Rich Riddle
02-06-2014, 3:29 PM
I installed a Wixey digital height indicator on a Incra Mast-R-Lift. The documentation left about everything to be desired. The router lift in the drawings in no way resembled what any router lift I have seen looks like. Figured it was an easy thing to photograph the job. It only takes about five or ten minutes if you can figure out the directions.
1. The parts. They can be installed one of two ways, but this is the primary one.
281804
2. Unit assembled. Took five seconds.
281805
Note: The base of the Incra was already tapped for 1/4" fine threads, so I enlarged the hole of the L bracket that attached to the base. If your router lift is not tapped, you will have to drill the base and thread it with the drill bit and self-tapping bolt included.
3. Temporarily install the unit to the base to determine where to drill your router lift for the cross-piece. You are going to make one included bar (they give you three) into an L bracket. Where you bend it depends upon your lift. The Incra's was bent at about the 3/4" mark.
281808
4. Compare the sending unit height to the height to the router lift mechanism height in both the fully retracted and fully extended positions. You are looking for a point where one of the silver arms can be "attached" to the support member of he router lift itself. In picture 4, the support member is the thick black horizontal piece that moves with the router lift.
281809
5. After you determine what point will intersect well, you remove the main unit so you can drill the black member, like here.
281810
6. After drilling the main unit, you attach the bar you bent to the support arm. On the other end you place the rare earth magnet so that it will ride up and down on one of the "finger extensions" of the main unit.
281811
7. Reattach the Wixey main unit and adjust as needed.
281812
The rest is simply running the CAT-5 cable to the main unit and out to the indicator. You screw the indicator onto the router table at a location of your choice. Lastly, the calibration begins.
It took far longer to write this post than to attach this unit, but I had to figure out what "direction 2" meant. That took longer than the rest of the process all together. Perhaps most of you are quicker on the uptake.
1. The parts. They can be installed one of two ways, but this is the primary one.
281804
2. Unit assembled. Took five seconds.
281805
Note: The base of the Incra was already tapped for 1/4" fine threads, so I enlarged the hole of the L bracket that attached to the base. If your router lift is not tapped, you will have to drill the base and thread it with the drill bit and self-tapping bolt included.
3. Temporarily install the unit to the base to determine where to drill your router lift for the cross-piece. You are going to make one included bar (they give you three) into an L bracket. Where you bend it depends upon your lift. The Incra's was bent at about the 3/4" mark.
281808
4. Compare the sending unit height to the height to the router lift mechanism height in both the fully retracted and fully extended positions. You are looking for a point where one of the silver arms can be "attached" to the support member of he router lift itself. In picture 4, the support member is the thick black horizontal piece that moves with the router lift.
281809
5. After you determine what point will intersect well, you remove the main unit so you can drill the black member, like here.
281810
6. After drilling the main unit, you attach the bar you bent to the support arm. On the other end you place the rare earth magnet so that it will ride up and down on one of the "finger extensions" of the main unit.
281811
7. Reattach the Wixey main unit and adjust as needed.
281812
The rest is simply running the CAT-5 cable to the main unit and out to the indicator. You screw the indicator onto the router table at a location of your choice. Lastly, the calibration begins.
It took far longer to write this post than to attach this unit, but I had to figure out what "direction 2" meant. That took longer than the rest of the process all together. Perhaps most of you are quicker on the uptake.