Plastic router sub-base?

[Robert Delhommer Sr]

Not exactly wood, but has to do with wood working.
I want to cut a new sub-base plate for my Dewalt router out of plastic sheet about 1/4" thick, what would be the best to cut on the scroll saw? Acrylic, Lexan or what. I would prefer something I can find easily like at a big box store in small quantities. Any experienced help and advice out there.

[pat warner]

Acrylic quite manageable. Can be cut with scroll saw but recommend a band saw with a wavy blade.
Careful drilling, 118° drills will pull the work off the table or self feed on break through.

[Phil Barrett]

I prefer Lexan/polycarbonate. It's stronger than acrylic. I use 1/4" Lexan from Tap Plastics locally but you can get it from online stores, ebay and amazon. You can cut it on the table saw with a plywood blade, drills easy and edges buff out nicely. I like the workablity of Lexan.

Acrylic will work too but be aware that it can "craze" (lots of little fracture lines) and doesn't handle impacts nearly as well as Lexan.

Here a PDF that gives machining guide lines for various plastcs. (http://www.curbellplastics.com/technical-resources/pdf/plastics-machining-guidelines.pdf)

[Marty Tippin]

Save yourself some money, time and frustration and buy a sub-base from Pat Warner instead. http://patwarner.com/ - guaranteed to be better than pretty much anything you'll cobble together at home.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Save yourself some money, time and frustration and buy a sub-base from Pat Warner instead. http://patwarner.com/ - guaranteed to be better than pretty much anything you'll cobble together at home.

Cool - had not seen that before - thanks for the reference.

On sub-bases........I know - I'm a hack - btu when I need a specialty sub-base, I chop up 1/2" ply to get the job done. For example - pigeonhole shelves - openings about 11 - 12" square - 3 wide, 6 high. Iron-on edging everywhere. I made a base for my lam trimmer, where the base was wide enough so that it would always be resting on 2 surfaces as I routed the excess edging. So, the base was maybe 6" wide x 30" long. A "one-off" that got cut up later for a different "one-off".

[Mark Woodmark]

I have three Pat Warner bases and believe they are acryic. I have wondered why they dont use Lexan as I feel it is more durable. I also feel Lexan machines easier than acrylic. Finally, I realize Lexan is a brand name for the plastic I can not spell

[Wade Lippman]

Save yourself some money, time and frustration and buy a sub-base from Pat Warner instead. http://patwarner.com/ - guaranteed to be better than pretty much anything you'll cobble together at home.

Why do you say that? AFAIK mine are perfect; what could be better about his?

[Tom M King]

I've made a bunch from Corian scraps, but my favorite material is synthetic bowling alley flooring. It's a little less than 3/8" thick, solid phenolic, and harder than any other phenolic I've ever seen. Check with your local bowling alley to see if they have any leftover scraps in the back somewhere. Not many other people have much use for it. It's also dead flat. The only drawback is that it has fake woodgrain on the hard side, although a good quality fake, but I'd still rather it didn't.

[Phil Barrett]

Save yourself some money, time and frustration and buy a sub-base from Pat Warner instead. http://patwarner.com/ - guaranteed to be better than pretty much anything you'll cobble together at home.

well, maybe prettier but my shop made sub bases work just fine and solve the problem of the moment. Frankly, I think self sufficiency is vastly under rated these days.

[Robert Delhommer Sr]

Whatever I use needs to be clear.

[Tom Henderson2]

How will you use it? Guide bushing? Guided by a straight edge against the sub base? Bearing-guided pattern bit?

it may make a big difference.

If used with a bearing-guided bit, or maybe guided along a straight-edge then home-made will probably work fine.

If you want to use a guide-bushing, then a commercially-made base would probably be best. You will be hard-pressed to keep everything concentric if you try to make it yourself.

pat Warner's products are extremely well-made and I can't say enough good about them. The offset base is an absolute Godsend for edge work. And his precision with the bushing hole can be purchased with a precision alignment setup that ensures the bit and bushing are concentric.

pay your money and take your choice. If you choose to buy rather than make, then be sure to consider Pats products.

-Tom in Ventura

[Dave Cullen]

I've just finished making an insert plate for my router table out of 3/8" Lexan and I'll offer this tidbit of advice: don't cut the center hole with standard toothed type hole saw. The heat generated will melt the plastic and leave an ugly hole, and once it cools the plug will be impossible to remove from the saw. Carbide Forstner bits and slow drill speed are the way to go.

[steven c newman]

Used a Lexan as a router table plate for years. It was bolted onto the router, instead of it's normal base plate. For the hole for a the bits? Chucked up the largest one I had at the time, lowered the base onto the spinning bit. Note: a 1/4" pilot hole was made first. A large roundover bit was used to make the first hole. It had just a steel pin as a pilot. Lined up the pilot with the pilot hole, turn the router "ON" and lowered until the bit was all the wat through.

Fellow where i got the Lexan at, said normally they use those "cut-offs" to make clipboards with at the shop where he worked.....