Looking For Recommendations - Router Table Top

Paul Douglass

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4,984
Location
S E Washington State
I built myself a router table many years ago and have been quite happy with it in general. It has great dust collection, a good size actually the top is a little bigger than what I see on for sale type table tops and I could downsize mine a little. Good storage for router bits and router parts. the to is hinged a lifts up for adjusting the router up and down.

The downsides are, of course no lift, but can't afford one, the plate is one I made from a piece of aluminum plate I had and being ignorant I made it too big. Of course unless I keep it constantly waxed it makes gray coloring on my piece of wood I have to sand out. Because I made it too large I can't just replace it with a standard size one. I also cannot use insert on it to adjust the hole size.

I find I an using the router more and more so I want to upgrade the top and at a reasonable price. I'm looking at the Woodpecker plate. I'll make my own top again. So my question is are there any know problems with the Woodpecker plate. This is the one I am considering:
http://www.woodpeck.com/aluminsert.html
 

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I have a PRL lift but, the plate is essentially the same. The only thing I could find wrong with it (if you want to call it that) is that the side plungers chipped the side of the opening a tiny fraction when I was lifting the plate out to do some maintenance :dunno:. This is a real stretch in calling this a problem and I filled the itty-bitty chips with a bit of epoxy the next time I had some mixed up for something. The occurrence could have been avoided if I had known to expect it. I have removed the lift a few times since without issue simply by lifting out the side that does not have plungers on it, first.

The chipping was undoubtedly due to the Rockler melamine coating on the top of the table I am using. My local Rockler had the top on sale including the fence and a plate (which I gave to dear old dad) for $80 and it just seemed too easy, so I got it. I enlarged the hole to fit the PRL and my base has plenty of support structure so sagging is a non-issue. The plate accepts the twist rings which I like. I have the aluminum set from way-back-when so I cannot speak to the PC-ABS ones that they now use. I will say that having the whole set allows me to tune the opening for what I am doing which improves dust collection and stock support.
 
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