# Prep of the router for new table



## RussianRouter (14 Jun 2010)

I service my power tools every 12 months or when I'm in the mood? just grease or renew the brushes.

Anyway my Ryobi Router hadn't had a service for two years so I stripped it down with intentions of finding a way to lock the
Finger button in when its in the router table,piece of cake  will explain at the picture stage below.

I also found out how to put an extension bar on the routers locking lever. 
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Onto the service,I was amazed how much sawdust had entered the internal routers plastic body shocked pic shows how much.
Cleaned it all out from every crevice.

All nice and clean,bearings were fine and a little smidgen of grease applied.

Took a look at the finger plunge switch and noted that nothing would be in the way for the idea I had to lock it in place. 

Reassembled the router taking care to make sure any wires were not trapped and in their respective channels,alls well two halfs of the case back together and screws tightened up,brushes back in and plugged in....everything hunky dory 

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This first pic shows how much sawdust came from the router,about one egg cup full thereabouts,one of the pitfalls of routing in the table because I noticed two fan blades in the housing one on front of the motors armature and one on the back presumably the front sucks air in and the back dispels it? if thats the case then not all sawdust gets sucked up by the hoover.







I have an idea how to combat that using a hoover filter disc,but that'll come when I've built the router table and mounted the router.

You see a close up of the plunge finger button in its closed position state,this is held in by a self tapper screw,when I dismantled the router I had a good look at the workings of the switch and yellow plastic finger button,the switch's arm was going into the button right in the center and wasn't touching the sides of the yellow finger button.

Now that I know there's no obstruction and once the router was put back together I got out my small hobby drill and put a tiny drill bit in the drill,held the finger button in on the router with one of those tie securing clip(rubber band will have done but could not find one) I made sure that the button was firmly in fully closed position and carefully drilled a hole in the routers plunge arm and through the yellow finger button,you know when to stop as you can feel no resistance as the dill emerges through the plastic just as you would drilling through a piece of wood.

Plugged the router in the mains and fired it up as per normal,every thing fine.
Unplugged from mains and got a small self tapper(Did not want to make the hole too big) pressed finger button in the locked position and screwed self tapper through hole just drilled,plugged router into mains and switched on...magic it works.... router started up slowly and spun up to its set RPM.







When not in table all I have to do is unscrew the self tapper and we're back to normal.

Thats that out of the way 
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Next came how to lock the router in a set position in the table without bending down and bashing my head on the table.

Again this came about during the dismantling of the router.

On taking the yellow locking arm off via insert screw holding it onto the brass left hand threaded stub,I noticed it had a splined head, well that immediatly lit up the light in my head...whats got splines on it?...a rachet spanner socket has,searched me tool box and found two 10mm sockets,one was Hexagonal and the other Splined...no need to guess which one fitted 

This seated just right over the stubs head spline,now it was a case of how to operate the socket from the edge of the table,a long extension shaft for the rachet was too heavy and too big so I started looking and sifting through a box of junk and came across my old B&D router guide,the ones you get with every router from new.
The guide rods on most router guides are unscrewable,I took one off fed it into the back of the rachet socket put the screw and locking washer in the splined side of the socket and screwed it into the guide rod...hey presto a turnable locking shaft for the undertable router  now I need to find my tap and die set to tap a thread on the other end of the rod to attach an Handle.












Another obstruction bites the dust. 
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Now the biggest headache of the router table...the dreaded lift.

Sure there are devices out there on the market but at a price and I wanted mine fom materials that I had knocking about and what better than an motor driven router lift 

What you see in the pic is the motor out of an old Bosch piece of junk ie Cordless drill,well the drill was working but the battery gave up the ghost and too damn expensive to replace(By the way anyone want to buy the bosch 1 hour charger for £10 plus P&P? PM me)

Stripped the drill down took out motor and start button,I realised if this works it will be a beaut as not only will the router lift be motorised I can forward or Reverse the motor to higher or lower the router.
Speed is not a problem even though the motor has a speed setting its still a tad fast but I'll tackle that when the Table is built.







When I have built the table I will bring this thead back up and show the above ideas in place in case anyone wishes to implement any in their own router table?

Thanks for reading,hope you enjoyed this long winded post?


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## RussianRouter (14 Jun 2010)

Why are my pictures not showing? I think I've done the right thing here? by the tag lines.

Sussed,I had a space after "jpg"


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## Qwibble (14 Jun 2010)

The motor driven router lift sounds fantastic, it'll be interesting seeing how the practicalities work out. Keep us posted.


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## RussianRouter (14 Jun 2010)

Hi Quibble

They're powerful little motors in these cordless drills and I'm hoping it'll do the job? 

I will keep the group posted as soon as I've built the new router table because I'm looking for another 1/2 router for out of the table use and leave this one in the table permanent


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## aesmith (14 Jun 2010)

What are you using to power the motor?


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## Qwibble (14 Jun 2010)

I'm sure some . *bright spark* is bound to come along and post the obvious answer..


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## RussianRouter (14 Jun 2010)

aesmith":1gxunk4c said:


> What are you using to power the motor?



Simple answer to that is a PC or CB power supply that I bought sometime last year in the local market,the supply is rated at 5amp and is adequate for the motor.

I wasalsothinking PC power supply butthis might take some tinkering as the modern PSU needed something attached to one of its powerails to bring it out of its dorment state.

Plenty of 5amp power supplies on ebay ie old Laptop one are about 4A to 5A.


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## Digit (15 Jun 2010)

One tip that you might find useful George is, if you are mounting the router permanently, remove the plunge return springs! 

Roy.


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## OldWood (15 Jun 2010)

Digit said:


> One tip that you might find useful George is, if you are mounting the router permanently, remove the plunge return springs!
> 
> Roy.



Thanks for that, Roy. I think I have seen it somewhere before, but if it can be done (not so sure how easy on my cheaper 1/2" machine), it certainly should take the strain off the clamp and make height adjustment so much easier.

Rob


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## RussianRouter (15 Jun 2010)

> remove the plunge return springs!



I'm ahead of you,Roy 

This will relieve the strain on the motor.


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## OldWood (15 Jun 2010)

RussianRouter said:


> This will relieve the strain on the motor.



Why ? Strain on the clamp, yes, but why on the motor ?

Rob


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## RussianRouter (15 Jun 2010)

I'm talking about the Motor to lift the router,Rob

If I left the plunge springs on, the motor would burn out in no time.

The plunge spings are only there for plunge routing and are not needed if the router is in situ permanent in the table.


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## Digit (15 Jun 2010)

Exactly.

Roy.


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## RussianRouter (15 Jun 2010)

This has taught me a lesson....buy those bloody motors frrom the car booty's or any items that contain a motor...because you never know when they might come in handy.

Seen one over a month ago in a box and it was a pearler of a motor,it was about 6" to 8" circumference 6" long and 12volts....arrgh! why didn't I buy it.


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## OldWood (16 Jun 2010)

RussianRouter said:


> I'm talking about the Motor to lift the router,Rob
> .



Doh !!! Brain had switched off. 

 
Rob


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