Belt and possibly other components have bit the dust. I’ll check it out asap and give an update.
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Not to be “that guy”, but do you have an ETA on the repairs? Really trying to get my chest done by Christmas and I’m definitley in crunch time.
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It would be handy to have one of those cheap router tables with an old porter cable 690 for times when the fancy table is out of service.
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I thought there was a router table in both shops. Are they both down?
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There is a second router table, but I’ve never seen it used. Not sure how to set it up.
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Does the other one work? I can’t get it to start.
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I used it a few days ago. Make sure it’s plugged in to the switch on the side and that the spindle lock is switched off. It also takes a couple seconds to start spinning.
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Also how do you raise it? Im assuming one of the screws on the top? Usually there is a turn nut, bht i dont see one
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There’s a knob on the back of the router. It doesn’t turn nicely. There’s also a nut that keeps it from raising that often slides down, you’ll have to turn that up (it’s not tight at all) in order to raise it. I found i had to manually raise it (like with my knee or by taking it out of the table) to keep enough tension off the knob for it to be able to turn and keep it from lowering down.
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I’m not sure how long the regular router table will be down, but the other one is on borrowed time. Stopped in to see what could be done to make it raise more easily and found lots of stuff rattling inside of it. The impeller blades, when broken off, will fall out of the cooking slots if shaken a little bit. Hope the other router is back in action soon. Or we could stick the harbor freight one on it.
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I noticed the one in the room had a broken belt. I always had trouble with raising and lowering it. Still can’t get the one in the other shop to start. What needs to be done to get these fixed? Anything I can do to help? In the meantime, ill be making tongue and grooves on the table saw.
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I suppose it would be frowned upon, but the main router table could be used without the lift mechanism’s belt. It would be a bit of a pita because you would need to unplug the router and lift it out of the table to make height adjustments. The changes would not have a nice scale to follow, so you would have to measure and adjust until you had the height correct. With the hassle that the spare router is too raise, IMHO that would actually be my preferred method. But it’s not my wood shop and not my policies, so I am not suggesting you do that unless the AHJ says it’s ok.
As far as being difficult to raise, it has always been a little difficult. It might have gotten worse, leading to the broken belt. There are a couple bearings and two nuts, iirc, that have to be overcome. You want some friction or else the router would want to lower itself from the vibration of running.
Also, the router in the spare router table might have already burned itself up due to lack of cooling. I’m not sure that’s why it won’t run for you, but it definitely has problems in that regard.
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The spare router is working now. The spindle lock was engaged and also there is a trigger on both handles that need pressed in and one side locked. It is locked on now so it operates via switch on side of cabinet. It is slow to start and seems to run hot as whateg01 predicted.
The adjustment is difficult it’s the black knob that hangs down under router. The knob slips. Didn’t have time to fix it tonight. You may have to use pliers on shaft and or lift whole assembly out of table like he said.
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