I have a Porter Cable 690 in my router table now. I like it: it's variable speed, which seems hard to find with the 690 these days. It's on a 9" x 12" Rousseau phenolic plate, and I can make do with it –– have for a decade. There are times, however, when it's a royal pain to back off a precise fence setting just to take the router and plate out of the table and shimmy the plate around in a trial-and-error dance to make an ultra fine height adjustment. Can you see where this is headed?
Looking at the available lifts, it's a bewildering array, and they all seem to have the same names: Rout-R-Lift, Mast-R-Lift II, etc. I can't tell them apart. Can anyone guide me through this?
Here are the features I want:
1) Both a) quick (coarse) adjustments for changing bits and b) fine adjustments for dialing in the exact setting. Does any lift have both? I only seem to see lifts that have one level of adjustment: one 360º turn for 1/8". I thought once upon a time there were lifts with two cranks for coarse and fine. Am I dreaming?
2) Strong plate, preferably aluminum
3) Smooth, fluid turning mechanism with no play, friction, jerkiness, or backlash
4) Locking to prevent height changes after setting
5) Only has to fit my 690. I do not envision getting the 3-1/4HP 7518.
6) Height adjustable to 0.001". I see that one mark is about 0.002" (1/8 of 1/64", or 1/512"). That can work as long as it's adjustable to half a mark with no slop.
7) Not the most expensive lift on the market.
I'll have to rebuild my table to fit the lift's plate, but my router table –– on the table saw extension –– is not as flat as it used to be, so it will be a nice project to beef it up anyway.
Any recommendations?