Router table plunge routing?

[Derrick]

Good idea? Bad idea? I am building my shop and I don't really have any usable work surfaces for plunge routing with the plunge base on my PC693 router as of yet. I am wondering if doing it on the accessory table is really that bad of an idea as long as I use the proper technique. What I am making is some more featherboards that are slotted for adjustability. I am just going to make some thru slots in the face of a 1x4

[RodKirby]

I have done this many times - no problem.

Bore start/end holes first.

Use travel stops if you can and only take small "bites", say, no deeper than 1/4".

I then flip the workpiece over - that way you will "break thru" in the center (of the 1"). Saves half the adjustments and IMHO, is safer.

[Black wallnut]

Just make sure you use the Ryobi supplied Acc. Table rear clamp or it's equal. If you don't then your acc. table may move once yu turn on your router. The clamp is an "L" bracket that has the long leg split to fit over a boss on the underside center of the back of the acc. table and the short leg fits into a slot in the rear rail. It is held in place with a t-nut in the rail and a studded knob.

[Derrick]

[:0]I guess I'll have to make the bracket. I didn,t buy the accessory kit. When I bore the holes should the bore be the same size as the router bit or slightly larger for a safe start of the router bit path?

[RodKirby]

Same as the router bit - it's to give a clean start/end and helps to align the fence.

[u]WARNING - Make sure the router is RUNNING, before you lower the workpiece on to the bit.</u>

[LarryG]

You also need to use a plunge bit, with end cutters. An ordinary straight bit will work if you're really careful, but requires sliding the workpiece along the fence as you plunge in order for the flutes to get a bite. Can be a little dicey.

Remember that if you need to reverse-feed the workpiece for any reason, you'll be making a climb cut and the bit will try to throw the workpiece away from the fence.

As an aside, one of the benefits of a lift or above-table height adjustment is that you can batten the workpiece down with featherboards, tight to the table, then switch on the router and raise the bit up into the workpiece.

[Derrick]

Done... Eveything worked great. I bored the start and finish holes as Rod suggested and now I have a new shiny not quite Kirbyesque featherboard. Careful Rod, in fifteen or twenty years I might be producing some grade A Kirby jigs, who knows. Thanks again.