Great plate and easy to install

Published Aug. 5, 2010 at 2:20 p.m.

Let me start by saying that I bought this plate for my first router table, so I don’t have any frame of reference for comparing it to other products...With that being said, I was impressed with the quality of the plate and the cutout template.

The price was right, at about $50 from Amazon...I was a little worried about getting a phenolic plate and the possibility of it warping when I hang my Hitachi M12V from it, but the plate feels very strong and stable...Only time will tell, but I’m less worried now than I was before I actually held the plate in my hands.

The cutout template is just a piece of MDF, but it worked well...I think the price could be a bit better, $25 seems a bit high considering it probably only costs them a dollar or two to make...I used double stick tape to attach the template to the table and made 3 or 4 passes around to remove the material, lowering the bit a little each time...After the first pass, I cut around the inside edge of the groove with a jigsaw to remove the center waste section so I could set the plate in the hole and get an idea as to how much more material needed to be removed...I continued making the groove just a little bit deeper until the plate sat about 1/16” lower than the table surface, then I used the leveling screws to raise it to be flush.

The plate is absolutely flush with the table top and the fit is pretty good...There is a very small amount of play from left to right...If I push the plate back and forth, it does move about 1/16” or maybe slightly less, but I don’t think it will be a problem and am not worried about it...If it didn’t move at all, I’d give it 5 stars, but it’s possible this is by design to make removing the plate easier.

I also like the fact that the Rout-R-Plate uses the same size cutout as JessEm’s various lift systems, so down the road I can simply take out the plate and replace it with a lift.

The plate comes with two inserts and a wrench to install/remove them...They seem to be sized about right for the majority of bits considering they only include two inserts...They also have a set of 5 different size inserts, and I think I’ll probably end up purchasing it...It’d be nice if they included all of the inserts with the plate, but at the price point, I understand why they’re sold as an add-on.

The plate doesn’t come predrilled, so you have to drill your own mounting holes, but this proved to be really easy...I removed the subbase from my router and used it as a template on the bottom side of the plate...Once I had the hole locations marked, I drilled through holes, then flipped the plate over and countersynced the top of the plate so the mounting bolts sit slightly below the surface of the plate.

Overall, a solid product, easy to install and easy to use.

Back | Read more at Lumberjocks reviews