Which Router Lift

[Gary Tenney]

I am interested in the Woodpecker PRL, (Precision Router Lift). I do not have the router yet either and am thinking of a large one, either the milwaukee 5625, or PC 7518. With all the lifts to choose from, which does everyone believe the best built and most precise? Also is one router better than the other? I see the Milwaukee is available with speed and on/off at the end of a cable which is nice, what about the PC? Is that one also available with this option? Other lifts that look nice are the Jessems of course. Which do most prefe"?

[jim gossage]

i have the milwaukee 5625 and the Jessem lift. when i bought them 2 yr ago, the 5625 required a plastic shim, which was on the chintzy side and did not fit real well. the lift is well built and precise.

[Chris Rosenberger]

The Woodpecker PRL is nice heavy duty lift. I used one for several years.
I now use a Woodpecker Quick Lift. The cut quailty on the QL is just as good as with the PRL. Height adjustments & bit changes are very fast on the QL. I have a PC 7518 motor in the lift.

[Jim Becker]

The PRL is a nice lift...one of the original ones that had more precision. My favorite, though, is the Bench Dog which I now own. Very solid. Very heavy. Very "shaper-like" in quality, especially when combined with their cast iron top.

[Grant Wilkinson]

I have the Jessem Mast-r-lift XL and love it. I'd buy the lift again in a minute. I do a lot of picture frames and can easily set it to redo a profile.

I would not go with the phenolic top again, though. My first one sagged, and Jessem replaced it. Now the replacement has sagged. This seems to be the case with many people using phenolic tops.

I'm using the PC 7518 router. No complaints at all.

[Gary Redden]

I had one of the Woodpecker lifts for my router till I was running some raised panels and let the smoke out of the router. The new router I bought was a Freud FT3000VCE 3-1/4 HP. With this router you do not need to buy a lift because it is built into the router. I can raise and lower and change the router bits from above the table. It is a great tool in my opinion.

Gary

[Ken Glass]

Gary,
I have the Woodpecker quick lift. http://www.woodpeck.com/quicklift420.html I bought it for above the table bit changes and have been very satisfied with it. It is only for the PC 7518 and 7519, which are very strong accurate Routers.
Regards, Ken

[Don Bullock]

...I would not go with the phenolic top again, though. My first one sagged, and Jessem replaced it. Now the replacement has sagged. This seems to be the case with many people using phenolic tops...

Grant, thanks for that input. That's the table I was planning to get with a Rout-R-Lift FX for my Bosch 1618 router. It looks like I may have to reconsider my choice.:(

[Mike Goetzke]

I have the 5625 in a quick-lift. Have had it for almost a year now and love it. Don't know how brave you are but I modified my 5625 to have the variable speed control outside of my router cabinet - never have to open the router cabinet door:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/mbg/Unisaw%20Cabinet/th_IMG_0902_1_1.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/mbg/Unisaw%20Cabinet/IMG_0902_1_1.jpg)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/mbg/Unisaw%20Cabinet/th_IMG_0728_9_1.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/mbg/Unisaw%20Cabinet/IMG_0728_9_1.jpg)

[Bill Huber]

I have the Jessem Mast-r-lift XL and love it. I'd buy the lift again in a minute. I do a lot of picture frames and can easily set it to redo a profile.

I would not go with the phenolic top again, though. My first one sagged, and Jessem replaced it. Now the replacement has sagged. This seems to be the case with many people using phenolic tops.

I'm using the PC 7518 router. No complaints at all.

Grant could you tell me more about the sag problem you are having. I just got the Jessem table and would like to know where it sags and maybe I could put extra support in those areas of my router cabinet.

[Cary Swoveland]

...Don't know how brave you are but I modified my 5625 to have the variable speed control outside of my router cabinet...http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/mbg/Unisaw%20Cabinet/th_IMG_0728_9_1.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/mbg/Unisaw%20Cabinet/IMG_0728_9_1.jpg)

Very cool, Mike. Could you provide a brief explanation of how you did that?

Cary

[Brian Hale]

I looked and looked for almost 2 years but finally decided on the BenchDog Prolift. It's steel with more steel and nickel plating and deadly accurate.

You won't be sorry!

Brian :)

[glenn bradley]

Actually the Woodpecker QL comes in a 414 model for the Mil 5625 and a 350 model for some smaller routers. I have the 5625 but have yet to decide between the PRL or the QL. I have spoken to folks that own and run them both and feel they are equal in accuracy, just different in focus.

