Router lift index measuring ring

[Barry J]

Hi all, hope this finds you well. I have a Rutlands router table, motor and lift, unfortunately it does not come with a indexed measuring ring on the lift (stupid, I know!) so for fine adjustment on the lift (up and down) it’s a bit of a guess or I have to keep using height gauges.
i found this video where a talented gent turned a ring on his lathe, but unfortunately I don’t have a lathe and just wondered if this was something that could be made using 3D printing? If so, how much would it cost me to have one made? I could provide all the measurements, here is the video:

 

[ChaiLatte]

...unfortunately I don’t have a lathe and just wondered if this was something that could be made using 3D printin

Please provide the measurements.

3D printing is just one of many ways of making round things, 90% of which do not involve a lathe.

If you have a router, a drawing pin and a piece of string, you can make a circle. Substitute a panel pin for the drawing pin and you can make it on your router table.

 

[Peter Sefton]

As an alternative you could use a digital height and depth gauge, these are very useful and can be used on a whole range of machines.



https://woodworkersworkshop.co.uk/igaging-ez-check-digital-height-gauge-125mm/
https://woodworkersworkshop.co.uk/igaging-snap-check-plus-digital-height-and-depth-gauge/
Cheers

Peter

 

[Barry J]

Please provide the measurements.

3D printing is just one of many ways of making round things, 90% of which do not involve a lathe.

If you have a router, a drawing pin and a piece of string, you can make a circle. Substitute a panel pin for the drawing pin and you can make it on your router table.

Thanks for your reply, I’ll have a play and see what I can come up with. Thinking about it, it would probably be easier to fix the indexing ring to the actual socket with a positive mark or line on the router plate.

 

[Barry J]

As an alternative you could use a digital height and depth gauge, these are very useful and can be used on a whole range of machines.



https://woodworkersworkshop.co.uk/igaging-ez-check-digital-height-gauge-125mm/
https://woodworkersworkshop.co.uk/igaging-snap-check-plus-digital-height-and-depth-gauge/
Cheers

Peter

Thanks Peter, I have one of those which I currently use but it would be much easier to micro adjust the height using an index ring (something like 1 index mark = 1/10mm etc), thanks anyway.

 

[ChaiLatte]

(something like 1 index mark = 1/10mm etc)

The resolution and step size you can achieve is a little bit dictated by the thread pitch of the adjusting screw.

Do you happen to know how much it rises for one complete turn of the adjuster?

On a standard metric ruler, the marks are 1mm apart. If the disk was so small and had so many marks that they were less than that distance apart, it would be difficult to read.

Thinking about it, it would probably be easier to fix the indexing ring to the actual socket...

An alternative or maybe improvement to that is to fix it in such a way that it can be zeroed out at any point. If you are cutting something and the dial happens to be on 17 for that cut and then you need another 7 for the next cut, it can be hard to keep track (especially if the second cut causes the dial to advance past the zero mark). If you set the 17 cut and then zero the dial, you only have to turn to 7 for the next cut.

 

[Barry J]

The resolution and step size you can achieve is a little bit dictated by the thread pitch of the adjusting screw.

Do you happen to know how much it rises for one complete turn of the adjuster?

On a standard metric ruler, the marks are 1mm apart. If the disk was so small and had so many marks that they were less than that distance apart, it would be difficult to read.



An alternative or maybe improvement to that is to fix it in such a way that it can be zeroed out at any point. If you are cutting something and the dial happens to be on 17 for that cut and then you need another 7 for the next cut, it can be hard to keep track (especially if the second cut causes the dial to advance past the zero mark). If you set the 17 cut and then zero the dial, you only have to turn to 7 for the next cut.

Do you happen to know how much it rises for one complete turn of the adjuster?

One full turn is a gnats whisker over 1.5mm so with 6 equal segments each segment turn will give 0.25mm (give or take a Gnats whisker!)

 

[ChaiLatte]

One full turn is a gnats whisker over 1.5mm so with 6 equal segments each segment turn will give 0.25mm

Above, you said you wanted 0.1mm resolution. How did that reduce by a factor of 2.5 in two posts?

Above, you said you had a nifty digital height gauge. You can use that to find out how big five or ten gnat's whiskers actually are.

 

[Barry J]

Above, you said you wanted 0.1mm resolution. How did that reduce by a factor of 2.5 in two posts?

Above, you said you had a nifty digital height gauge. You can use that to find out how big five or ten gnat's whiskers actually are.

The 0.1mm was just an example of ease instead of reaching for height gauges, knowing 1 segment will give 0.25mm will be just fine for micro adjustments on a router table.