Drilling the accessory kit router plate

[LarryG]

Another cool engineering feature of the Bosch - does the makita, Dewalt or PC x9x have this?

Yes, all three have means by which to center the subbase on the collet. My Makita works exactly as you describe, which is probably where Bosch got the idea.

[wreckwriter]

Correct, the screws are 10-24 x 1/2". I will pick up some nice 3/4" today.

[wreckwriter]

OK, so we screw the router directly to the plate without the sub-base or anything. How does this work then: http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10407
Would this be designed for use with a table that doesn't have a 2 level (table top/plate) arrangement like the BT3100 has?

[LarryG]

OK, so we screw the router directly to the plate without the sub-base or anything. How does this work then: http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10407
Would this be designed for use with a table that doesn't have a 2 level (table top/plate) arrangement like the BT3100 has?

That's exactly the same base casting as your new 694 kit includes, less the plastic subbase, knobs, and fine height adjusting ring. Remove those pieces from your fixed base and it will look just like the one Rockler pictures.

The reason you'd buy an extra base is so you can attach one to a router table and still have the router's included fixed base available for freehand use. This is an especially attractive to those who don't own a two-base kit. Isn't that what you bought -- the two-base kit? If so, since you also have the plunge base, you probably don't need this unless you want to have both type bases available for freehand use (and there are good and legitimate reasons you might want to do that).

But if you bought the fixed-base 694 only rather than the two-base kit, you might want to buy one of these since it will keep you from having to bolt your lone base to the BT's mounting plate every time you need to do table routing, and then unbolt it for freehand use.

HOWEVER, before you buy a second base, consider that the $42 cost will make a heck of a down payment on a complete second router ...

[wreckwriter]

OK, I was looking at it strictly from the standpoint of not have to unscrew/rescrew when you wanted to change from table to hand.

[bobby_m]

I mounted the Ryobi pluge base router directly to the underside of the acc. table without an adapter plate. I figured unscrewing two screws to go handheld isn't really that much of a hassle. If you do use the adapter/mounting plate, that's a total of 6 screws unless you get the extra base like wreckwriter is suggesting.

Bobby

[scorrpio]

On the other hand, this looks like a perfect reason to finally get that CNC plasma cutter you've been wanting for a while, right?

[wreckwriter]

Got this finished this morning; no biggie, just like you guys said Now, on to installing the Herc-U-Lift Plus which looks like a bit more of a project.............

[wreckwriter]

I also just used a larger diameter twist bit as a crude countersink. It still works fine.

That's what I ended up doing too, the cheapie Vermont American countersink that I bought wouldn't cut the aluminum.

[Stick]

That's what I ended up doing too, the cheapie Vermont American countersink that I bought wouldn't cut the aluminum.

Uuuummmm, you did know that countersinks for metal as well as ones for wood, right? Ones for metal are a LOT harder and usually only have one cutting edge.

[wreckwriter]

Uuuummmm, you did know that countersinks for metal as well as ones for wood, right? Ones for metal are a LOT harder and usually only have one cutting edge.

All I know is that the package claimed metal and wood.