorie]

AND yellow paint ;-)

[Jim]

No, it is not. The 890 is a somewhat more powerful router. The fixed base for the 890 allows you to change the bit position from the top of the router table.

Now that you asked about how it works:

You cannot see the height position dial from the top. I usually use the brass bars that the guys on Router Workshop suggest.

There is a lot of slack in the rack. When I released to clamp which holds the router in position, the whole affair can drop down rather far.

Dust also gets in the mechanism, and the dust interferes with the adjustment. I have found it necessary to take the router out of the table and clean it with my shop vac.

Jim

[Michael Faurot]

I wound up making a lift out of a car jack, and it has worked well for me. Some notes on this . . .

o) Not just any type of "car jack" but in particular I've used a scissor jack[1].

o) While it's true that the scissor jack has coarse threading, I'm able to move my plunge router up and down more precisely with the jack than without it. If you need really precise movement, this is not going to be the right solution though.

o) I've been using a Ryobi plunge router in my table. One of the things that also helps with the up/down adjustments is to remove the springs on the router.

[1]:

[J T]

Mon, Jan 7, 2008, 5:49am (EST-3) [e-mail] (FoggyTown) doth query: Not sure we're talking about the same thing. I call it a scissors jack.

Yep, that's it. Forgot it is called a scissors jack too. I always found them a bitch to use on a car, seems the car would always move just enough to go off the jack, just when you finished lifting it. Work nicely for a number of other applications tho.

JOAT You can't always judge by appearances, the early bird may have been up all night.

[J T]

Mon, Jan 7, 2008, 7:52am (EST-3) [e-mail] doth sayeth: Actually, I suppose JOAT's solution would be cheaper, IF you already had a router AND a router table AND a screw jack, AND some baling wire...

If you don't have a router, you don't actually need a router lift. Or a router table. Actually, I have five routers, none of them plunge. I made my own router table. And have no need, or desire, at this time for a router liift. But a screw jack 9scissors jack) is always a handy thing to have. AND, I do not use bailing wire. But, if I did want a router lift, I WOULD make one, fom either my screw jack, or a a screw type jack stand. OR, if I relly wanted to go ape, I'd make one ala Rube Goldberg, powered my a eletric motor. Remember guys, hobby woodworking is supposed to be FUN.

JOAT You can't always judge by appearances, the early bird may have been up all night.

[J T]

Mon, Jan 7, 2008, 11:02am [e-mail] (DJ=A0Delorie) doth sayeth: AND yellow paint ;-)

Glad you reminded me. I was looking for a drill the other day, and found one that was NOT painted yellow. I'd been looking in that area for at least three minutes before I realized that black thing was a drill. I've recently gotten several C clamps, a pry bar, and several other small tools. AND I've got a unopened can of yellow paint. Hehehe Painting the tools is a priority, as they're just tye type that get "borrowed" and never get unborrowed. My sons tend not to even touch my painted toos, let alone 'borrow' them. AND they look cheery.

JOAT You can't always judge by appearances, the early bird may have been up all night.

[Doug Winterburn]

Just did this and it seems to work well - so far.

A few observations:

1) Use Lok-tite on the coupler - blue if you want to take the router out and use it out of the table, red if it is a table only router. 2) The threaded rod only needs to be 6" long vs the 8" in the article. The blue borg sells 6" lengths in the hardware drawers if you don't want to buy a 3' length. 3) after making any height adjustments, use the height lock on the router before firing up. 4) Slightly countersink the hole in the bottom of the base as the furniture bolt has a slight cove shape under the head. This w2ill allow the head to sit flat on the router base. 5) Do drill the hole in the router base from the top as the bottom of the threaded hole is concave and will center the 1/4" bit.

[Twayne]

A different observation: Any web site that insists I sign up before I can so much as view an introduction to something is also a site that is probably selling that information. I refuse to give such a site any traffic; no site is indispensible and even giving them phoney info wouldn't be worth the effort.

Twayne

[Doug Winterburn]

It's not required except for the intro - which I didn't bother with as the details are available without sign up.

[RayV]

I was looking at my PC 690 plunge base and could do these modifications by putting the threaded rod opposite the depth stop but I have a concern. The housing that holds the router can tip slightly because the bushings are not tight enough on the main rods. Do you have a problem with the router tipping or angling to one side?

[Doug Winterburn]

Not so far, but the router is fairly new. My #3 comment was partly to keep this from occuring.