Current Routers for Router Table

[Papa]

Router for router table

Guess I must be old-fashioned, a cheapskate, or maybe some of both. I got a PC 690 for my birthday about ten years ago (until then, I was using a Craftsman router I bought in 1968). I soon bought the Rockler dedicated router table base and later the plunge router base. When I got my BT3000, I mounted the Rockler base on the auxilliary table and have been using the PC 690 motor with a shop-built fence I had from a previous table. U use a height guage i Got as a free bonus gift from the old AMT firm years ago. Later, I got a good buy on a variable speed motor off E-Bay. I use it for freehand routing (I have a HF speed control on my table). This fairly simple set-up has served me well over the years. It is actually a little more complex than the router set-ups used by the guys on The Router Workshop on the Woodworking Channel and Tom Marks on Wood Works.

Papa

[JimD]

I have used a setup like Papa's and worse over the years. They will work. I made a lift like the one in the March 2004 American Woodworker. Besides being cheaper than a Woodpecker lift, the bit changing is significantly better. The lift attaches to the back of the base so you just tilt up the top to change bits. No cranking the bit all the way up. I like this setup a lot. I do not anticipate every going to a "nicer" commercially made lift. I made a support block for a PC690 motor but I have only used it enough to know it will work. I use a motor from an old Ryobi R 500 plunge router that got a bad habit of sticking. It has a little more power than the PC 690 but the main reason it is in the lift is it didn't work well for freehand use anymore. PC690s (I have 2) are better for freehand.

Jim

[theminor]

For those interested, the latest issue of Fine Woodworking has a pretty good review roundup of routers for the router table with above table height adjustment. Issue 189, the article is called "Tool Test- Routers for Router Tables."

The triton won both best Overall and Best Value.