[jim gossage]

I have the Jessem Mast-r-lift XL and love it....I would not go with the phenolic top again, though. My first one sagged, and Jessem replaced it. Now the replacement has sagged. This seems to be the case with many people using phenolic tops.

i agree completely with this post. my jessem phenolic table had a crown in it (0.025" across the long axis) from day 1. after much gnashing of teeth, jessem replaced it. the replacement had the same problem but not as pronounced (0.015") and now in the short axis! their tech support person told me that phenolic is not perfectly flat and that 0.020" is within the specs for their phenolic. it just doesn't make sense to me to have a lift mechanism that is accurate to 0.001" in a table that can be off by 0.020" !! i plan to build a new top from 1.5" thick MDF and put the jessem lift into it.

[Gary Tenney]

Thanks everyone for your input. Does the Bench Dog Prolift have a set of zero clearance inserts for different bit sizes like the Woodpecker? This one now has me interested as well! More for me to agonize over before making a purchase. I absolutely hate to buy a tool or anything for that matter, only to find I want something else later.
Gary

[Jeff Wright]

Gary,
I have the Woodpecker quick lift. http://www.woodpeck.com/quicklift420.html I bought it for above the table bit changes and have been very satisfied with it. It is only for the PC 7518 and 7519, which are very strong accurate Routers.
Regards, Ken

I second Ken's comments having the same setup. The quicklift feature is nice. The dust collection system is outstanding using the motor housing option on the Woodpecker metal stand. I use the setup with the Incra fence system.

[Brian Hale]

It doesn't come with the zero clearance insert but one is available.

Bench Dog 40-039 Zero Clearance Insert

The lift comes with 3 different sized nickel plated inserts.

Brian :)

[Jim Becker]

Does the Bench Dog Prolift have a set of zero clearance inserts for different bit sizes like the Woodpecker?

There are three heavy metal inserts with the Bench Dog lift. They will handle most work pretty well with just enough exposure to help with dust collection. The inserts that come with the lift are quite like shaper inserts...major heavy! And it's certainly possible to make custom inserts if you feel it necessary.

[Gary Tenney]

Jim,
Do you have a seperate cast iron table, or is it tablesaw mounted? All the talk of sagging tables tops has me thinking to go Cast Iron with the heavy lifts and routers. Thanks!
Gary

[Brian Hale]

Gary, mine is installed in the BenchDog Pro cabinet with the cast iron top...

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=51929&highlight=bench

Brian :)

[Jim Becker]

Jim,
Do you have a seperate cast iron table, or is it tablesaw mounted? All the talk of sagging tables tops has me thinking to go Cast Iron with the heavy lifts and routers. Thanks!
Gary

I have the cast iron table and 4" extension, but the whole thing lives just behind my slider on the TS (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=54500).

[Gary Keedwell]

Gary,
I have the Woodpecker quick lift. http://www.woodpeck.com/quicklift420.html I bought it for above the table bit changes and have been very satisfied with it. It is only for the PC 7518 and 7519, which are very strong accurate Routers.
Regards, Ken
Not trying to hijack thread but was wondering about the endurance of the quick-lift. I remember a little controversy about the QL when it first came out. Something about the carrying posts being on the same side as opposed to being opposite each other. There was a reasonable doubt about the balance of the load . Seems like the load would be distributed better if the posts were truely one on each side of the router. Just wondering if there has been any issues with the QL.:)
Gary K.

[Larry Prince]

If you have to have a lift the Woodpecker is a good one, but....

I recently discarded my lift in favor of a Triton 3.25HP router mounted to a Woodpecker aluminum plate. You get the same ease of bit changes, ease of height adjustment, etc, but at far less cost.

The design of the Triton height adjust is a radical departure from others and once you use it you'll never want to go back. Both coarse and fine adjustment can be made with ease.

WoodCraft has the Triton router at about $220, and if you buy it you'll never cry over it. I reused the plate off of my lift but a new one will run you about $100.

My only complaint is that their wrench is a bit on the soft side and after bending it into the required shape for above-table bit changes it flexes and bends too much. Both Woodpecker and Sommerfeld Tools sell bent wrenches, with the Sommerfeld being the better of the two (Woodpecker wrenches give a VERY sloppy fit). I just havent taken the time to order one yet.

[Cary Swoveland]

I'm still debating whether to get a router lift, but if I do it will be the Jointech Smartlift, if for no other reason that I've switched to metric and the Smartlift, with its digital readout, is the only lift that displays bit height in mm's.

