Veritas router table

[Robert Coldwater]

Hi, I’m a newbie here. I recently acquired a used Veritas Router table top. It’s steel, 3/16 thick. It however did not come with the plastic inserts. I am wondering if anybody might have one of these tables, and have some of the half inch inserts. They are not available directly from Veritas, or any of their suppliers in North America South America or Europe. I am also looking for the jointer sticks. Does anyone have any information that may be helpful? Thanks very much.

[David Buchhauser]

Hi Robert,
I assume you mean the insert has a 1/2" hole in the center. What is the inside diameter of the hole in the router table top, and what is the thickness of the insert you need to fit into the hole? Perhaps there is another brand that will fit, or maybe I can make one for you.
David

[Jim Becker]

Did you actually contact Lee Valley and ask if the parts you need are available? If you did and they cannot help you, someone with a CNC can likely make you replacements.

[Mike Kees]

Did you actually contact Lee Valley and ask if the parts you need are available? If you did and they cannot help you, someone with a CNC can likely make you replacements.

Robert I would phone/email these guys. The new website messed everything up a bit. They were still selling the inserts right up until the website overhaul.

[Robert Coldwater]

Hi all, thanks for the help. Before posing the question I spent hours on the phone with Julie at Lee Valley and someone at Veritas. Lee valley had 33 of the 3 5/8” dieter 3/16” thick inserts with 1 1/2” cemented holes. They had a variety of the others as well, like zero clearance and counterbore inserts. But no 1/2 inch hole inserts which are the basic one. And no jointing shims. I bought up much of what they had. Really would like the 1/2” insert for smaller bits. I’m new to routing & understand (may be wrong) that the smaller bits are safer with the smaller hole in the insert.

if anyone (David) could make some of these for me I would be grateful and joyful. Jointing shims too?
once I receive the inserts with the 1 1/2” hole I could send one to you as a model. They have an off set groove that screws into the table with a pin wrench.

thanks for the quick responses.

Robert

[David Buchhauser]

Hi Robert,
I don't think I can PM you unless you are a contributor. So you can contact me via email at dbuch@cox.net to discuss.
Thanks,
David

[Frederick Skelly]

Threads like this are another reason I so enjoy this site and make me glad to kick-in a little every year to keep it going. Good on ya folks.

[Mike Kees]

Robert are you talking about using the fence of your router table with a straight cutter for edge routing ? You can use anything for shims,arborite etc.

[Jim Becker]

Robert are you talking about using the fence of your router table with a straight cutter for edge routing ? You can use anything for shims,arborite etc.

That's true if he cannot find replacements for the original shims...this setup supported the edge jointing process natively "out of the box".

[Robert Coldwater]

Thank you David, I will be in touch.
And Mike I am planning on using the router as an edge jointer. The Veritas router table system used to have shims available. Here is the info on them.

Plastic shims are 0.010", 0.020" and 0.030" thick and 12-3/4" long Color coded for thickness Use a straight bit in router set for 0.010" to 0.060" of cut and install matching thickness of shims behind outfeed sub-fence; loosen sub-fence screws, drop in one or more color-coded shims and retighten Micro-adjust substitutes for an adjustable infeed table and shims provide an adjustable outfeed

This is straight off the Veritas website.

i’ve been looking online for other solutions to be able to edge route.
I am a rich man, but I don’t have money so using an existing tool to do the job is at a premium.

The timber frame that I have fashioned with my wife, we are building without the use of any poisons. No glues, no caulking no plywood or OSB, no paint, etc.

we have milled much of the material ourselves from trees we’ve taken down on the property, or from buying truckloads of logs from loggers that we know, and milling them with friends who have sawmills. So they are rough. And I need to make sure the edges are straight, because I am making a bunch of the rough-cut, and dimensional materials that we have, which is 2 x 4, 2 x 6, 2 x 8, 2 x 10 into tongue and groove subfloor boards.

So first I want to remove bow and twist from about 1200 square feet ( I have not done the math on how much linear feet this is) with a combination of tablesaw and planer, and hand plane, joint the boards, plane them to a uniform thickness (hopefully 1 1/4”) and then put a tongue on one side and a groove on the other. tons of work, I know, but I am working with the materials we have, some of which have been sitting for three years, well stacked stickered and covered, but outdoors, while I have produced the other materials needed to complete the addition (28’x34’ 1 1/2 stories) Now I am back to building, and need to get the subfloor made. Thus the need to joint on my router.



thanks much for your interest and input, and I hope that this was not too much information.

i will look into other materials or options to work for infeed outfeed adjustment. Lots out ther, including one this site.

planning to make a planer sled. In addition to all of the lumber, I have 11 cords of boards that have live edges on both sides. Was planning on making those into live edge wood siding, but since we have decided on a straw bale wrap for insulation around the timber frame, the finish exterior is a traditional natural hydraulic lime instead. So I have all of this live edge, 1 inch thick 16+ foot long boards, some of them 23 inches at the bottom and 17 inches at the tip plenty of material for projects in the future.

[Mike Kees]

Robert I have jointed wood on a router table like you are attempting to do. My table was homemade but the principle is the same,all you need is the "outfeed" side of your Router table lined up with the cutting edge on your bit. This is the side that you shim. The shim thickness determines the depth of cut . The "infeed "side is now offset whatever the thickness of the shim is. Not magic,Lee Valley just made a kit to do this in tiny increments which you probably do not need. I think you may also be attempting to do too much with a router table in jointing all that stock.Good luck.

[Bob Jones 5443]

Robert, try these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They are precision plastic shims, 5" x 20". It's a set of 14 thicknesses including the 0.010", 0.020", and 0.030" you want, plus many others starting at 0.0005". There are lots of other uses for a set like this in the woodshop.

Good luck.
Bob

[Tony Shea]

I also own this steel router table top. I unfortunately do not want to sell any inserts as I use this table top. I was just posting as I am very surprised that Lee Valley did away with this setup. The steel top is great and the design to hold the router is also great. There are no specific holes you need to drill for specific brand routers and in general is just a simple setup. For some reason they did away with this router table for the bechtop CNC'd plywood version that honestly doesn't even seem close in terms of quality. I don't own the fence that is designed to go with the steel router table but would love to as it looks very well made. For now I just clamp a shop made fence to the table but some day will pick up the original fence designed for this setup, if I can ever find it. I love the idea of the all steel router table as magnets work all over the top which can be very useful for feather boards, fences, etc.

[John Stankus]

Hi all, thanks for the help. Before posing the question I spent hours on the phone with Julie at Lee Valley and someone at Veritas. Lee valley had 33 of the 3 5/8” dieter 3/16” thick inserts with 1 1/2” cemented holes. They had a variety of the others as well, like zero clearance and counterbore inserts. But no 1/2 inch hole inserts which are the basic one. And no jointing shims. I bought up much of what they had. Really would like the 1/2” insert for smaller bits. I’m new to routing & understand (may be wrong) that the smaller bits are safer with the smaller hole in the insert.

if anyone (David) could make some of these for me I would be grateful and joyful. Jointing shims too?
once I receive the inserts with the 1 1/2” hole I could send one to you as a model. They have an off set groove that screws into the table with a pin wrench.

thanks for the quick responses.

Robert

Shouldn't it be trivial to take a zero clearance insert and make it a 1/2 clearance insert?

[Robert Coldwater]

Thank you everyone for your input. David has offered to make inserts for me, so when I receive the 11/2” insert from Veritas I will send him one and he may be able to fashion some for me. As a newbie to this forum I am pleased to find so much good spirited and generous help. Also impressed with the amount of information on various forums.