Router bit drop?

[Kyle Evans]

I am in the process of building doors for kitchen cabinets. As I was routing the last rail(cope and stick) all of a sudden the bit appeared to drop about 1/32 of an inch. I assumed a piece of sawdust was stuck underneath my jig so I ran it through again and smoothed it out. Once I took the piece out I observed it had indeed dropped and this piece is no good now. I am using the kreg router table(the bigger one) with a kreg router lift with a Milwaukee 6420(I think). The router is about 4 years old and have never had any issues with this. The router bit is white side Nd also has never had any problems. I checked the bit and it was still tight in the collet, nothing on the table was loose or appeared to have moved. Even checked the set screws holding the router into the lift and they were still tight. Any advise or insights would be appreciated.

[Lee Schierer]

I've noticed on my table mounted Freud that it will sometimes bind slightly on the posts when I try to raise or lower it using the height adjusting screw while it is hanging upside down in the table. If it binds while you are lowering, the vibration caused by cutting can loosen it up and it will drop a bit. I haven't tried to measure it so I can't tell you what the drop is. I try to insure that it is not bound up by grabbing both handles and giving it a tug and then recheck my set up before making the cut.

[glenn bradley]

If the bit is tight in the collet, the lift or the lift carriage is where I would look. Are you using the brake?

[George Bokros]

Had a similar issue but my bit raised. It turned out my collet was bad, the bit slipped in the collet.

[Tom M King]

Collets do wear out.

[Kyle Evans]

This makes sense and I believe may be my problem. I have had alot of very fine dust accumulating on the posts of the lift. I don't believe it to be the. Collet as the bit is not loose or working its way out. I will try lee's advise. If that doesn't work then a new collet will be in order. Thanks for the suggestions, will update if I learn anything