Rick Hubbard
03-14-2009, 3:25 PM
Recently I acquired a Bench Dog Pro router lift from Rockler, along with a steel top. Since I was building a new cabinet for the whole setup, it was a month or so before I unpacked the lift and assembled it. I was puzzled when I saw that the lift had only a single insert (made out of plastic) with a 1 1/2 inch opening. I figured (unhappily) that this was a “new-and-improved” design and that I would need to buy the larger-opening inserts separately.
A couple of weeks later I stopped at the closest Rockler store to buy the inserts. They had nothing in stock, so the associate looked on-line and also couldn’t find any insert except the one I already had. THEN I went and looked at the display unit and saw that IT had the metal insert rings that I had thought I was getting in the first place. The SKU was the same as the one I had, so everyone at the store was very mystified. It took several phone calls to store and a couple of more visits and finally the manager offered to ship me (at their expense) the display unit with the metal rings. The manager was still baffled by the difference between the two units since the web site for Bench Dog (now owned by Rockler) clearly showed the lift with metal insert rings.
I just finished swapping out the lifts and took some pictures to show the difference.
If you are thinking of buying one of these units BEWARE. The Rockler web site shows only one SKU (28827) but if investigate more closely you can see that there are actually TWO model numbers for the lift: 40-016 is for the model with the steel insert rings and 40-150 for the one with the cheesy plastic insert.
This means that if you order by Rockler’s SKU (28827) you have no way of knowing which of the two units you might receive.
This is an important issue because if you buy the model with the plastic insert and you try to use a bit larger than 1 1/2 inch, you will need to completely remove the plastic insert and work with a bit running in a massive 4 3/8 opening! That is bad news from a safety standpoint.
Now that I have had a chance to rant about this problem, I want to finish off by saying that I have never ANYWHERE had better customer service than I received at the Rockler store in Portland Maine. Everyone there bent over backwards trying to solve the problem and finally the manager OFFERED to swap out the lift (I didn’t even ask). Now THAT’S what I call taking care of the customer.
Rick
A couple of weeks later I stopped at the closest Rockler store to buy the inserts. They had nothing in stock, so the associate looked on-line and also couldn’t find any insert except the one I already had. THEN I went and looked at the display unit and saw that IT had the metal insert rings that I had thought I was getting in the first place. The SKU was the same as the one I had, so everyone at the store was very mystified. It took several phone calls to store and a couple of more visits and finally the manager offered to ship me (at their expense) the display unit with the metal rings. The manager was still baffled by the difference between the two units since the web site for Bench Dog (now owned by Rockler) clearly showed the lift with metal insert rings.
I just finished swapping out the lifts and took some pictures to show the difference.
If you are thinking of buying one of these units BEWARE. The Rockler web site shows only one SKU (28827) but if investigate more closely you can see that there are actually TWO model numbers for the lift: 40-016 is for the model with the steel insert rings and 40-150 for the one with the cheesy plastic insert.
This means that if you order by Rockler’s SKU (28827) you have no way of knowing which of the two units you might receive.
This is an important issue because if you buy the model with the plastic insert and you try to use a bit larger than 1 1/2 inch, you will need to completely remove the plastic insert and work with a bit running in a massive 4 3/8 opening! That is bad news from a safety standpoint.
Now that I have had a chance to rant about this problem, I want to finish off by saying that I have never ANYWHERE had better customer service than I received at the Rockler store in Portland Maine. Everyone there bent over backwards trying to solve the problem and finally the manager OFFERED to swap out the lift (I didn’t even ask). Now THAT’S what I call taking care of the customer.
Rick