Router Table Modifications | up ↑ |
I liked the look of the Jessem Mast-R-Lift Excel router table, and managed to find a used one for sale at less than half price. It is very solidly built, and generally works well, but I found that myself making a number of modifications, which I consider improvements.
The dust collection left much to be desired. While the fence port works reasonably well, the dust collection built into the Mast-R-Lift, just below the plate, it has a very small opening, and the router motor needs to pull air down for cooling. Huge amounts of dust were being sucked down under the table, even for operations that used the fence. This was even worse for operations that did not allow dust extraction via the fence, such as routing a dado or groove. Cutting dados caused dust to shoot out horizontally, in a stream. I built a dust collector, that collects dust from below the router, and also has a side extension to pull down streams of dust that come out when I cut dados.
The plywood dust collector shroud connects to 6 in vacuum line, and also serves as shelf for frequencly used tools, and attachment point for various jigs. It is held up by two post, so it can be dropped easily, for access to router. The design draws air from the top down fro the top to keep router cool.© T. P. Baker |