Mast-R-Lift Excel II table sag .045”

[James Kirkpatrick]

New Excel II table package arrived over Xmas, table had noticeable sag in the center right out of the box. Contacted Jessem who is on holiday until Jan 4. Decided to assemble table in the meantime to see if stiffeners would correct it. Assembled unit still shows significant sag, roughly 1.1mm or 45 mils, with or without Bosch 1617EVS installed. I couldn’t find a spec for flatness anywhere so am asking the broader community, what is acceptable flatness? This much dip is easily visible with the naked eye, so seems to me any routed surface is going to reveal this contour and mess up the work piece. Any advice welcome.

[glenn bradley]

Anything other than dead flat will be reflected in the milling operation. Not so bad for edge profile stuff but, fatal for any joinery operation. At that price point I would expect to have a hard time even measuring any deviance with what I have available in my shop. The top appears to be phenolic(?). This material is pretty flexible and should be able to be straightened out with supports and shims. If the deviation in in actual thickness or surface milling that is another story. The nicest router table in the world can be rendered mediocre if things won't align properly. The answers you get will vary with what people are doing on a router table and what their tolerance for a good fit is. With a dip lilke that in the feed path none of my joinery would pass muster.

[Robert Engel]

No, I can't see how 1.1mm over 32" would be much of a factor. I've never checked it, but I doubt my table is that flat.

Most of the time you can press wood down on the table enough to cancel that out.

You can see that?

[David Zaret]

if you're doing cope and stick joints with an accurate cutter set, .045" is unacceptable. i would fight for a flat one.

[Mike Shields]

My Jessem phenolic (the only top they make) with a 1617EVS that is at least 10 years old doesn't have a sag where the router mount is, it's along the entire t-track.
I made an attempt to contact Jessem and found like you that their office is closed until next week.

Jessem, in my experience from past issues, has very good customer service.

[Frank Pratt]

You will not get good results with that much sag. Have them send you another.

[Jim Becker]

I would be seriously concerned about that and go back to the vendor. That's a "yuge" sag...

[Dave Seng]

My experience with Jessem has been that they have excellent customer service - I'd just wait until they get back in the office and give them a call again. Their business depends on maintaining their high quality and reputation.