Freud FT3000 plate?

[James K Peterson]

I was about to just buy the Woodpecker plate for my newly purchased FT3000 but I think that the pre-drilled holes are not all there for the FT3000 (the router will mount but not allow for the table adjustments. Has anyone drilled there own plate? I wanted to use the twist locking rings with it but I think the above the table adjustment holes will be in the way. Any other FT3000 owners :confused:

[Wade Lippman]

I did a Rousseau plate last week with no problem; but just barely. If the woodpecker has a bigger opening then you would have a problem.

Just a little warning; I ignored the installation instructions to put it in crooked; now my fence can cover one of the holes! Fortunately I can widen the fence opening enough to do it, but it was almost a disaster.

[Michael McCoy]

James - I got mine from Woodpecker. It's the same plate as the FT2000 and the only holes not drilled were the lock and adjustment holes. In hind sight, if I was doing it again, I would order the plate without the holes being drilled. Matching the existing holes with the template and getting those two drilled was a bit of a chore but doable. I intentionally under sized the holes so when they weren't exactly right (and they weren't) I could enlarge the correct way. I would also get the aluminum plate since there isn't lot of material left between the inside edge and where the holes need to be drilled.

[Will Rowland]

I just picked up a new FT3000 on the cheap and thought I would bump this topic back up to see if anyone has any further feedback on the best plate to use.

Woodpeckers still apparently doesn't offer a plate pre-drilled for this router, which is not a big deal, though I am a little concerned about the size of their plate being too much on the small side.

On the router forum I saw a response suggesting this CMT plate, which is much larger:

http://www.amazon.com/CMT-999-501-11...7664229&sr=1-2 (http://www.amazon.com/CMT-999-501-11...7664229&sr=1-2)

...but it is quite expensive at $140.

Any other feedback from those who have used this router in a table?

[Randal Stevenson]

I bought two of these routers when they first went on closeout. One for my neighbor (fellow woodworker and we help each other back and forth) and one for my father. My father finally got his this year (was supposed to be last Christmas but he had a big medical scare), and I was at one of our "junk" stores and found the Rockler/Benchdog style plate for it. He seems happy with it, and has cut some plastic he obtained from somewhere to make some more inserts for it.

The neighbor, currently mounts his to a piece of plywood and screws that to a couple of sawhorses. His shop is 10'x10' so everything has to break down.