Router table broken? (NOW UPGRADED!)

Today while I was teaching the wood shop class I noticed that the router table was broken. The height adjustment was stuck and would not spin at all, and it seemed like some maintenance was being done to it maybe? Some screws were missing holding the gray insert to the table itself. Unfortunately I forgot to put a sticker on it as I was in the middle of a class, but it may need a bit of work.

The board voted last night to purchase a new router lift. Our long dark nightmare of router table will soon come to an end :slight_smile:

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It used to be worse. I’m happy that we are striving for better!

Our dim nightmare of moderate length will soon come to an end?

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I put the new Jess em 2 router kit in the workshop cabinet @Fmartin or @gordoa40 feel free to install it if you have a chance it should be a drop in replacement.

Thanks Eric

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Will do! Thanks.

Fred Martin

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I installed the New upgraded router lift. It is a Jess Em Master Lift II. It looks like our old rotor lift but it’s quite different. It is much heavier duty. It will hold almost any router motor made. It has sealed bearings. It has a cam locking mechanism which works much better than the previous one. It only requires a small turn to unlock and a small turn to lock. Don’t try to crank it. The lift mechanism crank is very smooth. The leveling screws are on top now. I did not remove the old screws. They are now non-functional. I will probably remove them in the future. Just making sure everything works right. It is very easy to level.
More router love to follow. I have feet that raise and lower when you want to move the router. I have a new router fence that I’ve made that has suction from the top and a sliding fence with T track installed for accessories. It is not a sacrificial fence. Please don’t nail into it. If you want a sacrificial fence, attach it to the T track.

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Thanks to Eric for purchasing the router lift. Thanks to the board for approving it.
Here are some pictures:


Notice the heavy duty mounts. The variety of holes in both the frame and the mount allow Mounting of almost any router. They would probably also allow for mounting a spindle like we have on the CNC. notice the cam locking mechanism, far superior to the old design. It only requires a partial turn to lock or unlock. There’s a definite feel when it transitions from locked to unlocked And vice versa. It has leveling screws which adjust from above. This works very easily. I lowered all the other screws and left them in. I should probably just take them out. don’t use them anymore.

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I put the new lift through it’s paces today. Huge difference. No struggling, no slipping. The router is fun again.
Thanks, board. Thanks, Eric. Thanks, Fred.

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Thanks everyone! I used it yesterday and it worked great, much better than the one we had before.