All I want is a flat router table

[Steven Bolton]

I bought a router plate from Rockler which is a "jessum" type. I have a nice straight edge. I have had problems leveling the plate in the rockler router table.

I put the straight edge on the blue plate and held a flash light on the other side. Wow!! I probably could have put a playing card where the light was shining.

How thick is a playing card.

I have had this product quite awhile and just noticed this. I assume there is no real fix, as the top appears to be aluminum. It is too late to return it.

Anyone else had this? What the heck to do have to do to get a flat router table top and plate? Phenolic?


Steve Bolton

[glenn bradley]

Alter the rabbet, not the plate. There are leveling screws in the plate. If they are not proud of the plate bottom and the plate is still proud of the table surface you need to increase the depth of the rabbet in which the plate sits. Use a rabbet bit that will cut equal to the depth of the existing rabbet (3/8" from the edge on my Rockler table but I have a plate not a lift).

Ride the inner edge of the existing hole as a guide and lower the rabbet sufficient to bring the plate just past flush with the levelers retracted. Now use the levelers to raise the plate even with the table. Did that make sense?

[Dennis Lopeman]

maybe I'm not understanding - but here's a suggestion/fix

use shims to get the level correct - or maybe washers or something like that...

I know thats simple, so maybe I don't know what is really wrong...

can you take a picture to "demonstrate" your problem?

[Dennis Lopeman]

funny - that guy and I posted at the same time!!

(pssst! he sounds like he's know what he's talking about - just ignore me!)

[Bill Huber]

Well if the plate is not flat then about the only thing you could do is have it milled.

I have a Jessem table and FX lift and plate, it did take me a long time to get it all flat but I did. I have checked it from time to time and it is still flat, I did put silicon in the holes to keep the screws from turning.

[glenn bradley]

pssst! he sounds like he's know what he's talking about

I wouldn't count on it :D:D:D

[Steve Flavin001]

screws that show in the photographs?? :confused: There are 8 set screws, in addition to 4 or 6 larger ones from below that can be used as Glenn points out in his note also. Am I missing something?

[Steven Bolton]

I can take a photo of it but not until tomorrow night.

Thanks for the input.

What is the ideal router top made of? Phenolic.

I have a notion to make a router table with no plate at all. Two peices of MDF glued together.

I noticed that Pat Waner's table is very simple. No router plate.

Steve Bolton

[Steven Bolton]

I meant to take a photo of the plate with the straight edge on it. It is clearly not flat.

Sadly, the solutions so far will not work in my humble opinion. I think the blue router plate would have to be made flat.

Using the suggestions would make it level in some areas and not in others.

Thanks for the input.

sb

[glenn bradley]

I meant to take a photo of the plate with the straight edge on it. It is clearly not flat.

Sadly, the solutions so far will not work in my humble opinion. I think the blue router plate would have to be made flat.

Using the suggestions would make it level in some areas and not in others.

Thanks for the input.

sb

Sorry Steve. I didn't get that the plate itself was defective. Obviously my suggestion is for a good plate that is not seating right. I don't know how Jessem's service is but I have had items that sat for 6 months before I got around to finding out they were bad. I mostly got taken care of if I used the phone instead of email and plead my case. Good luck.

Hey guys, Jessem doesn't do that silly crowning thing the Rousseau does do they?

P.s. Bummer. I just looked up the rousseau and it is a Jessem, rebadged. I suspect a built in crown. What were they thinking?

[Keith Outten]

Steven,

You want a perfectly flat router table that will stay flat?

Check out this thread. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=85234&highlight=chris+brown+router+table

Then click on the Quality Grinding banner at the bottom of this page. OK this is a shameless plug for one of our advertisers but the quality of their work is excellent and I couldn't be more happy with the router extension and lift they made for me. If you want a stand alone router table made from steel that is machined for a lift just give Chris Brown a call.

[Les Zielinski]

There is also Marc Sommerfeld's table that will work. No plate required.
Les

[John Schreiber]

. . .You want a perfectly flat router table that will stay flat?

Check out this thread. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=85234&highlight=chris+brown+router+table . . .
That looks pretty substantial. (This post nominated for understatement of the week.);):D

[Steven Bolton]

I read a little of a book by Bill Hylton last night to cool off. He seems to advocate a router table without a plate. This book shows how to make one.

The metal thing is nice but if it fell on me I would be pinned in my shop and missing for weeks. My wife (knock on wood) never comes up there.

Steve Bolton

[Peter Quinn]

You want a perfectly flat router table that will stay flat? Have you considered a Felder 700 series tilting shaper with router collet spindle? Now that is going to stay flat. As will your wood working budget after spending that much on a router set up.

Wow, you would have to have both sides of that aluminum plate milled or shim the lift in a delicate manner so the shaft of the router is perpendicular after having the top milled flat. Nasty business I'd say. Does it affect your work? I have wasted considerable time chasing out inaccuracies that my straight edge and dial indicator could highlight but which didn't really affect my work at the end of the day.

[Steven Bolton]

I have not considered a Felder 700. In fact I don't even know where I would get one.

What I am considering is following the advise of Bill Hylton who has a nice router table with no router plate. It would cost a fortune to have the rockler plate ground down and it would be too thin by the time it was done.

Simply looks good to me right now. Router guru Pat Warner doesn't have a fancy top either. I think what is good for those fellows is certainly good enough for me.

Steve Bolton

[Peter Quinn]

I have seen a picture of a router table in Art Espinet Carpenter's shop which was little more than a good router screwed to a stout top with a hole in it, and a stout well jointed board for a fence held on with two clamps. The entire apparatus sat atop a 50-gal drum for a base and dust collection. Few in search of the 'Ultimate router table can make things like Art Carpenter did.

Just for goofs you should check out Felderusa.com, click on machinery range, then shapers. That would be the other extreme...50 gal drum versus $10,000 Austrian engineered freight train!