Interwood router conversion

[dicke]

Hi All
The interwood router that I have is 3 phase, with a frequency changer.
but no collets or nut ,so I am thinking of making brackets to hold a normal router. and doing away with the present interwood head set up. Has anyone done this? And more to the point is an overhead router useful. Perhaps Scrit can help once again ( see my previous post )
Dick

 

[murrayeast]

Hi Dick

Have you considered looking on the interwood website www.interwood.co.uk.

They have collets and collet nuts etc...

I find the OH router very useful and would not consider modifying it. As it stands you have a good machine built to do a specific job; by changing the head you could introduce a whole load of new problems. The interwood is probably built better than any modern router and it would prob cost more to get the brackets made than to buy a collet and nut!!

murray

 

[Scrit]

Hi Murray

We dealt with the issues about getting collets here. As you can see it's not a straight forward problem. I think that part of the issue is that the OP is trying to take a single-purpose production machine and turn it into a more general machine without making much of an investment. Unfortunately the cheapest currently available lightweight pin routers are somewhere in the £5k bracket with heavier industrial machines being twice that price and more new (which hopefully puts £90 +VAT, as opposed to £25 for a deWalt router, in perspective). It's really a bit like buying a secondhand Jaguar (car) - you might get it for buttons, but the car was originally £60k and the spares are going to be priced accordingly.

For anyone who's never seen the large collets used by the Interwood router, this is them:

They do require a collet nut as well at an additional cost of £44.00 + VAT

together with a collet extractor at £11.00 + VAT if you intend to use more than a single size of collet:

Personally I'd stick to 1/2in only. That adds up to £145.00 + VAT = £170.37

Dick

I really wouldn't go down the route your proposing. Firstly it will cost you more to convert the machine than buy a 1/2in eccentric collet/nut set. Any router motor will need to be held either in a substantial cast support or a substantial fabricated support to ensure that there was no flexing as the motor enters the workpiece. In addition I doubt that even an trade router such as the deWalt DW625 or Makita 3612C have heavy enough end thrust bearings to withstand being dropped at speed into work repeatedly, especially if the material is very hard. Pin routers do tend to drop rapidly into the work - much more so that when hand plunging.

Edit: An additional thought occurred to me. Any conversion would need to take into account the need to centre the router collet so that it was on the same centre line as the guide pin in the table. I do not know precisely how this is done on the Interwood, but on Wadkins and SCMs a special centring pin with a tapered head (to replace the collets) and a long parallel shaft (to replace the pin) is required. On an Interwood this would presumably need to be of similar design, but with a taper to match the inside taper of the router's tool holder. I had one of these made up for a router a number of years back. It cost me about £60 (as opposed to SCMs price of over £100 at the time). Standard Interwood ones like this:

are a "bargain" at £35 + VAT (and very necessary to maintain the machine in alignment)

Scrit