filling holes in a phenolic router plate?

[Curt Harms]

I have one of the ubiquitous black phenolic router plates with the snap-in rings. I have the FT2000E router mounted parallel to the long axis of the top--I had to with the handles attached. This presents a problem with a router raizer and fence. The fence sits halfway over the hole where the socket to turn the router raizer sits. I removed the handles and can now rotate the router so the router raizer socket is accessible with the fence in position. My concern is how many holes I can punch in the plate without weakening it. Two of the three holes are within 3/4" of the opening. Could I fill the existing holes with epoxy and drill new? Or just suck it up and buy a new plate? Thanks for any thoughts.

[Tom Rick]

I would drill new holes without a second thought.

My router drawer has a stack of plates in varying states of abuse and none have been killed by a few extra holes.
You might also take this as an opportunity to get up to speed with making custom plates. It's handy to be able to knock out a new plate from sheet stock as duty calls for another.

[Joe Scharle]

I would think you'd want to go to metal with this, anyway.

[Lee Schierer]

Every hole you drill in the plate weakens it to a degree. The FT-2000 only uses 3 screws to hold it to the router plate, so I wouldn't be concerned about drilling three more holes unless one is extremely close to an existing hole. Patching the holes in the phenolic is a waste of time other than cosmetics. Filling the holes will not add significant strength back to the plate.

If in the future a crack starts to develop, you will know the desired hole locations for your new plate.

[Curt Harms]

Thanks to everyone for their input. I'll go ahead and redrill it and see what happens. I've thought about aluminum and I've thought about making my own plate. If I were confident about being able to make inserts, I've found 9 X 12 1/4" aluminum plate at metal supermarket for less than $10. When I go to 3/8" though it goes to around $34.

[Curt Harms]

If I were confident about being able to make inserts, I've found 9 X 12 1/4" aluminum plate at metal supermarket for less than $10. When I go to 3/8" though it goes to around $34.

Ha!! I thought it would be around $10. It was around $30/piece plus driving an hour each way to get it. There's a metal recycling place close by that we've taken appliances and stuff to. I wondered if they had any aluminum plate. Called 'em up and “yup, I think we got some”. Picked up a straight edge, feeler gauge and jig saw with metal cutting blade and set forth. They had several pieces of 1/4” aluminum plate, most of which were too big for my purposes. However they had one piece that was a little over 1' X 2'. Pulled it out, laid a straight edge on it several directions and checked with a feeler gauge. Hmmm, pretty good I couldn't get a .008 leaf under the straight edge. Took it to the office and paid $8.00= $1/ lb. Buying something similar at retail would have run me $50-$60. I now have enough for 2 plates plus.

I've never cut aluminum before (on purpose:o) so I bought a couple 7.25” carbide tipped Irwin blades on sale for $2.99 each. I figured if I trashed 'em both I wasn't out much. Cutting on a cabinet saw went better than I'd imagined, no issues at all. Aluminum chips all over but they vacuum up. I tried routing with a 1/2” straight bit in a P-C router with a Jasper circle cutting jig attached. That didn't work as smoothly as I'd have liked but it worked. Routed 1/2” circle a little over 1/8” deep then switched to a 1/4” spiral end mill and reset the distance. I also sprayed some WD-40 as lube and that went much better. The inserts are 1/4” plywood with rabbets routed so they sit flush in the opening. I'll probably remake these, possibly in acrylic but these'll do for the moment. To paraphrase Red Green, they're temporary unless they work.:D A nice aspect of this is that I can make as many insets of different sizes as I want. I never really cared for using a rabbeting bit with the phenolic plate. There was too much space between the bit and the larger ring for my comfort, especially with smaller pieces. So far the inserts just sit in the opening. I'll come up with a means to clamp them in if need be. It was a fun exercise and the cheapest aluminum plates I'd found were $59, The nice woodpeck ones run $99 and another $40 for extra rings. This was $4 for material plus some tinkering.
165469

165470

[Larry Rasmussen]

Seriously Curt, thanks for posting your experience with this. I am a little curious about routing the hole for the various inserts- that has been the head scratcher for me when contemplating similar projects. When you say it didn't go as well as you would have liked could you elaborate a little more? Are the bits you used totally throw away now?

Thanks again,
Larry R
Seattle

[Curt Harms]

Hi Larry

The cutters were not damaged at all. In fact the throw-away saw blade looked to be in new condition. I think the problem might have been with the aluminum chips sticking to the cutting edge of straight router bits. The 1/4" HSS upcut spiral end mill seemed to work much better, but I also used WD-40 as a lube on the 1/4" end mill. I didn't use anything on the 1/2" straight cutter. If I were doing it again, I'd use a 1/4" upcut spiral bit and cut out a circle about 3 5/8" to clear a panel raising bit then use a rabbeting bit to form the shoulder for the inserts to sit on.

I refined my insert making procedure a little. I cut a 1/2" plywood circle a little oversize then refined it on a belt sander 'til it was a nice snug fit. Then cut 1/4" blanks similarly oversized, used carpet tape the fasten them to the 1/2" template. Run the blank/template around a flush trimming router bit and the 1/4" templates fit nice and snug as well and I can make as many as I want. I think it'll be useful to be able to have inserts with holes that are snug to various sized bits, rather than a choice of 3 like I was getting with the phenolic plate.