Roussea router plate

[John Coloccia]

Highly NOT recommended. I just installed one in my SawStop table, and I can truthfully say that I hate this miserable contraption. The thing is crowned by design. Some nonsense about wanting to make sure the cutter is always at the highest point of the table. What rot! My table's FLAT...there was no "highest" point, until I installed that stupid plate. Anything I put through it that isn't wider than the plate wobbles, or you end up with stepped dados/rabits. ARRRGGGGG.

I bought an aluminum plate to replace it with, but I may not use it now. Here's what I did:

1) some very light passes through my Jet/Performax drum sander
2) polished up on a granite lapping plate

voila! Perfectly flat, like it should have been in the first place :D

[Myk Rian]

I highly recommend it. I love mine. And yes, the depth of my cuts are all the same. The exact reason it was designed like that.
After a couple years the router weight will flatten it some.

[Peter Aeschliman]

So it's crowned because they want it to be higher than the rest of the table? Or is it because they're worried about the weight of the router causing it to sag?

It doesn't make sense to have the router anything other than level/flush with the table.

If it's because they're worried about sagging, they should just make the thing thicker so it won't sag at all...

Weird. Good to know.

[John Coloccia]

So it's crowned because they want it to be higher than the rest of the table? Or is it because they're worried about the weight of the router causing it to sag?

It doesn't make sense to have the router anything other than level/flush with the table.

If it's because they're worried about sagging, they should just make the thing thicker so it won't sag at all...

Weird. Good to know.

I think they did it to get a more consistent depth of cut. It makes alignment with the rest of the table less critical. If all you're doing is straight channels, edge routing, etc I believe it works very well. If you're pattern cutting, or have to make multiple passes, you can end up with stepped cuts, or in the case of pattern cutting, cuts that aren't square. It depends on the application. If I were just doing patterns for show, it wouldn't bother me. For what I'm doing I need EXACTLY 90 degrees or I will be doing a lot of hand work squaring things up (think neck tenons for guitars), so it was really causing me some problems.

I don't think it was for sagging because the bottom is very flat. I don't anticipate that it will ever sag. The phenolic is VERY stiff, and I have to say that I'm very happy with that aspect of it. I'm also happy that it's stepped so I don't have to route as deeply as some other plates. It helps on the SawStop as the original table is actually a bit under 3/4" to begin with.

Flattening it on the drum sander only took a couple of minutes, and lapping it smooth took another 15 minutes or so, and now it's fine. It's an inexpensive alternative, but it requires a little work if you need it to be flat.

The other thing I don't like about it is that it's a different size, 9X12, than other router plates. If you want to replace it, you need to replace the top. I wish they would have choosen a standard size, or at least put it on the packaging somewhere. I don't have it in from of me, but I don't remember it specifying the size on the package, and I just assumed it was the same as everything else on the planet. If it is on the packaging, and I just didn't look hard enough, I apologize...I'm just going from memory.

[pat warner]

Router table surfaces and table fences that are not flat insure unpredictable table routing.
Vibration is your second worst enemy in Routerdom.

[Victor Robinson]

I've heard of a lot of plates designed this way. Doesn't make sense to me but what do I know.

I'm building my table and just my Rockler aluminum plate in. That reminds me to check it for flatness...if it's not perfectly flat imma be pissed.

[Mark Grotenhuis]

Well it does say that it is crowned on purpose right on their web page ... its not like they are false advertising or anything. I've had one for a few years, and its just ok. Mine has broken before because those stupid rings are so hard to get in and out. They did send me a new one ... about 4 months after I called them on it. Overall I wouldn't buy it again. Especially because their plate is rather large and finding an even larger aluminum plate to replace it with is not easy.

[John Coloccia]

I dug the packaging out of the trash in my shop. It doesn't give the dimensions, which happen to be 9X12, insuring that no other router plate will ever fit in the slot. It also does not say anywhere on the packaging that the plate is crowned. I bought it from my local Woodcraft, not Rouseau's website. You would think it would mention these two, rather significant, points on the retail packaging but it doesn't (although 1/2 the packaging is dedicated to advertising their other products....a little corner with specs would have been nice).

I didn't want to turn this into a dump on Rouseau thread. I was simply saying what I didn't like about it, and how I was able to fix it rather quickly, turning what I considered to be a useless tool into a fine tool, but the more I think about it the more I'm annoyed, actually. More annoyed at myself for assuming it was standard size and flat. It would just be nice to be able to purchase something as simple as a square piece of plastic without having to sit down at a computer and research it to death.

C'est la vie. Like I said, I'm happy with it just fine now.

[glenn bradley]

Router table surfaces and table fences that are not flat insure unpredictable table routing.
Vibration is your second worst enemy in Routerdom.

+1. Dead flat is the only acceptable way to assure predictable, repeatable results. These plates have been under fire for this for years. I am surprised folks still try them. This is just the humble opinion of one who has experienced the curse of the non-flat routing path ;-)

Other opinions are obviously out there. Yet another positive example of our diversified group. I have altered my thoughts on several things based on differing opinions shared on the forums. A non-flat router plate isn't one of them though.

[Jamie Buxton]

Like you, John, I bought the Rousseau plate, without ever even thinking that it wouldn't be flat. Of course, it didn't work correctly. Like you, I found on their web site that they make it that way by design. Like you, I threw it away, and made my own from standard aluminum plate.