Router Plate, Lift Opinions Sought

[RayintheUK]

Instead of the expense of an after-market lift, have you considered the Triton routers? They were designed to be used in router tables and in addition to having their own sort of "lift" built in they also blow down through the motor (up when mounted upside down in a table) instead of up like most routers.

If you're "upgrading" your router table, I can safely assume that you've already got a router, so buying another one may not seem to make sense over buying a lifting system.

However, look into the prices of lifts compared to either a Triton TRA/B/C001 (3¼HP) or MOF001 (2¼HP) router. Either will fit into a phenolic insert, in which mode they will give you above-the-table bit changing, a far better feature than above-the-table height changing. The smaller model, incidentally, does both. See here for further details. HTH

Ray.

[Crash2510]

I have the freud ft2200 router mounted in my router table with the router raizer attached it works very well and only takes about 30-45 minutes to ad the raizer to the router. If you are not looking at going this rout.

Let me recommend the new freud ft3000 it has all the options of their smaller 1700 2 1/4 hp router built into the monster I have the smaller 1700 router mounted into the table also and it is very convenient. Above table height changes and bit changes with an auto spindle lock. The ft3000 can be had for around 250-300 dollars but it is still much cheaper than a big router and lift.

just giving you another option.

router raizer
http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/12144

ft3000
http://www.amazon.com/Freud-FT3000VC...8103035&sr=8-1

ft1700
http://www.amazon.com/Freud-FT1700VC...8103108&sr=8-4

[steve-norrell]

Ray: Thanks for the information about the Triton. The router I have mounted in a JessEm Routr-Lift FX (phenolic plate) is a Bosch 1619EVS and I am quite satisfied with its performance. I have two other routers (Craftsman), one of which gets used only very occasionally for hand routing. While I would love to have a Triton, that will have to wait until the Bosch dies.

Phil: I looked at the Raizer and, although it looks like a reasonable system, I can't really say that it offers anything more than the JessEm lift I already have.

My upgrade 'target' is the lift, not the router, and then for the purpose of getting a more rigid surface. As suggested elsewhere in this thread, some folks feel that the phenolic plates, while quite rigid, are just flexible enough to cause concern.

My objective would be to get a lift that would handle present and possible future routers that may be heavier than the Bosch without any sag, either real or perceived. If I am correctly interpreting the comments so far, the order of preference would be aluminum over phenolic; thicker plate (JessEm/Rockler at 1.0 inch) over thinner (Woodpecker at 3/8 inch).

Gotta spend that government 'economy booster' check on something!

Regards, Steve