Cary

[Allen Bookout]

I use a Milwaukee 5625 bolted directly to a Wookpecker's aluminum plate and do not see a need for a lift. I use offset wrenches to change bits but a lot of guys just drop it out of the bottom.

[Craig Thompson]

Jim,

I had the earlier heavier version of this lift. Good, solid, easily adjustable.
Only flaw was needing to replace the 'drive' belt every so often. Hint would be, and Jessem charged to much for them. (Hint, go to your local vacuum store and pick up the belts for 1/4 the price),

Jointech used to sell the Jessem lift with their badge on it. If you listen to the folklore... they stopped selling them after the Masterlift got "cheapened", less aluminum... increased there vibration, wich is why a lot of folks like the Bench Dog units.

As for me if you are going to be spending the money... and can throw in an extra Benji, The jointech digital lift is superb, believe it won 'best tool' in either 'wood' or 'fww' as well.

[Grant Wilkinson]

Bill

The original top had sagged almost 1/16" from side to side. I spoke to Jessem, and they told me that they had beefed up their stand with two rails running from the original front frame member to the rear frame member. The new rails had levellers in them. (They are nothing more than set screws.) They sent me the rails. There was no drilling required. I installed the new rails and tried to use the levellers to flatten the top. It was impossible. The phenolic would flex fine, but all that I could do was to move where the sag was.
I went back to Jessem and they insisted that I return the table to them. The paid the freight. The agreed the top was bad and sent me a new one.
The replacement was flat when it arrived, and I left the new rails in place to keep it that way.
But, this top is now starting to sag, too.
When I did some research on the sag, I read that other manufacturers had the same problem with phenolic. One manufacturer - I forget which one - refunded the cost price to anyone who complained and stopped using phenolic.
I think phenolic would be fine if the bracing below it was very rigid and covered a lot of area. Also, that the top was actually fixed to it. The Jessem top is screwed to the perimeter frame members, but not to the additional braces. It would appear that phenolic has enough flexibility that it can stretch and contract, and if it is not screwed down at very small increments, it will deform.
Again, the lift is great, but at some point, I'm going to mount it to a better table.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

There are three heavy metal inserts with the Bench Dog lift. They will handle most work pretty well with just enough exposure to help with dust collection. The inserts that come with the lift are quite like shaper inserts...major heavy! And it's certainly possible to make custom inserts if you feel it necessary.

I have the same set up though my CI BD table is on left wing of Unisaw. I LOVE the BD lift. I could not believe how heavy and well built it is! It comes with 3 inserts. As Jim notes it would be very easy to make your own ZCI plates. They are approximately 1/4" thick and screw down versus "snap in" thin ones like Jessem, etc.

[Jim O'Dell]

I'm in the process of building my router table now. I've had the router and lift for over 3 years waiting to get to this point. I bought the Woodpecker PRL, one of their returns for about 80.00 off, and a PC 7518 to go in it. I just routed the "ledge" for it to sit on about an hour and a half ago. So I've been pulling it out of the box to test the fit. Man, that thing is hefty! I don't think I'll be pulling it in and out of the table once I get the motor mounted in it. :D So, obviously I can't tell you how I like using it yet, but it is built like a tank. Jim.

[Bill Huber]

Bill

The original top had sagged almost 1/16" from side to side. I spoke to Jessem, and they told me that they had beefed up their stand with two rails running from the original front frame member to the rear frame member. The new rails had levellers in them. (They are nothing more than set screws.) They sent me the rails. There was no drilling required. I installed the new rails and tried to use the levellers to flatten the top. It was impossible. The phenolic would flex fine, but all that I could do was to move where the sag was.
I went back to Jessem and they insisted that I return the table to them. The paid the freight. The agreed the top was bad and sent me a new one.
The replacement was flat when it arrived, and I left the new rails in place to keep it that way.
But, this top is now starting to sag, too.
When I did some research on the sag, I read that other manufacturers had the same problem with phenolic. One manufacturer - I forget which one - refunded the cost price to anyone who complained and stopped using phenolic.
I think phenolic would be fine if the bracing below it was very rigid and covered a lot of area. Also, that the top was actually fixed to it. The Jessem top is screwed to the perimeter frame members, but not to the additional braces. It would appear that phenolic has enough flexibility that it can stretch and contract, and if it is not screwed down at very small increments, it will deform.
Again, the lift is great, but at some point, I'm going to mount it to a better table.


Thanks Grant, I just may go in and place a metal tubing frame under mine.

Again Thanks