Well the small light worked well on my Porter Cable 690 fixed base. It fitted right in on the bolt heads which mount the handles to the casting. But it popped off when i needed to adjust the 690 motor down quiet far.
The light was also too big for my Bosch Palm router so back to the drawing board and this is what i came up with.
1) I have some acrylic thats around 9mm thick and cut a new larger round base for my Bosch Palm Router which is the unit i really want the light on.
2) Then i purchased a super bright LED small one from the local surplus store, if you connect them to a small CR 2032 you can light it up nice and bright without any current limiting resistor.
3) Got a very small slide switch and went to town with some brass shim and some wire.
Milled out a cavity on the top side of the base big enough for the cr2032 battery and made some locations for the "terminals" i fashioned from the brass shim. Soldered some wire to the shim wired in the switch and soldered it all to the led.
Secured the whole crude assembly with some hotmelt glue and used a piece of the batter packs own round plastic to cover the battery so as to make it possible to remove the 4 screws of the base and replace the battery with ease.
Here is the proof of the pudding
As you can see the light now comes through the side of the base and shines exactly where you want it.
In case you wondering how i made the recesses for the battery led wires and switch my dremel tool and a
small burr from this set
I am really now impressed with how this came out and will look to doing the same for my other bases.
Only problem i see is its easy to make a base but if you wish to use a template guide you need the center hole to be properly milled and that is with a step in it at the precise size to match the guide. Thats another thing all together so there will be limits to a homemade base.
Might consider getting one from Pat Warner and then doing my mod. Pat puts in the proper step hole for the guide and its collar.
Its no hi tech electronics or complicated soldering this is a project most can do quiet easily to upgrade the visibility at the cutting point.
With a 1/8 carbide cutter in my palm router and this light i can free hand follow a marked out pattern on wood.
Now i can get to fitting my maple leaf into my workbench.