Router mounting

[Art Moore]

Maybe a silly question, but...

Why are all the router mounting plates I've seen rectangular? Why not a round plate? Seems like it would distribute the weight of the router better, and would be a heck of a lot easier to install.

TIA,

Art

[Curt Harms]

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&cat=1,43053&p=50264
;)

Curt

[Jim Chilenski]

I'm guessing here but a rectangular plate doesn't need to be attached to the router table, it can just be set into it. A round plate would need to be screwed or attached to prevent the plate from being spun by the torque of the router.

Jim

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Probably the best easiest answer is because of manufacturing contraints.

Square shapes produce less scrap and are easier to cut out as you don't need a huge assed dedicated punch and die set. You can cut squares on a shear and trim the corners on a wide variety of machines .

There are CNC sheet metal nibblers that can make any damn shape as well as CNC wire EDM machines. I submit those hugely expensive machines aren't owned by the companies who make things as simple and basic as router plates.

ERGO: you get what they produce and they produce the most cost effective geometry possible.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I think it was Newton's third law that said for every action, there is an equal and oposite reaction. This means when router starts, there is an equal amount of reverse rotation of body of router. What would keep it from rotating if mounted to a round plate? Also, some ( a lot) of routers have to be mounted diagonally on plate for handles to clear opening in table. If you saw original program on router table on NYW, you will remember that Norm had to cock router to get it through opening. If using a round plate, the diameter would have to be greater than the width of router at handles. This would mean that the weight would be carried farther from table top, requiring a MUCH THICKER/STRONGER/STIFFER plate. Quickie Quiz- Know why man hole lids are round? No matter how you turn them, they won't drop through hole in top of man hole.

[Jerry Olexa]

I'm guessing here but a rectangular plate doesn't need to be attached to the router table, it can just be set into it. A round plate would need to be screwed or attached to prevent the plate from being spun by the torque of the router.

Jim

I think Jim has the right idea..Screwing the round inset plate now takes time. That would double it

[Art Moore]

Thanks for all the responses, guys. I hadn't considered Newton when thinking about this, so it looks like if I want a round plate then there'd have to be a stop of some sort underneath the table to hold the plate in place. NOW... Anybody want to take a shot as to why they don't make a router that's actually designed for table mounting (i.e., no handles to get in the way, graphics actually printed where you can read them right-side up, etc.)?

[tod evans]

NOW... Anybody want to take a shot as to why they don't make a router that's actually designed for table mounting (i.e., no handles to get in the way, graphics actually printed where you can read them right-side up, etc.)?

this`ll probably get some folks fired up? because a router is a handheld tool, it was never intended to be used as a shaper that`s why the graphics are placed on the unit the way they are and why it has handles...02 tod

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

NOW... Anybody want to take a shot as to why they don't make a router that's actually designed for table mounting (i.e., no handles to get in the way, graphics actually printed where you can read them right-side up, etc.)?
Ha Ha Ha Ha I have been looking for a shaper spindle assembly - which I think is exactly what you described - sort of - kind of.

I am guessing Product Liability and Insurance may be part of the issue. We aren't corporations nor are we seen as experts. We are consumers and in the minds of the gubbermint and the courts, consumers are drooling morons who need to be protected from themselves.

ERGO: if they sold a tool that is so inherrently unsafe as would be an upside down router sans handles and other safety features and with boatloads of power that is intended to go solely in a table BUT might possibly be used by some poor slob with six kids and a mortgage as a free hand router they'd be in court paying for lost fingers all day every day.
Soooo they don't sell it.

Instead they do sell Shapers. Ever try to get a shaper spindle assembly as a stand alone purchase? You end up simply deciding it's cheaper to buy the whole machine.

That's what I'm guessing.