Making your own router plate

[Michael]

What kind of material do you prefer? 1/4 inch MDF, polycarbonate, some type of sheet metal?

Thanks.

[Ed Pawlowski]

1/4" or thicker aluminum. When I think of "sheet metal" I think of stuff far to thin to properly support a router.

[Leon]

Solid Pnenolic

[Pat Barber]

Why make your own ???

or

Those inserts are very important.

You can't make a decent one for $30.

[Michael]

I'm too cheap to pay that much for a table plate.

[-MIKE-]

phenolic resin

[none]

On Thu, 12 Sep 2013 10:44:52 -0500, -MIKE-

Can you say why? I always disliked the thickness of phenolic resin. Yes, that thickness assists in keeping something like a router in place, but the weight of most routers was sufficient in keeping any metal plates in place for me.

[Larry Blanchard]

Well, yes, but you don't need to buy one. I took the baseplate off my router and put a bushing in it to match the router plate opening. Centered the router to the plate just fine. Of course, you have to be sure your router is centered in its base plate to start with :-).

[-MIKE-]

No, but you can make two. :-)

I got 3/4' Phenolic sheet from Woodcraft for (if memory serves) under $25 and made two router insert plates.

[Jim Weisgram]

$7 acrylic plate sold as trivet. Haven't tried it, mine is a Lee Valley round phenolic plate:

But that used to cost a whole lot less. Today I'd be looking elsewhere.

[Lew Hodgett]

------------------------------------------------- Michael wrote:

------------------------------------------------------ As Ben once said, you are being penny wise and pound foolish.

Lew

[-MIKE-]

I never though weight alone was a qualifying aspect of a router plate, for the reason you gave. Strength, rigidity, smoothness, non-dulling (bits) are the qualifiers. You are obviously concerned with thickness and I completely understand why. With some routers, that 3/4" can be a problem with getting most height out of the bit.

Two solutions: Use thinner phenolic-- it comes in many thicknesses. I can't speak from experience, but I'm pretty sure it's still pretty rigid down to 1/2". Route a recess in the 3/4' to receive the router base. You can use a center point and pin for your router to mill and perfect circle at whatever depth you like and the clear out the rest freehand.

I don't like aluminum, because even thought it technically is softer than a router bit, it still dulls it. Also, it can bend if dropped and once bent, it's never going back straight. Back to dulling. I like to make the smallest possibly hole in my plates. I don't like using plastic inserts for different bits. Odds are most of my cutting will be done with smaller bits. If I have a larger bit to use, I like to raise it up through the plate, while running, while it cuts its own whole through the plate.

[-MIKE-]

I often use those solid plastic cutting boards for making jigs.

[SonomaProducts.com]

Old school approach is to use a piece of an old laminate counter top. New school, visit Woodpeckers and spend $100 and get a full set of inserts along with it.

[dadiOH]

Please totally forget about MDF. Ditto particle board, wafer board, OSB and fiberboard.

Suitable materials would be phenolic, polycarbonate, aluminum, iron.

[-MIKE-]

There's something to be said about going totally ghetto and working with it for a while to determine what you really want and need before spending the cash.

I built quite a few large bookcases with all the molding and trim work using my router screwed to the bottom of a makeshift 1/2" melamine table top. I screwed fences and feather boards right down to the melamine. :-)

Doing it like this helped me determine which of the shiny, expensive router table features were 'necessary' and which were window dressing.

[-MIKE-]

I would take polycarbonate out of that mix. It's too "melty" for my taste.

And I hope you meant 'steel' instead of iron. :-p

[none]

On Thu, 12 Sep 2013 11:31:29 -0500, -MIKE-

That's a good point, something you can't/shouldn't do with a metal place. I never thought of that, guess it's the closed equivalent of zero clearance insert.

[Larry Blanchard]

I thought making jigs *was* part of woodworking :-).

[Ed Pawlowski]

Making a nifty jig can be as satisfying an accomplishment as making the project.