Arts and Crafts Style Pool Table - Video Series #3: The world's first foot-activated motorized router lift for router table mortising

John -

Great video – I have always like your motorized router lift. Nice work with SketchUp!

-- http://foldingrule.blogspot.com

Nice view of your motorized router lift.

Thanks

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Thanks guys. You should build a motorized router lift for yourself. It has really changed the way I work on the router table. Not only can I do the mortising operation, but there are many other benefits:

• Incremental Passes - how many times have you hogged off too much material because you didn’t want to change the bit height between passes? With my motorized router lift, I just press the switch between passes (without even turning off the router), to raise the bit a little and then make the next pass.
• Changing Bits – I can drop the router in about 5 seconds. Change the bit and raise it back up in 5 seconds. It makes changing bits much easier.
• Avoid “Plunge” cuts - Have you even dipped a piece onto the spinning bit to make a stopped dado? With the motorized router lift, I can bring the bit into the work after the wood is in place. It makes operations like stopped dados, and mortising easy and efficient.

I have my router equipped with a digital caliper and remote readout (so I can see the bit travel from above the table). This readout combine with the foot-activated lift make my router table a very versatile machine that rivals the capabilities of expensive and dedicated machines costing thousands.

The motorized router lift isn’t hard at all to make. Contact me if you’d like more information on building one.

-- John Nixon - Buffalo, NY - www.EagleLakeWoodworking.com