# My process of fitting my router table plate



## juicegoose (Jan 6, 2010)

Well I was able to finally get some shop time and get the router plate fitted. here is how I did it

disclaimer: I don't claim to be a pro and am far from it this was just my process.

1. I cut a piece of 3/4" mdf making sure to have at least 2 square sides for later reference.









2. Then I took some scrap mdf and tacked 4 pieces around the plate









3. Then, using a 1/ 1/2" forstner bit, I cut the corners out on the drill press. This was pretty easy especially having the pretemplate pieces as edge guides to reference the edge of the bit against.









4. Grabbing the jigsaw I then cut a lot of the extra away









5. Next I grabbed the router and a 3/4" dia pattern bit and carefully trimmed everything flush. Make sure you go slow when you approach the corners and don't bring the bit to the corners of the pretemplate.









6. Here is the fit of the pretemplate. If you notice you can see a little whoops on one side where by bearing decided to come loose on the shaft and ride up. I caught it just as the bit started cutting into the template.









7. Next I took off the pretemplate template material and took the now template to what will be my table top(at least for now). At this point it got a little tricky. You see I only own on top bearing pattern bit and it's 1" long so when i only needed to plunge 3/8" on top of 3/4" of template material my bearing wouldn't register. A quick scratch of the head and I did this. I took my template and double taped some scrap 3/4" stock to each side. This raised the templete high enough to get the bearing to register. Also to get the proper depth i simply took my router plate sat it under my router and on top of the template and the plunged teh router(off of course) to the table top. Then I set the depth stop and removed the router plate and this gave me a perfect register on the template for the depth I needed. Note: I should have added just a business cards depth to the depth of cut for adjustability of plate once fitted. Here are some pictures of the setup

















8. Once setup then you'll plunge(slowly) your bit into the table top and route out you lip.









9. remove the template and use your jig saw again to cut just inside the routed edge of your table top. make sure you leave the lip you just created.









10. fit your router plate in your new top and maybe sand a little here or there to adjust the fit









11. attach your router make a fence and bam your off and running.

Now this is not my final setup. I needed a quick router table and used material I had on hand to make this down and dirty one. The router fence was some mdf set at 90 degrees and clamps to hold it in place. Eventually I'll make a better top and fence but you know what it works and works well.









Enjoy


----------



## Radu (Jan 25, 2010)

Thanks for sharing. Great step by step instructions. This is something that I need to get started on. Off to my favs it goes.


----------

