M6 adjusting/clamping knobs - female with LEFT HAND THREAD - source?

[ScottandSargeant]

Try Elesa ... a mînd Boggling range of nobs and handles

 

[robgul]

Try Elesa ... a mînd Boggling range of nobs and handles

Thanks - I had stumbled across them but can't find anything with a LH female thread.

 

[robgul]

I may have the solution? - I ordered some steel M6 female inserst and they arrived today ... about 20mm long and 10mm OD. A bit of lateral thinking and I remembered I had some knobs about 50mm across the plastic part - with an M8 male insert (they're from a Thule bike rack where I replaced the clamping knobs with locking ones).

Drilled out the knob's insert with a 10mm drill in the press and fixed in one of the steel M6 inserts with lots of epoxy - in the hole in the knob as well as round the 5mm or so of the steel insert that protrudes. Waiting for it to totally harden but an initial look appears promising.

What's less helpful is that I can't see how to take the plunge spring out of the router . . . it looks as if there's some sort of pin across the inside of the tube that's holding the spring .... but it doesn't move/come out. Surgery with a hammer and drift may be required but I'm going to see how the knob fares on the lift first.

If I'm not boring you I'll report back in due course!

 

[Inspector]

Not boring but it would be more helpful if you said what the brand of router is. Someone that has one may have already pulled the springs out and can tell you what they did. Also makes the thread more useful to someone else with the same problem next year.

Pete

 

[robgul]

Not boring but it would be more helpful if you said what the brand of router is. Someone that has one may have already pulled the springs out and can tell you what they did. Also makes the thread more useful to someone else with the same problem next year.

Pete

The router is cheapie Energer 1200 that came, I think, either from Amazon or Screwfix. It's not specified as being possible to fit into a routing table - but I bought a router table insert from Aliexpress and have drilled the router base plate (and 2 new holes in the insert) to make it fit. I've then mounted the router in a home-built table made from oddments of 18mm plywood (pocket hole joints) with two T-tracks let into the top to provide clamping for the plywood fence and for hold-downs to clamp a featherboard or jig. The base of the table has the lift mechanism with the errant knob to wind it up and down - the plunge lock on the router is manual (i.e. not sprung) so it can be wound up and down to position and then locked with the lever.

The rail that has the spring in it has a pin across the bore that's in a slot - that holds the spring under pressure - there is a grub screw in the rail (from the outside) which appears to keep the pin in position. There is no obvious way to remove the pin and spring. BUT given that the lift + new knob seems to work OK the "tension" on the router is probably not a bad thing to make sure it goes up and down in stepless increments.

Having loaded some more epoxy onto the hollow part of the knob and around the threaded insert and left it to harden off overnight it does seem to work with the lift.

So the issue may be solved with the new and much larger knob which gives greater leverage on turning. Assuming it doesn't fail today I'll post a picture or two here as the concept may be useful for others - I would stress that the whole thing is really for a permanently fixed router rather than swapping one in and out as it's fiddly to bolt it in (I have a spangly Bosch router as well)

Sorting out a connection to my dust extraction ducting is the next phase . . .

 

[robgul]

Success - this is what it looks like .... the router table is stored under the bench and lifted on to the top, clamped and ready for use. The router switch is locked on with a cable tie and rather than cut the original cord I've fitted a metalclad socket that then goes through a switch to a cord that plugs into a wall socket. (The black discs and red plate are the different base plate holes and radius jig - stored in the table)

You can see the concertina lift and the large height adjustment knob that I've been fettling



... and while I've been doing this I also made a table for my drill press that again has some T-track for a fence - and clamps to the steel table with over-centre toggles.

 

[rwillett]

Very nice indeed.

Food for thought.

Rob