Home made router lift

[Dave Schreib]

Anybody ever make this home made router lift from the American Woodworker March 2004 issue?

http://americanwoodworker.com/blogs/projects/archive/2009/04/21/the-aw-shop-made-router-lift.aspx

Seems like a cool idea - if it works.

[Paul Greathouse]

Haven't done it but I did see a homemade lift once where the guy used a compact car sissor jack that he claimed worked very well. Sorry but it was too long ago to remember where on the internet I saw it.

[Bill Huber]

COOOOOL

That looks really neat and I bet it works well also.

I just love seeing when people design something like that, now just add a motor and you would really have something.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I have both the plans and parts to build, but just haven't had the time. Over at BT-3 there were some photos of finished unit a couple years back. Enco (use-enco.com) almost has drill rod on sale. Item # for 3/4" X 36" is SY409-0045 $12.94. Flanged bronze bushings, 3/4" ID X 1" OD X 1" long- item # 325-7582 $1.84 each. Free shipping on orders over $25. Use code PFSJAN. Rockler has the 3/8-16 screw on nuts for $9.29 (# 68387) for a pack of eight. Rockler also has a free shipping code (V9294). I would reverse the lift, and mount to front of cabinet. This way adjustment would be at the front. Use a hinged top (at the back) to allow to reach top of router to change bits, without losing fence settings.

[Joe McCormick]

That American Woodworkers lift looks nice but I do not think it would work for my router table.
I have a Lee Valley router table that I like very much. I am using a 3 1/4 hp Bosch 1619EVS router. It works great except for when I want to raise and lower the router bit. I like the router lifts that I have seen,
but I cannot adapt them to my router table. Plus, they are expensive. So I devised a way that I could crank my router bits up and down easily. Made out of scrap lumber and a few parts from the hardware store, plus
an angle drill keyless chuck from Harbor Freight (item number 92188). The angle drill head from Harbor freight is the heart of this system. It cost me about $15. The main concern is attaching the drill chuck to
your router. I was fortunate with my Bosch router in that the handle for raising or lowering the router bits had a recess where I could use an 8 mm hex bolt. This made my connection of the router to the angle
drill head fairly simple. I think with a little imagination, anyone in a situation like I was in could possibly convert their router table and router using the same techniques that I did.

I spent less than $25 to assemble what I needed to make my router and table more efficient. The 2 bearings that I used makes for a smooth cranking motion.

The spring on the socket head cap screw allows me to quickly disconnect the angle drill from the hand crank assembly. This allows me to remove the router from underneath the table very quickly.

Follow this link to see some pictures.
http://picasaweb.google.com/mrhermit03/RouterLiftPictures?authkey=Gv1sRgCKKcyPCUtIibDQ#

[Bill Huber]

Very nice engineering there, looks like it should work very well. Plus it look damn nice.

[Alan Schaffter]

That is quite a contraption. Since the entire lift is cantileverd, it looks like it has the potential for a significant amount of friction on the rods and possibly too much play in it since it is mounted to the back of the cabinet and not the router table top. Obviously, it is intended for a router with no screw height. Many plunge routers with screw mechanism scan be modified with homemade versions of the simple Router Raizer, and folks have even added cranks to them like Joe has done.

Though I do a lot of tinkering, a few years ago I ended up just buying a WoodPeckers Plunge Lift- I did motorize it though!:D

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/500/medium/IMG_26761.jpg

[Rick Lizek]

Haven't made that exactly but have been using the rods and bushing for years to make sliding tables, cross feed miter slides on router tables and such. Beats having to make a slot in a router table and it flips out of the way. There is no reason it wouldn't work as pictured and the potential of the rods and bushings are enormous in other applications. I'm surprised I haven't seen any excitement generated over this application when it was first published. A simple slot mortiser is within reach with this method. One of the more ingenious fixtures I've seen in the hobby mags in years.

Apparently Jessem gets the potential of the application.
http://www.jessem.com/MITE-R-SLIDE.html

[Alan Schaffter]

Take a look at some of the stuff Mathias Wendel has designed and built, most recently his Pantorouter. He gets acceptable results using repurposed and rebuilt ball bearing drawer slides for his linear bearings.

[Rick Lizek]

Another good one. FWW had a slot mortiser using drawer slides maybe 15 years ago. Drawer slides are another good option but there is an added flexibility with the rods and bronze bushings you can't get with drawer slides not to mention the cost of each new.

[Russell Smallwood]

American Woodworker Ultimate Router Jig (http://books.google.com/books?id=kfYDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA31&dq=%22router%20fence%22%20OR%20%22router%20table%2 0fence%22&lr=&as_brr=1&pg=PA30#v=onepage&q=%22router%20fence%22%20OR%20%22router%20table%20 fence%22&f=false)

American woodworker has some pretty cool stuff from time to time. I posted this a couple of days ago to see if anyone had made it. Apparently not.

Every once and a while I'll dig this issue out and get myself worked up about making this, but then it get's put back on the back burner. I really like the idea of a horizontal router for mortises and tenons.

Sorry for the hijack, just thought it fit into the discussion.

[Josiah Bartlett]

I use an older DW621 router in my table, and there is a Dewalt accessory that replaces the depth stop that turns it into a fine height adjustment, although you have to access it from under the table. I also have a DW618, which has the helical elevation grooves in the body. I've thought about making a lift out of that by making a big gear with dogs to ride in the grooves and a spur gear to provide the elevation.

[Aaron Berk]

Here's why.

To many variables.

You would have to mount that lift plumb, square, and perpendicular to the table top surface. Otherwise your lift would not travel perfectly in a 90 degree relation to your top.

I think it would be a hassle lining that up, unless you built it 1st, then designed a table around it.

just my thought............

[Dean Montgomery]

I built a router table and used the lift mechanism of a radial arm saw. I have used it for about 5 years and it worked out very good.

[Joseph Tarantino]

i have 2 spare RASs lying around and scavenging teh lift mechanism from one for a router lift is interesting. any chance for a pic or two of your application? thanks.

[Dean Montgomery]

I don't have any pics in my computer,but I will take a couple tomorrow and post them. May be laterin the day before I have time to post them. Dean

[Aaron Berk]

I don't have any pics in my computer,but I will take a couple tomorrow and post them. May be laterin the day before I have time to post them. Dean


Dean,
I would be very interested in learning more about your lift. I've got a fetish for radial arm saws, and i can buy them all day for pennies on the pound. I've been dieing to chop up a junk RAS on the table of my DeWalt GE using a metal cutting blade. This would be the perfect opportunity.
Plus I'm in the need of a new router setup.

[Josiah Bartlett]

I've heard of people converting decrepit RAS's into an overarm or pin router as well. That could be pretty useful.

[Dean Montgomery]

I tryed to post pictures, but me and my computer are not getting along to well. I you want to pm your email address, I will email pics. and how I did it. sorry about that. Dean